Forgotten Ally: China’s World War II, 1937-1945

474 Pages·2013·10.86 MB·English

by  Rana Mitter

Table of Contents
Title Page
Table of Contents
Copyright
Dedication
Epigraph
Dramatis Personae
Pronunciation Guide
Prologue: City on Fire
Maps
THE PATH TO WAR
As Close as Lips and Teeth: China’s Fall, Japan’s Rise
A New Revolution
The Path to Confrontation
DISASTER
Thirty-seven Days in Summer: The Outbreak of War
The Battle for Shanghai
Refugees and Resistance
Massacre at Nanjing
The Battle of Taierzhuang
The Deadly River
Photos
RESISTING ALONE
“A Sort of Wartime Normal”
Flight into the Unknown
The Road to Pearl Harbor
THE POISONED ALLIANCE
Destination Burma
Hunger in Henan
States of Terror
Conference at Cairo
Photos
One War, Two Fronts
Showdown with Stilwell
Unexpected Victory
Epilogue: The Enduring War
Notes
Further Reading
Acknowledgments
Photo Credits
Index
About the Author
First U.S. Edition
Copyright © 2013 by Rana Mitter

All rights reserved
For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write
to Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 215 Park
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First published in Great Britain by Allen Lane, an imprint of Penguin Books,
2013

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.
ISBN 978-0-618-89425-3

eISBN 978-0-547-84056-7
v1.0813

“Malagueña” by Federico García Lorca copyright © Herederos de Federico
García Lorca. English translation by Rana Mitter, copyright © Herederos de
Federico García Lorca and Rana Mitter. All rights reserved. For information
regarding rights and permissions, please contact: William Peter Kosmas, 8
Franklin Square, London W14 9UU, England, or [email protected].
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 GARCÍA LORCA, “MALAGUEÑA” (1921)
Dramatis Personae
Chen Bijun: Wang Jingwei’s wife, and also a significant figure in the “peace
movement” that ultimately led to collaboration with Japan.

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

Winston S. Churchill: British prime minister, 1940–1945, 1951–1955.

Archibald Clark Kerr: British ambassador in China, 1938–1942.

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

Clarence Gauss: US ambassador in China, 1941–1944.

He Yingqin: Minister of war in the Nationalist government.

Hirota Kôki: Japanese foreign minister, 1937–1938.

Patrick Hurley: US ambassador in China, 1944–1945.

Nelson T. Johnson: US ambassador in China, 1929–1941.

Konoye Fumimaro: Japanese prime minister, 1937–1939, 1940–1941.

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 China’s Communist Party, 1943–1976. Mao achieved
paramount power during the war years, sidelining and eliminating rivals, and
preparing his party for its ultimate victory against Chiang Kai-shek’s
Nationalists in 1949.

George C. Marshall: Chief of staff of the United States Army, 1939–1945.
George C. Marshall: Chief of staff of the United States Army, 1939–1945.

Matsui Iwane: Japanese commander who took Nanjing in 1937 and was in
overall charge of Japanese troops during the massacre of 1937–1938.

Song Meiling: Chiang Kai-shek’s wife and a powerful political figure in her own
right in the Nationalist government. She spoke fluent English and was Chiang’s
channel to the Americans.

Lord Louis Mountbatten: Supreme commander, Southeast Asia Command,
1943–1946, who clashed frequently with General Stilwell.

Franklin D. Roosevelt: President of the United States, 1933–1945.

T. V. Soong (Song Ziwen): Chiang’s 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,
1922–1953.

Joseph W. Stilwell: “Vinegar Joe,” the American general sent as Chiang Kai-
shek’s 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.

Tôjô Hideki: Japanese prime minister, 1941–1944.

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 Mao’s
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.
Jingwei and eventually help him to defect to Japan.