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| China's War With Japan by Rana Mitter – review | China's War With Japan by Rana Mitter – review |
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| This gripping political history not only provides a detailed scholarly account of the Sino-Japanese war but also, in a prologue, offers an admirably succinct introduction to the political history of China in the first half of the 20th century. Mitter argues convincingly that the importance of the Sino-Japanese conflict in the second world war is now all too often forgotten. His book will strengthen resistance to the insular tendency to study national histories in isolation from one another. He shows that relations with the wider world were vital to China even when it stood alone against Japan, and that the east Asian conflict shaped both the outcomes of the second world war and the development of the postwar world. The establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949 can be partially attributed to the war which fatally weakened Chiang Kai-shek's nationalists and allowed the communists to build up both military power and popular support. | This gripping political history not only provides a detailed scholarly account of the Sino-Japanese war but also, in a prologue, offers an admirably succinct introduction to the political history of China in the first half of the 20th century. Mitter argues convincingly that the importance of the Sino-Japanese conflict in the second world war is now all too often forgotten. His book will strengthen resistance to the insular tendency to study national histories in isolation from one another. He shows that relations with the wider world were vital to China even when it stood alone against Japan, and that the east Asian conflict shaped both the outcomes of the second world war and the development of the postwar world. The establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949 can be partially attributed to the war which fatally weakened Chiang Kai-shek's nationalists and allowed the communists to build up both military power and popular support. |
| Understandably, western Europeans consider that the second world war started in 1939 and tend to scoff at Russians, who date it from the Nazi invasion of their country in June 1941, or the Americans for whom it began in December 1941, with the attack on Pearl Harbor. However, as Mitter reminds us, for China the war started even earlier. Chiang Kai-shek's de facto acceptance of the Japanese occupation of north-east China in 1931 allowed some postponement of hostilities. But within a few years Japanese pressure had become too great. Full-scale war broke out in July 1937. By the end of that month Beijing and Tianjin had fallen, and by the end of the year the Japanese had taken both Shanghai and Nanjing, then the national capital. Having lost many of his best troops, Chiang withdrew to west China where he set up a wartime capital in Chongqing. Meanwhile, his former rival in the nationalist party, Wang Jingwei, established a puppet government in Nanjing. The coastal regions and most of the major cities of China were then held by the Japanese until 1945. The communist party controlled small base areas in mountainous north-west China. From 1937 it worked in a rather uneasy alliance with the nationalist party against the Japanese, always maintaining its own independent military power. | Understandably, western Europeans consider that the second world war started in 1939 and tend to scoff at Russians, who date it from the Nazi invasion of their country in June 1941, or the Americans for whom it began in December 1941, with the attack on Pearl Harbor. However, as Mitter reminds us, for China the war started even earlier. Chiang Kai-shek's de facto acceptance of the Japanese occupation of north-east China in 1931 allowed some postponement of hostilities. But within a few years Japanese pressure had become too great. Full-scale war broke out in July 1937. By the end of that month Beijing and Tianjin had fallen, and by the end of the year the Japanese had taken both Shanghai and Nanjing, then the national capital. Having lost many of his best troops, Chiang withdrew to west China where he set up a wartime capital in Chongqing. Meanwhile, his former rival in the nationalist party, Wang Jingwei, established a puppet government in Nanjing. The coastal regions and most of the major cities of China were then held by the Japanese until 1945. The communist party controlled small base areas in mountainous north-west China. From 1937 it worked in a rather uneasy alliance with the nationalist party against the Japanese, always maintaining its own independent military power. |
| Mitter's admirably researched account covers the complexities of China's domestic politics and international relations from 1937 to 1945. He discusses better-known horrors such as the Nanjing massacre and the terror bombing of Chongqing, but also conveys the vast scale of Chinese suffering – between 14 million and 20 million Chinese perished in the eight years of war, and 80-100 million became refugees. China's small modern sector, including railways, roads and industrial sites, was largely destroyed. There were food shortages and a terrible famine. Nor did this suffering take place only at the hands of the Japanese. Half a million Chinese peasants died in flooding in 1938, caused by Chiang Kai-shek's attempt to impede the Japanese advance by breaching the Yellow River dykes. Poorly paid and ill-disciplined conscripts in the Chinese army sometimes behaved badly towards the civilian population, as did Chinese puppet troops under Japanese direction. | Mitter's admirably researched account covers the complexities of China's domestic politics and international relations from 1937 to 1945. He discusses better-known horrors such as the Nanjing massacre and the terror bombing of Chongqing, but also conveys the vast scale of Chinese suffering – between 14 million and 20 million Chinese perished in the eight years of war, and 80-100 million became refugees. China's small modern sector, including railways, roads and industrial sites, was largely destroyed. There were food shortages and a terrible famine. Nor did this suffering take place only at the hands of the Japanese. Half a million Chinese peasants died in flooding in 1938, caused by Chiang Kai-shek's attempt to impede the Japanese advance by breaching the Yellow River dykes. Poorly paid and ill-disciplined conscripts in the Chinese army sometimes behaved badly towards the civilian population, as did Chinese puppet troops under Japanese direction. |
| But this is also a story of heroic and determined resistance. Factories, universities, schools, newspapers and refugees moved to the interior to build up "Free China" in conditions of extreme austerity. The dismantling of industrial plants in the Shanghai area before the Japanese advance and their evacuation nearly 1,500km up the Yangtze to Chongqing was a triumph of human endeavour. For four years before the US entered the war, with very little international assistance, Chinese armies stood alone against the might of the Japanese empire. Later, after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor brought about the internationalisation of the conflict, Japanese troops defeated colonial armies in Singapore, Malaya, Hong Kong, the Dutch East Indies and the Philippines. Yet Chinese resistance did not collapse and the Chinese theatre of war played an important role by tying down large numbers of Japanese troops. In Chiang Kai-shek's Free China and in the areas controlled by the communist party, people had to endure bombing, terrible food shortages and low standards of living, yet they rallied to the national cause. In the occupied areas there was an active underground resistance despite brutal Japanese attempts to suppress it. | But this is also a story of heroic and determined resistance. Factories, universities, schools, newspapers and refugees moved to the interior to build up "Free China" in conditions of extreme austerity. The dismantling of industrial plants in the Shanghai area before the Japanese advance and their evacuation nearly 1,500km up the Yangtze to Chongqing was a triumph of human endeavour. For four years before the US entered the war, with very little international assistance, Chinese armies stood alone against the might of the Japanese empire. Later, after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor brought about the internationalisation of the conflict, Japanese troops defeated colonial armies in Singapore, Malaya, Hong Kong, the Dutch East Indies and the Philippines. Yet Chinese resistance did not collapse and the Chinese theatre of war played an important role by tying down large numbers of Japanese troops. In Chiang Kai-shek's Free China and in the areas controlled by the communist party, people had to endure bombing, terrible food shortages and low standards of living, yet they rallied to the national cause. In the occupied areas there was an active underground resistance despite brutal Japanese attempts to suppress it. |
| Mitter's book is enlivened by extracts from the writing of Chinese people who endured the war and also from many interesting foreigners who reported from wartime China. He uses a wide range of sources with meticulous accuracy. As a New Zealander, however, I have one niggle. James Bertram, one of the first foreigners to interview Mao Zedong, was not an American journalist. Chinese sources describe him as a British correspondent, a confusion that probably arose because New Zealanders at that time travelled on British passports. Bertram was in fact a distinguished New Zealander, born and brought up in Auckland, who ended his career as professor of English in Wellington. | Mitter's book is enlivened by extracts from the writing of Chinese people who endured the war and also from many interesting foreigners who reported from wartime China. He uses a wide range of sources with meticulous accuracy. As a New Zealander, however, I have one niggle. James Bertram, one of the first foreigners to interview Mao Zedong, was not an American journalist. Chinese sources describe him as a British correspondent, a confusion that probably arose because New Zealanders at that time travelled on British passports. Bertram was in fact a distinguished New Zealander, born and brought up in Auckland, who ended his career as professor of English in Wellington. |
| Delia Davin is professor emeritus in Chinese studies at the University of Leeds. Her Mao: A Very Short Introduction is out now (Oxford £7.99) | Delia Davin is professor emeritus in Chinese studies at the University of Leeds. Her Mao: A Very Short Introduction is out now (Oxford £7.99) |
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