World War II Database

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

China had been in political turmoil since the 1911 revolution, but by 1928, the Nationalist Party, or Kuomintang, had largely consolidated the power from the capital of Nanjing, although a significant part of China was still ruled by local warlords with friendly relations with the Nanjing government. Chinese sovereignty, too, had slowly been returning to Chinese hands from the European imperialists. Slow but steady progress was made with industrial, economic, and military aspects of China. Foreign nations such as Russia and Germany contributed much to the rise of modern China in this period. Though claiming to be democratic, the Kuomintang imposed an one-party system to maintain political stability. This escalated the tensions that already existed between the Kuomintang and the rising Chinese Communist Party.

Ironically, if there was one thing that helped bridged the differences between the two parties, it was Japanese aggression. Though each aimed to control China, both spent significant efforts to resist the increasing levels of demands from Japan. Japan's violation of Chinese sovereignty started as early as 1931 when Japanese troops entered Manchuria. On 18 Feb 1932, Japan established the puppet country of Manchukuo, forcefully taking Manchuria away from China. The League of Nations attempted to interfere with Japan's aggression toward China, but failed. Finally, on 7 Jul 1937, the Second Sino-Japanese War began. Chinese leader Generalissimo Chiang Kaishek, previously stressed the need to unite China by defeating the communists before dealing with external aggression, was kidnapped and persuaded during the Xi'an Incident to temporarily ally with the communists. Although the two groups fought side-by-side nominally, in actuality the Nationalists bore the greater part of the fighting against Japan. Periodically, Chiang also found his excuses to weaken communist strength when convenient.

The city of Shanghai on the Chinese coast fell under Japanese control in Oct 1937, followed by the capital of Nanjing two months later. Japanese troops committed atrocities, with the most brutal example shown with the Rape of Nanjing, where 50,000 to 300,000 Chinese, mostly civilians and prisoners of war, were murdered and 20,000 women of all ages were raped. Although out-gunned and out-maneuvered by Japanese troops, the Chinese were determined and were resilient. Fighting mostly a defensive war, the Chinese made use of the vastness of China Proper to trap more and more Japanese troops in this large theater as occupation troops, preventing them from being used offensively in the China-Burma-India Theater or as garrison troops in the Pacific War.

After World War 2, the civil war between the Nationalists Party and the Communist Party resumed almost immediately. After a disastrous expedition into Manchuria where the Communists were based with Russian support, the Nationalists lost the initiative of the war and began to lose ground. In Dec 1949, the Nationalists withdrew to Taiwan (known as Formosa during WW2 era) and claimed the city of Taipei as the temporary capital of the Republic of China. Today, there are still two Chinas, one governing from Taipei and the other from Beijing.

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