China's War with Japan, 1937-1945: The Struggle for Survival by [Rana Mitter]
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In Rana Mitter's tense, moving and hugely important book, the war between China and Japan - one of the most important struggles of the Second World War - at last gets the masterly history it deserves
Different countries give different opening dates for the period of the Second World War, but perhaps the most compelling is 1937, when the 'Marco Polo Bridge Incident' plunged China and Japan into a conflict of extraordinary duration and ferocity - a war which would result in many millions of deaths and completely reshape East Asia in ways which we continue to confront today.
With great vividness and narrative drive Rana Mitter's new book draws on a huge range of new sources to recreate this terrible conflict. He writes both about the major leaders (Chiang Kaishek, Mao Zedong and Wang Jingwei) and about the ordinary people swept up by terrible times. Mitter puts at the heart of our understanding of the Second World War that it was Japan's failure to defeat China which was the key dynamic for what happened in Asia.
Reviews:
'A remarkable story, told with humanity and intelligence; all historians of the second world war will be in Mitter's debt ... [he] explores this complex politics with remarkable clarity and economy ... No one could ask for a better guide than Mitter to how [the rise of modern China] began in the cauldron of the Chinese war' Richard Overy, Guardian
'Rana Mitter's history of the Sino-Japanese War is not only a very important book, it also has a wonderful clarity of thought and prose which make it a pleasure to read' Antony Beevor
'The best study of China's war with Japan written in any language ... comprehensive, thoroughly based on research, and totally non-partisan. Above all, the book presents a moving account of the Chinese people's incredible suffering ... A must read for anyone interested in the origins of China's contribution to the making of today's world' Akira Iriye
About the author:
Rana Mitter is Professor of the History and Politics of Modern China at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of St Cross College. He is the author of A Bitter Revolution: China's Struggle with the Modern World. He is a regular presenter of Night Waves on Radio 3.
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The best study of China's war with Japan written in any language ... comprehensive, thoroughly based on research, and totally non-partisan. Above all, the book presents a moving account of the Chinese people's incredible suffering ... A must read for anyone interested in the origins of China's contribution to the making of today's world -- Akira Iriye
A major contribution to the one aspect of the Second World War of which we know far too little, and should know much more if we are to understand the new superpower today ... a model of clarity and good writing -- Antony Beevor ― The Times
[Mitter] restores 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 Zhedong'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 ... [he] explores this complex politics with remarkable clarity and economy ... No one could ask for a better guide than Mitter to how [the rise of modern China] began in the cauldron of the Chinese war -- Richard Overy ― Guardian
Illuminating and meticulously researched ... [China's War with Japan]is about the Chinese experience of war, the origins of the modern Chinese identity and the roots of a relationship that will shape Asia in the 21st century. It is about China's existential crisis as it tried to regain its centrality in Asia. It is also a story, pure and simple, of heroic resistance against massive odds ― Economist
Mitter deftly sketches the plight of Chinese intellectuals ... This is a many-stranded story and the author keeps his focus on the big picture while including many convincing, often horrific, details ... [this] is the best narrative of that long-ago war, whose effects still linger in China today, with Japan the major hate figure -- Jonathan Mirsky ― Spectator
This is a story told mainly from the Chinese perspective, in all its horror. Drawing on a wide range of sources, Mitter pulls together a rich and complex narrative without losing the drama of China's fight for survival and the individuals who played a part in it ... lively [and] comprehensive ― Prospect --This text refers to the paperback edition.
About the Author
Rana Mitter is Professor of the History and Politics of Modern China at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of St Cross College. He is the author of A Bitter Revolution- China's Struggle with the Modern World. He is a regular presenter of Night Waves on Radio 3. --This text refers to the paperback edition.
Book Description
Mitter puts China at the heart of our understanding of the Second World War - a conflict that continues profoundly to shape China's view of itself and its neighbours today.
--This text refers to the paperback edition.
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ASIN : B00AZRDP32
Publisher : Penguin (27 June 2013)
Language : English
File size : 17682 KB
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Print length : 444 pages
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paul callick
4.0 out of 5 stars good condition Penguin p/back
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 30 June 2023
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good condition. Only read 100 pages or so, but it's excellent. Very clearly written. A few more maps would have been better, maybe. Of course the events are simply awful, but told straight. The title tells you everything about the angle, which is that this a book about how these events affected Chinese history and mentality. So far, it largely passes over Japanese representations of this terrible war.
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I. Jones
5.0 out of 5 stars Certainly bridged a big gap in my knowledge
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 21 March 2020
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I was born in the early sixties and was brought up on World Wars I and II. About 40 years ago, when I did a dissertation on First World War poetry, I thought I knew all the main facts about both. However, over the last twenty years the vast gulfs in my knowledge have become apparent and I’ve spent a lot of time trying to fill those gulfs.
This book has a been a big help in that regard. For example, a few years ago I discovered that much of the British World War I trench network was not dug by our squaddies but by an army of 100,000 Chinese labourers. More recently I learned that Chinese mechanics repaired British tanks in the same war. This book taught me that the Chinese Government offered to send combat troops to the Western Front. The offer was haughtily rebuffed by the British. The offer was apparently made because the Chinese yearned to emerge from a “century of humiliation” (largely inflicted by the British, along with other European powers, with the Americans tagging along) and be accepted as a major, modern nation (as they do now). In fact, that desire to be accepted as an “equal” is a key theme of this book. The author shows how the Chinese Nationalist leader, Chiang Kai-shek vainly hoped that the Allies would appreciate the role China was playing in tying down the Japanese and hindering their efforts to extend their empire into India and Oceania. Indeed, Britain and the USA realised that China was a staunch ally and they were desperate to ensure that Chiang’s Nationalists would fight on and not surrender or make peace with the Japanese. However, the Allies stopped well short of regarding Chiang as an equal, and he was only invited to one of the major conferences that Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin held during the war. Apparently, Churchill was particularly dismissive of Chiang and regarded the Chinese in general as beneath contempt.
Despite that, the Chinese (Nationalists led by Chiang; Communists led by Mao) fought on against the Japanese for eight long years. What makes that all the more remarkable is how divided the Chinese were. Not only was there conflict between the Nationalists and Communists; Chiang also had to contend with go it alone warlords who held power in various provinces and refused to contribute their troops, food supplies and other resources to the common struggle. He also had to deal with outright collaborators who worked with the Japanese to create a rival Chinese state in the areas occupied by the Japanese.
We have harrowing accounts of the Japanese invasion of northern China in July 1937 (they had been occupying Manchuria since 1931) and the dreadful massacre when the Nationalist capital Nanjing fell that December. Altogether around 15 million Chinese died during the war, the great majority of them civilians who perished in bombing raids and massacres or from malnutrition and disease. The suffering of the Chinese people was comparable to that experienced by the Poles and the Russians in World War II and puts into perspective the dangers and discomforts of the Blitz and the Blackout in Britain.
The author is brutally impartial. He makes it clear that Chiang’s Nationalist regime was corrupt, inefficient and engaged in a reign of terror to enforce discipline and compliance. The Communists offered women some opportunity to escape from traditional roles and mores but with hindsight it’s clear that Mao used the war as a rehearsal for the tyranny that followed the Communist victory in 1949. All the major players had their secret police and torture networks and no side emerges with any laurels. The Japanese offered an alternative to western imperialism, namely an Asian “co-prosperity sphere” that was an empire in all but name. The Americans used the Chinese to take pressure off American forces in the Pacific. And the British used China as a buffer state to protect India from Japanese invasion – an invasion that might have been welcomed by some Indians desperate to escape British rule. One of the most shameful episodes in the book is when Churchill, having just become Prime Minister with a mission to fight Fascism “alone” acceded to Japanese demands to close China’s supply line through Burma. Again, that’s not something that gets much attention in British accounts of World War II.
I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn about modern Chinese history and who wants some insight into what China is today.
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Hande Z
5.0 out of 5 stars Birth pains of a giant
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 29 July 2013
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The second major war between China and Japan (1937-1945) started before and ended after the Second World War in Europe. Neglected by the world leaders at the time and by historians thereafter, the fate of the protagonists in this war was inexorably shaped by it and yet, few, looking at China and Japan today, realise how the events and consequences of that war bear on the imprint of the two Asian giants in the 21st century. This book is an account of that war. The author, Mitter, wrote it mainly as a study of one of the two most important Chinese in the twentieth century - Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek (known sometimes as `G-Mo', or more derisively, by his arch `frenemy', General Joseph Stilwell, as `Peanut') and Mao Zedong.
After the Treaty of Versailles was signed, the Western Allies compelled Germany to relinquish the territories that it controlled in China. However, instead of returning them to Chinese sovereignty, the Western Allies gave them to Japan, then the rising power in Asia. China, a giant of a nation but weak in the knees, was just awakening itself to the spirit of nationalism through the efforts of the Kuomintang and the fledgling Chinese Communist Party (formed in 1921). Sun Yat-sen's declaration of the Chinese Republic in 1911 and the installation of Yuan Shikai as the provisional president thereafter proved only a fleeting hope that China would regain its greatness in the world. Yuan Shikai's failed manoeuvres to be proclaimed the new emperor and his death in 1914 saw the rise of the warlords with the consequent division and weakening of China. Japan had been making inroads into Chinese territories. The problem for China then was that it was in the midst of a civil war between the Chinese Communist Party (the `CCP') and the Kuomintang (`the Nationalists').
In the summer of 1937, Japanese troops clashed with Chinese soldiers under the command of Song Zheyuan at the small village called Wanping, with only Lugouqiao (The Marco Polo Bridge) as its only claim to fame then. Chiang Kai-shek judged that it was time to declare an all-out war. The disunited country was no match for a modern, well-trained, and experienced Japanese army. By October, Shanghai was lost, and by December, the Chinese army fled Shandong. The Japanese army entered the then Chinese capital, Nanjing. What took place thereafter was described in the chapter, `Massacre at Nanjing' - a chapter that tests the reader's constitution and conscience in equal measure. Chiang Kai-shek was eventually forced to move the Chinese capital to Chongqing.
Even as Mitter described the failings of Chiang's Nationalist army in the battlefield, it is clear that he was sympathetic to the Generalissimo. Mitter acknowledged that Chiang was responsible for some failures, but he drew attention to the shenanigans of the warlords, and the treachery of rivals posing as friends - Wang Jingwei, in particular. Wang who saw himself as the true heir of Sun Yat-sen had to watch as Chiang wrested the power and authority of the Kuomintang from him. Unlike Edgar Snow (see Snow's impressive account of the early CCP and Mao: `Red Star over China'), Mitter was not as impressed by Mao and attributed part of the Kuomintang's defeats to the lack of support from the CCP. Truth is often to be found in fragments rather than a perfect whole. One is unlikely to overlook the inability of the Kuomintang to send reinforcements when needed. Chiang often withheld his best troops and not commit them into battle with the Japanese. Did he have any choice? Was he hoping to have them protect him should the Communists turn on him? The second Chinese civil war between the Communists and the Nationalists began almost as Japan was defeated. That fight which further defined the future of China is another story for another book.
It was quite clear that though ultimately defeated and driven to Taiwan in 1949, Chiang Kai-shek made two important contributions that China must be forever grateful. First, fighting without a unified army, he held Japan at bay for eight years so that the Western Allies could concentrate on their effort in Europe, and thus defeat Hitler. For this, the rest of the world ought to have been grateful, but as Mitter pointed out, the China theatre was underestimated, and the Chinese effort under-appreciated. Secondly, its wartime contribution did enough to merit at least a place as one of the five permanent members of the Security Council. That gave China its veto power in world affairs to this day.
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OKCole
5.0 out of 5 stars A superb writing of a little known war
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 15 March 2018
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I'll start by noting that this is one of the best history books I have read. I've read fairly widely on the history of both world wars but confess to knowing very little about the Sino-Japanese war discussed in this book. I was impressed by the balance of the book, the depth of research undertaken and the very fluent style of writing. The opinions offered on some characters may differ from some conventional norms but they are well qualified and set in the context of the events, time and geography in which they took place..
In terms of characters, there are no individual heroes in this book. Only the Chinese people, through their suffering of and eventual victory over unspeakable cruelty, loss and deaths caused by war and famine, exacerbated by the failures and greed by their own leaders and manipulation by their supposed allies, can be seen as heroic.In spite of this sacrifice and loss, the author makes a pointed argument that the West - essentially the USA - quickly turned its back on China after the conflict and supported their previously bitter - and mutual - foe, Japan, leading to long-term alienation between China and the USA which still influences modern politics.
The behaviours and action of the key figures during this period are discussed as objectively as possible. Chiang Kai Shek appears a little more sympathetically (or a little less critically) than often described elsewhere.I was struck by Chiang's interest in the Beveridge Report and thoughts of implementing something similar in China after the war. Overall, Chiang appears as someone with good intentions which were fatally flawed by his political manoeuvring and poor tactical choices. Mao Tse Tung's is described as being more strategic and with greater sense of purpose than Chiang or other Chinese regional leaders and warlords. I am tempted now to re-read Jung Chang's biography of Mao, at least the part describing his ascent to power) even if on my previous reading I found it somewhat opaque and too subjective. The parts played by other Chinese leaders and their key lieutenants are also well covered.
Western leaders emerge with little credit. The Churchill usually associated with the Battle of Britain days is replaced as an imperialist determined, at whatever cost, to hang on to the illusions of the British Empire; even to his apparent indifference to the famine in Bengal. The tensions among the various US generals and politicians are well described. As is usually the case, General Stilwell is easy to dislike, appearing as unnecessarily vindictive and both strategically and tactically inept. Yet, as the author points out, he retained the support of General Marshall, not one known to tolerate incompetence. As might be expected, none of the Japanese generals or politicians emerge with any credit.
The book balances well the interplay among military planning, battles and the political circumstances surrounding them. The only, minor, criticism I have is that little mention is made of fighting during 1942 and 1943. It appears that it was more or less a military stalemate during that period but it would have been worth a short section, perhaps at the outset of the discussion on the 1944 campaigns.
As I indicated at the outset of this review, a thoroughly worthwhile and commendable book on this brutal war of which too little known or understood yet still seems to have repercussions in current affairs.
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R A Zambardino
5.0 out of 5 stars A truly excellent book that ought to be read widely
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 31 July 2014
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A truly excellent book that ought to be read widely, to help covering a wide gap in the public awareness of WW2 events.
China is almost absent in the general public's mental image of WW2, except for the important part played by Mao's Red Army.
There is awareness of tragic losses, particularly of those due to massacres like at Nanjing, but it is not widely realized that over 14 million Chinese were killed during the war, a figure only exceeded in the then Soviet Union
The contribution of China to the war is usually assumed to have been marginal, whereas even at the end of the war more than half of all Japanese armed forces were fighting in China. One may wonder as to what might have happened if China had accepted defeat in 1938 and Japan could have deployed its full military strength in its May 1939 war with the Soviet Union. Even during the war, the dominant impression abroad was was that Nationalist China was incapable of offering real effective resistance to Japan. Rana Miller quotes the British diplomats in Wuhan reporting in February 1938 : "In my opinion..they will disintegrate as soon as they are forced to leave Hankow", while for the British military attache : "The Chinese are not serious about fighting..".
Rana Miller's necessarily compressed but admirably clear narrative of the military operations shows how throughout the war the Chinese fought hard against the Japanese overhelming technical superiority. In Shanghai, for instance, they fought from August to December 1937, with 30,000 of their best trained officers being killed and suffering 187,000 casualties. For many readers it may come as a surprise to learn how in April 1938 the Chinese won a major battle at Taierzhuang, routing a major Japanese offensive and killing more than 8000 enemies. Another serious defeat was inflicted on the Japanese in Changsha in September 1939. There were no lightning Japanese advances and victories as in South East Asia in 1942 !
Rana Miller covers in detail one of the most tragic events of WW2: the Chinese decision in June 1938 to blow the dams on the Yellow River, for stopping the Japanese advance to Wuhan. As many as 500,000 people may have been drowned and 4.5 million were made homeless. We may find this decision horrifying and objectionable, but it is also a tragic proof of the desperate will not to surrender, whatever the cost.
As well as the military operations, Rana Miller covers in a clear and balanced way the political web of Nationalist China and of the forces under Mao Zedong. We are shown how Wang Jingwei was the closest collaborator of Sun Yat-sen and his successor, until sidelined by Chiang Kai-shek but remaining in the government. His negotiations with the Japanese, leading to the formation of a Quisling government are a sad story and throw light on the divisions within the Japanese government. It seems clear , from Rana Miller's narrative, that the 1937 Japanese aggression of China grossly underestimated the resistance it would draw and led to an unforeseen and very expensive stalemate.
Another sad fact emerging from the book is the depth of racial prejudice dominant at that time. The political and military inferiority of the Chinese was considered as a matter of course and Roosevelt's decision to grant Chiang's China equal status as a great power was received with utter amazement by the British government
Rana Miller covers in detail the actions of Stilwell as American Chief of Staff for the Chinese forces: a story of good intentions marred by arrogance.
I found this book truly fascinating:a work of serious scholarship, very well written, expressing sound opinions and with a mass of factual information hardly known to non-specialists.
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Dr. Philip Woods
5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant readable history
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 8 February 2014
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It is difficult to write interestingly enough for general readers about wars, even more so about long wars. China’s war with Japan lasted eight years and cost some 14 to 20 million Chinese lives. China’s long resistance has not been fully appreciated by historians, partly because of the fixation on the European fronts but also because under Chairman Mao, the rival Chinese Kuomintang Nationalist resistance was deliberately unrecognised. Rana Mitter provides a remarkable revisionist history, which overturns many of our previous assumptions about the War in the Far East. Most importantly, he goes some way to restoring the tarnished reputation of the Chinese Nationalist leader, Chiang Kai-Shek. Chiang was depicted by Barbara Tuchman in her magisterial history, Sand Against the Wind: Stilwell and the American Experience in China 1911-45 as a corrupt and incompetent military leader of a regime that was not much less fascistic than its enemies. British and American writers were obviously influenced by Chiang’s defeat at the hands of the Communists in 1949 and by Stilwell’s published memoirs.
Some of the changing historical interpretations are explained by Mitter in the epilogue to the book, but it might have been helpful to readers for this to have come at the beginning of the book, so that they could appreciate where Mitter was coming from. On the military side, Mitter is much influenced by Hans Van de Wen’s War and Nationalism in China: 1925-1945 (Routledge: 2003), who believes that Chiang’s defensive long-game strategy was much more sensible than Stilwell’s determination for the offensive and a concentration on an Allied land advance through Burma. This strategy depleted China’s defensive capabilities and allowed the Japanese to advance further and further into central and northern China. Mitter argues powerfully that Stilwell’s arrogance and lack of diplomatic skills may have tarnished Sino-American relations for a long time. I think that Mitter underestimates the importance of a land campaign to re-open the India-Burma-China route because that was China’s only supply route for much of the war.
Mitter is aware of Chiang’s weaknesses and also of some of his very poor decisions, but basically sees him as the only man who could have held the Chinese war effort together and that therefore he and the Kuomintang did not deserve to be written out of history by the Communists. Another nationalist who was literally dynamited out of history, or at least his tomb was, is Wang Jingwei, who defected from Chiang and collaborated with the Japanese. The book focuses on three leaders, Chiang Kai-Shek, Wang Jingwei and Mao Tse Tung. Mao was eventually to triumph over his opponents, partly by cannily avoiding set-piece battles with the Japanese but rather using guerrilla tactics. More important though were Mao’s social reforms which won him the support of the peasantry, whilst the Kuomintang were associated with crippling rural tax demands and corruption. Even so, there was nothing inevitable about the Communist victory in the civil war that followed the end of the war with Japan- if nationalist forces had not been so depleted in the war with Japan, Chiang would probably have controlled most of China. Mitter concludes by arguing that Chiang did bring China at last to the world stage, a seat at the Cairo Conference of 1943 and more importantly a seat on the UN Security Council. The price that China paid in lives and damage to the economy was, however, enormous and left certain legacies which presaged some of the dictatorial disasters of Mao’s leadership.
So, an excellent and readable history of a most important subject.
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D. Siska
5.0 out of 5 stars Essential reading for anyone interested in the influences that shaped contemporary China
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 30 June 2013
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The book's focus is the Chinese resistance of Japan aggression from 1937-1945. However reader is given a quick overview of Chinese history, starting with the Song Dynasty and getting more detailed with the British et. al. exploitation of China, the fall of the Qing, the first republic of Sun Yat-sen, and rise of Chiang Kai Shek and Mao Zedong (initially joint, later separate). After Japanese surrender the book concludes briefly with the Communist win against the Nationalists.
The history is clearly and carefully written, giving details of the outbreak of the war and the essential turning points. The author is careful to present many facts without trying to pass judgement on the main leaders of the three parts of China during the war: Chiang Kai Shek in the ever shrinking area under nationalist control, Mao Zedong in the north-western part and the leader of a Vichy-like government in the Japanese occupied china, Wang Jingwei. In the end though the main actors in the drama, including the American Joseph Stilwell come out either as unsympathetic or incompetent, often both.
In many ways the book covers new ground both for western and Chinese audience. For a westerner (like the author of this review) the book sets out a clear argument that China was a major partner in the allied war effort against the axis powers, fighting by far for the longest (in 1937 not even infamous Munich agreement has been signed yet and it was more than four years to go to Pearl Harbour). For a Chinese reader it lays out in full the honest if not always successful effort of the Nationalist government in fighting the Japanese, whilst not hiding their effort to diminish the strength of the Communists. Those are seen trying to take advantage of the situation whilst not attempting any significant offensives against the Japanese. This is of course just as well, because for the Nationalists these resulted mostly in failure whilst the guerrilla tactics of the Communists were effective.
The Japanese war atrocities are mentioned in detail. The impact the war has on the current relationship between China and Japan is also discussed. Details are given of how the Chinese communist government has been rewriting history, mainly during Mao's era, to suit their ends. It is amusing to see them trying to convince the Japanese that they see in full their own history. This extends to the the absurdity of the current Communist government, responsible for deaths of tens of millions of their compatriots during the Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution for which it has never accepted full responsibility, in trying bring the Japanese to acknowledge the extent of their crimes.
The only part of weaker point is the lack of detail regarding the Japanese side of the story. How did they come to invade China? Was it part of a plan? Or was it the case of the military going further than was their remit and the politicians unable to stop them afterwards? Why did they attack America at the same time as being involved in a stalled campaign in China? But perhaps one shouldn't expect this in a book about "China's war with Japan". Because this is indeed a story of the Chinese war with Japan, superbly told.
The book is a pleasure to read, very hard to put down even though one knows the outline of the story one is compelled to read the book to see the details. Disclaimer: the author of the review is no historian so this review is an opinion of an amateur.
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Sergey Radchenko
5.0 out of 5 stars Compelling
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 20 August 2015
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Rana Mitter’s brilliantly written, insightful and deeply troubling narrative brings into focus a relatively neglected but immensely important aspect of the Second World War – the Sino-Japanese War. Mitter argues against treating the conflict as a mere sideshow in the bigger battle of titans. He sees the Chinese theater as immensely important: both in the strategic sense (China’s contribution to the Allied effort was, in his view, greater than generally acknowledged) and in terms of the scale of destruction and human suffering, which are rarely taken account of in the Western historiography of WWII.
Mitter’s book recounts the war from three different perspectives: that of the Nationalists (the Guomindang), the Communists in Yan’an and, more unusually, the collaborationist regime in Nanjing. These three perspectives imply China’s three possible trajectories, three ways of facing the challenges of modernization. Mitter shows how these three trajectories were in some respects remarkably similar. Each was premised on the creation of a strong, centralized state in the midst of war, on forging close links between the state and its citizens, on ideological campaigns, on the instruments of propaganda and terror.
Some of these responses harked back to the spirit of May 4th, and its intellectual legacy that was shared by Chiang Kai-shek, Mao Zedong, and Wang Jingwei; others were born of the contingencies of war. In any case, these ideas about modernity, and the state’s relationship to its citizens, would come to shape Chinese politics for decades to come.
Mitter threads together two narratives: one, the metanarrative of the war as seen by decision makers, most importantly Chiang Kai-shek whose newly available diaries Mitter employs to a good effect. But there is also another narrative: of ordinary people who experienced the horrors of war firsthand. Mitter recounts stories of human misery: from raped and plundered Nanjing, to famine-stricken Henan, to the scorched battleground of Tai'erzhuang, to the jungles of Burma. The book is low on heroics, but the reader gets an ample sense of what the war meant for the Chinese people. As many as 20 million of them did not survive to see the triumph of 1945.
It was a triumph and a tragedy. Chiang Kai-shek emerged victorious, and China was recognized for the first time as an equal partner of the West, one of the “great four” (though Mitter shows how little this recognition meant in practice and how often the Americans in particular discounted Chiang and his war needs). On the other hand, though, China was in ruins. The painful (and criminal) wartime decisions – from the destruction of the Yellow River dykes to official incompetence that led to mass starvation - these years of struggle and deprivation sapped Chiang’s legitimacy and left the regime exposed, something that Mao Zedong quickly capitalized on, ripping, Mitter argues, the fruits of the Guomindang’s victory in the war against Japan
A must read for anyone interested in the rise of modern China.
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A Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Is Japan on China's Hit List?
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 3 August 2020
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This book is required reading if you are at all interested in the belligerent attitude of China in 2020. First it was Tibet then the Muslim population who have been thrown into concentration camps (that sounds familiar doesn't it?). Now it's the turn of Hong Kong.
China regards Taiwan as a 'renegade state' and has threatened to envelop the country incorporating it into China by force if necessary.
Because history is frequently written by the victors in a conflict, other countries who suffered can get sidelined. The Chinese people were treated horrifically by their Japanese invaders. There was no glory or honour here. The rape of Chinese women and girls was introduced by the Japanese military as a legitimate weapon of war together with the slaughter of civilians.
There is already tension between the Chinese and the Japanese over geographical matters and it is an open secret that Japan has never offered a formal apology to any country over their conduct in the Second World War. The Chinese and the Japanese war started just before the World War. It would come as no surprise to this reviewer that if China does invade Taiwan and occupies the country incorporating it into their sphere of influence, they will likely then try and invade Japan. If this does come about then I fear that Japan will not represent an opportunity for additional real estate, but that it will suffer as they made the Chinese suffer and then they will be annihilated.
The USA will almost certainly intervene in any conflict between China and Japan but after reading this book it may be a little difficult knowing who to feel sorry for.
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Karen Anne Mark
5.0 out of 5 stars New condition. A thoroughly researched text about the China - Japan war.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 18 September 2022
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This book gives a lot of information about the China - Japan war. Many in the west who 'learnt World War II' in school classrooms, know little of this terrifying history and the long lasting impact left in the collective national psyches of the people involved.
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Simon Binning
4.0 out of 5 stars Really good general history of a very complicated period
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 30 January 2016
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This is a very readable account of the war between China and Japan between 1937 and 1945. It is not a military history of that period, although military actions are obviously recorded. It is more an account of the incredibly complicated political situation in China during the period. For perhaps half a century prior tp the events in this book, large parts of China had effectively been in a state of anarchy, with vast areas controlled by local warlords, and any 'official' government only controlled certain cities and areas. Effective government was non-existent, and any hope that the country would be able to resist Japanese invasion was very small.
The fact that the Chinese did resist Japan for so long does them enormous credit, but they paid a massive price, second only to Russia in the death toll. This book explains in a clear way the struggles of the Nationalist government under Chiang kai-shek; the position of the communists under Mao, and their interactions with all those involved - be they friends or enemies (sometimes it's difficult to tell who helped and who hindered).
The book certainly goes some way to help understand the current Chinese attitudes to the war, and to their neighbours to this day.
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John King
4.0 out of 5 stars The greater evil?
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 15 August 2013
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Wanting to know more about the Japs brutality towards their neighbours I thought this book would provide significant answers. I certainly know more about the rampage through China but I also now understand just how it was possible for a relatively small but very well organised force with absolutely no morals to plunder their was through a country riven with internal division and corruption. Whilst Gen Stilwell was clearly not a very pleasant person he clearly saw the need for a combined General staff. His undoing was the Chinese factional persistence in looking after there own divisive interests. Chaing Kai Shek, in common with Chinese leaders before and after him, was utterly indifferent to the welfare of the people and that was his great undoing.
The author writes derisively of the long involvement of British, American and other powers in China. As someone who has direct family links to the latter part of that period I have no qualms about our involvement. Such outside interference had been a continuing part of the development of China for centuries. These shifting influences continue today albeit in the commercial guise of Nike, Apple, etc.
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David McIntyre
5.0 out of 5 stars ... part of World War Two history that should be better known in this part of the world detailed but ...
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 15 July 2015
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Extremely well written account of a part of World War Two history that should be better known in this part of the world detailed but very readable those who have only a passing interest in the Second World War or are deeply interested will learn a great deal from this book I certainly did the light it shines on the convoluted Chinese leadership is fascinating giving a different perspective than the usual Western take that while valuable and valid can be one dimensional, the conflict between Chiang and Stillwell is well described the author coming out on the side of Chiang,my own feeling is that two very strong willed men holding down the jobs from hell simply saw things from different angles it being very difficult for a American soldier rushed into position to understand just how intricate Chinese politics were and how much of a tightrope Chiang was walking,it says a lot for the character of the Chinese people that they are not far more bitter about the treatment they and their country have received over the years. One of those books that does not sag in the middle highly recommended.
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Jame DiBiasio
5.0 out of 5 stars Terrific retelling
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 15 October 2013
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Mitter puts Chiang Kai-shek and the Chinese Nationalists back at center stage of 20th century history. Chiang and the Guomindong's reputation never recovered from losing the civil war to the Communists, with plenty of bad blood and finger-pointing in the aftermath (especially in the US). Mao won China and, for a long time, the mythology, thanks to the Long March and guerilla warfare against the Japanese. Mitter makes clear that Chiang and the Nationalists did the real fighting, for eight hard years; the strategic retreat from Shanghai to Wuhan to Chongqing is far more dramatic and in some ways impressive than the Long March, but defeat has led us to forget this. Chiang was also China's first true international statesman, another legacy lost in the civil war. He was of course all the terrible things that we remember: corrupt, brutal, ineffective, often petty. But so was just about everyone else; Chiang uniquely wore the mantle of national leadership. This book gives the reader a solid account of how the war played out, an understanding of the major players, and an understanding of how the war permanently marked China and its current relationships with the US and Japan.
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Anil S.
5.0 out of 5 stars A great illustration of Chinese contribution to the WWII .
Reviewed in India 🇮🇳 on 25 March 2017
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Extremely vivid description of war and lead up to decision making on various options available. Less judgement and more factual. Outstanding portrayal of complex situation of war and the impact on Chinese society and its consequent transformation.
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John
4.0 out of 5 stars Heavy going but a well written story of a war little known in the West
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 6 December 2018
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Being very interested in the history of warfare, I was a little disappointed in the orientation of the book being political/economic rather than actual fighting. I still give it a high rating as it very effectively covers a subject about which most of us in the West know very little, and in view of the large and increasing power of China, it should be studied at least as thoroughly as our own (Imperial) history
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Richard King
2.0 out of 5 stars The Wrong Title and Wrong Subject
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 13 November 2015
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While I did learn a lot about that terrible period of Chinese history, the title of the book is: China's War with Japan. There is not much information on the actual conflict between the two. Instead the narrative is more on the conflicts between Chiang and Stilwell and between Chiang and Mao. I wish the author would go back to the main subject. How did China manage to stave off the Japanese for all those years against a well organized and modern army while the Chinese side did not have much to fight with. I wish the author would focus on the sufferings Chinese endured under Japanese occupation and the atrocities they committed . In reading this book one has the impression that the only villain seem to be the British, and Churchill was indeed a villain for his refusal to give China any credit, instead of the Japanese. Churchill was a racist. While China managed to regain its sovereignty, the British still manage to hold onto Hong Kong which did not return to China until 1997. Despite his many faults and there were many, I came away with admiration for Chiang for holding China intact and gain its rightful place in the world which is only now being realized.
By the way I read the author's excellent book on : Forgotten Ally which touch on the same subject.
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Dr David Mankin
5.0 out of 5 stars History writing at its best
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 28 September 2013
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This excellent book acts as a useful prequel to 'The Tragedy of Liberation: A History of the Chinese Revolution 1945-1957' by Frank Dikötter given the way these two accounts neatly dovetail together. Rana Mitter has written a lucid and compelling account of the war between China and Japan. The book is highly readable (something not all historians achieve) and is clearly the product of some in depth research. The author provides a credibale analysis of events and is excellent at descrbing events between 1937 to 1945. The reason I ordered this book was to better understand an aspect of the last world war which I had rarely read about - and I'm extremely glad I did. This is history writing at its best. Highly recommended.
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Steven Bennett
4.0 out of 5 stars China's war with Japan
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 1 November 2013
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A very readable and informative book. I recomend this to anyone interested in China/Japan and the modern world. For a country so large and dynamic I knew very little of its history and this book has certainly provided a substantive introduction on which to start redressing this. I suspect many others are in a similar state of low knowledge and appreciation and they would certainly also find this a good starting point.
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Albert
5.0 out of 5 stars Great book.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 1 February 2022
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Very interesting book.
Recommended.
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