Rana Mitter - Chinas war with Japan : 1937-1945 ; the struggle for survival

Rana Mitter

CHINAS WAR WITH JAPAN, 19371945

The Struggle for Survival

Contents

For Katharine

La muerte entra y sale y sale y entra la muerte de la taberna. [ Death goes in and out out and in death from the tavern. ]

From Federico Garca Lorca,
Malaguea (1921)

List of Illustrations

Every effort has been made to contact all copyright holders. The publishers will be happy to make good in future editions any errors or omissions brought to their attention.

. The Garden Bridge, Shanghai, 18 August 1937 . Photo: Randall Gould/Hoover Institution Archives, Stanford University, CA [Box/album fH]

. Chiang Kai-shek, 1937. Photo: Camera Press, London

. Refugees on the Bund in Shanghai 1937. Photo: Hulton-Deutsch Collection/Corbis

. Fires set by retreating Chinese, Nanking, December 1937. Photo: PA Photos

. General Matsui in his Headquarters, Shanghai, 1938. Photo: Getty Images

. Lieutenant General Dai Li working with the Special Police Force, China, November 1945. Photo: Jack Wilkes/Time Life/Getty Images

. Kang Sheng.

. Zhou Fohai.

. Li Shiqun.

. Chinese troops on the Suzhou front, Battle of Taierzhuang, April 1938. Photo copyright Robert Capa/Magnum Photos

. Japanese troops using a boat during the Yellow River floods, July 1938. Photo: PA Photos

. Mao Zedong speaking at the Lu Xun Arts Institute in Yenan, May 1938. Photo: CQ/Camera Press, London

. Canton civilians take flight, June 1938. Photo: Hulton-Deutsch Collection/Corbis

. Chiang Kai-shek at a Supreme War Council meeting in Hankou, July 1938. Photo: Robert Capa/Magnum Photos

. Wang Jingwei with Dr Chu Minyi in Nanking before the inauguration, April 1940. Photo: Bettmann/Corbis

. Homeless people escape Chongqing during bombing, May 1939. Photo: Hulton-Deutsch Collection/Corbis

. Cartoon depicting Wang Jingwei, from Zhonghua ribao , 30 March 1940.

. General Claire Lee Chennault, 1943. Photo: Getty Images

. General Joseph Stilwell. Photo: Topfoto

. Chiang Kai-shek and Mahatma Gandhi in Calcutta, 1942. Photo: Topfoto

. Mao making an inspection visit to troops of the Eighth Route Army stationed in Yennan. Photo: copyright Collection J. A. Fox/Magnum Photos

. Wounded Chinese troops, Burma, 1942. Photo copyright George Rodger/Magnum Photos

. Refugees fleeing famine-stricken Henan province, c . 1943. Photo: Harrison Forman/American Geographical Society Library, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Libraries

. Female famine victim, Henan, c . 1943. Photo: Harrison Forman/American Geographical Society Library, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Libraries

. Curtiss P-40 Warhawk fighter planes in China, 1943. Photo: The Granger Collection/Topfoto

. Colonel David Barrett and diplomat John Service outside their Yanan billet. Photo: Reproduced by courtesy of the Service Family

. Madame Chiang Kai-shek on the rostrum of the US House of Representatives, Washington, 18 January 1943. Photo: Bettmann/Corbis

. Chiang Kai-shek, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and Madame Chiang Kai-shek at the Cairo Conference, 1943. Photo: Topfoto

. Participants in the Greater East Asia Conference, Tokyo, November 1943. Photo: Mainichi Shimbun/Aflo Images

. Refugees on foot, November 1944. Photo: PA Photos

. Chinese-manned American tanks enter Burma, January 1945. Photo: PA Photos

. General Okamura with the Chinese delegation under General He Yingqin, Nanjing, 9 September 1945. Photo: akg-images

. Zhang Zizhong, Mao Tse-tung, Patrick Hurley, Zhou Enlai and Wang Ruo-Fei, 1945. Photo: copyright Wu Yinxian/Magnum Photos

. Chinese paramilitary policemen at the Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall in Nanjing, 13 December 2012. Photo: CQ/Camera Press, London

. Anti-Japanese demonstration during the Diaoyu islands row, Shenzhen, 16 September 2012. Photo: Imaginechina/Rex Features

List of Maps

. China 1937 on the eve of war

. The Japanese assault, 193741

. Burma

. Ichig

. Areas of Communist control in Northern China, August 1945

Dramatis Personae

Chen Bijun : Wang Jingweis wife, and also a significant figure in the peace movement that ultimately led to collaboration with Japan.

Chiang Kai-shek : Leader of Chinas Nationalist Party from 1926 to his death in 1975. Chiang was Chinas leader during its war against Japan from 1937 to 1945.

Winston S. Churchill : British Prime Minister, 194045, 19515.

Archibald Clark-Kerr : British Ambassador in China, 193842.

Dai Li : Chiang Kai-sheks security chief, who used torture and intimidation against enemies of the government, in particular the Communists.

Clarence Gauss : US Ambassador in China, 19414.

He Yingqin : Minister of War in the National Government.

Hirota Kki : Japanese Foreign Minister, 19378.

Patrick Hurley : US Ambassador in China, 19445.

Nelson T. Johnson : US Ambassador in China, 192941.

Konoye Fumimar : Japanese Prime Minister, 19379, 194041.

Long Yun : Canny Yi (Lolo) militarist who ruled Yunnan province in southwest China for much of the wartime period, and maintained a wary relationship with Chiang Kai-shek.

Mao Zedong : Leader of Chinas Communist Party, 194376. Mao achieved paramount power during the war years, sidelining and eliminating rivals, and preparing his party for its ultimate victory against Chiang Kai-sheks Nationalists in 1949.

George C. Marshall : Chief of Staff of the United States Army, 193945.

Matsui Iwane : Japanese commander who took Nanjing in 1937 and was in overall charge of Japanese troops during the massacre of 19378.

Song Meiling : Chiang Kai-sheks wife and a powerful political figure in her own right in the Nationalist Government. She spoke fluent English and was Chiangs channel to the Americans.

Lord Louis Mountbatten : Supreme Commander, Southeast Asia Command, 19436, who clashed frequently with General Stilwell.

Franklin D. Roosevelt : President of the United States, 193345.

T. V. Soong (Song Ziwen) : Chiangs brother-in-law, Foreign Minister for a period, and a relatively liberal figure within the Nationalist Party.

Josef V. Stalin : General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, 192253.

Joseph W. Stilwell : Vinegar Joe, the American general sent as Chiang Kai-sheks chief of staff after Pearl Harbor, who quickly fell out with his commander.

Sun Yat-sen : Tireless revolutionary and briefly President of China, 1912, shut out of power after the overthrow of the emperor in 1912 as military leaders undermined the new Republic.

Tj Hideki : Japanese Prime Minister, 19414.

Wang Jingwei : Joined the Nationalist revolution early and was a close ally of Sun Yat-sen. Wang achieved high political office but little real power under Chiang, and defected to form a collaborationist government under the Japanese in 1938, based in Nanjing.

Zhou Enlai : Senior figure in the Communist movement who served as Maos representative in Chongqing for much of the war.

Zhou Fohai : Nationalist government official who would become close to Wang Jingwei and eventually help him to defect to Japan.

Pronunciation Guide

Most Chinese names in this book have been rendered into the internationally accepted pinyin system of romanization. While correct pronunciation of pinyin takes some training, the only sounds that are wholly different from standard English pronunciation are q (which sounds like a ch as in church) and x (which is a sh as in sheet). For more details the Internet has a wide range of pinyin pronunciation guides. In some cases, better-known alternative romanizations are used, such as Chiang Kai-shek rather than Jiang Jieshi. Also, I have preserved the older Wade-Giles system of romanization where it appears in the original document, but have generally added a pinyin version in brackets afterwards.

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