Old photos of the Hunan famine in 1946

Old photo | An old photo of Hunan during the Great Famine in 1946

The Southern Famine in 1946 and 1947: 17.5 million people died of hunger in Guangdong, Guangxi and Hunan alone in two years. In Hunan, from April to July 1946, famine was widespread throughout the province. At first, the hungry people dug grass roots and peeled bark for food, and then; Guanyintu” To satisfy hunger. This group of photos was taken in May 1946, which truly reproduced the disaster situation in Hengyang

During the War of Resistance Against Japan, Hunan Province was brutally invaded by the Japanese aggressors, which made it a miserable situation. Hundreds of miles along the Guangdong Han Railway, there are no chickens, dogs and people on both sides. The fields are lush with weeds and are as high as people. By 1945, 14.5 million mu of land had been abandoned due to inability to cultivate. In 1946, the counties in the west and south of Hunan suffered another severe drought, and the soil cracked and yielded nothing; The lakeside area was flooded with millions of mu of paddy fields. Therefore, in 1945, the grain output of Hunan Province decreased sharply, and only 67.3 million grains were harvested (one grain was about 120 kg), 64% less than 186 million grains in 1936 before the war
<br, The famine in Hunan affected 4 million people, and more than 90000 people died of starvation in Hengyang alone