China's contributions in World War II

[Quest]

http://english.people.com.cn/200505/10/eng20050510_184293.html

China should not be written out of the World Anti-Fascist victory story. It is China's resistance that helped prevent a Japanese attack on the Soviet Union and the possible convergence of the two strongest fascist countries in the Middle East.

China fought Japan for 8 long years and gave the Japanese a heck of a hard time, but when the world commemorated WWII, her contributions were rarely mentioned.

[woodcutter]

That's mainly because the Chinese situation was such a muddle.

The Guomindang did most of the serious fighting, but not well enough to please the Americans or to prevent themselves losing power because the CCP pretended they had done better.

And the Guomindang were pretty fascist themselves.

[xuechengfeng]

I thought that Chiang Kai-shek was more focused on China's internal "problem" of the CCP, and one of the reasons the Guomindang lost legitimacy was because they did not focus on Japan?

[woodcutter]

Recent scholarship tends to emphasize the role of the GMD is holding back the initial Japanese advance, and the relative inactivity of the CCP.

[shibo77]

I think it is because they celebrated the 60th anniversary of the end of war in the European theatre on May the 8th. But the end of war in the Pacific theatre doesn't come until August the 15th.

-Shibo

[bhchao]

Recent scholarship tends to emphasize the role of the GMD is holding back the initial Japanese advance, and the relative inactivity of the CCP.

The Japanese invasion led to the rise of communist China because it severely weakened GMD forces, who bore the brunt of the fighting throughout the 1937-1945 war.

In 1937 CCP forces were very weak, and Chiang wanted to exterminate them. The outbreak of war following the Marco Polo Bridge incident forced Chiang to change course. From then on, KMT troops were tied down in major urban warfare against the Japanese; like Shanghai, Changsha, Taierzhuang. This 8-year time period gave the communists a major respite from the KMT's anti-communist extermination campaigns.

By 1945 the situation has reversed. CCP forces were strong and the KMT was severely weakened and demoralized due to the conflict with Japan. This combined with rising corruption within the KMT contributed to the communist takeover of China.

During the early 1970's, Japanese prime minister Tanaka paid a visit to Beijing and apologized to Mao for his country's aggression towards China in WWII. Mao replied that he was grateful for the Japanese invasion. Otherwise the communists would never have had a golden opportunity to rebuild itself.

[Quest]

Mao replied that he was grateful for the Japanese invasion.

but, that's sarcasm.

[lrbmtl]

Years ago I had a chance to write a paper about the KMT rule in Mainland China. One interesting conclusion I found:

1. Chiang Kai-Shek wanted to fight the Japanese; he was definitely not avioding his responsibility as the leader of the Chinese nation. The reason he wanted to delay his offensive was for strategic preparations. Chiang argued that the Soviet were allowed to "scorch the earth", and why weren't he allowed to prepare for his own preservation? I think as a leader, Chiang had to have long term plans and then implementing them.

2. Chiang's worries of the Communists weren't simply an exaggeration. As the result of the civil war turned out, Mao did exploit WWII as a breathing space.

I guess the reason that little is mentioned about now days about Chinese efforts in defeating Japan is because CCP should not be entitled as a warrior against Japaense imperialism. On the other hand, the KMT is the real fighter against the Japanese.