"China's War with Japan, 1937-1945: The Struggle for " Topic

…Survival by Rana Mitter – review

"here does the modern Chinese superpower come from? Only 75 years ago, China was divided, impoverished, economically exploited and at war with ambitiously imperialist Japan. The notional rulers of China, Chiang Kai-shek and his nationalist Kuomintang party, controlled a shrinking area of central and south-west China, fighting the Japanese with a poorly armed and trained army, and sometimes fighting the Chinese communists ensconced in China's north-west. In 1940, the Chinese nationalists seemed close to defeat and Japan's vision of a "Great East Asia Co‑Prosperity Sphere" (a Japanese-dominated Asian new order) looked closer than ever to achievement. Somehow, the rump independent China survived and, against considerable odds, became one of the victorious allies in 1945. But how?

The answer to this question has never much bothered western historians, who, for better or worse, have focused on what they see as the real war in Europe and the Pacific, where easily identifiable victories can be found and the explanation is clear. It is that neglect which has prompted Rana Mitter, professor of Chinese history at Oxford, to write the first full account of China's wartime resistance against Japan, restoring a vital part of the wartime narrative to its rightful place. Now, for the first time, it is possible to assess the impact of the war on Chinese society and the many factors that explain the Japanese failure in China and the eventual triumph of Mao Zedong's communists in 1949, from which the superpower has grown. It is a remarkable story, told with humanity and intelligence; all historians of the second world war will be in Mitter's debt…."
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