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Special Commemorative Issue70th Anniversary of the victory of the Chinese People’s War of Resistance

against Japanese Aggression and the end of World War II

marking 70 years:views from china’s v-daycelebrations

CHINA’S Theatreof war

Inspiring Stories:The Guerrilla Fighter and the Ox Herder

THE FLYING TIGERS

INternational assistance:a welcome helping hand

SANMAO: THE CHINESE TINTIN

RANA MITTER, OXFORD UNIVERSITYthe forgotten ally

MEMORIES OFBLOOD AND TERROR

UN GENERAL SECRETARY BAN KI-moon on CHINA’s WARtime contribution

OPINION:THE PARADE

OPINION:SCHOLARLY VIEWS ON V-DAY

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FORWARD 70 YEARS

Images from China’s commemoration of the 70th Anniversary of the victory of the

Chinese People’s War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the end of World

War II, the global anti-fascist war, held on September 3, 2015.

Chinese Z-10 (L) and Z-19 (R) attack

helicopters form the number 70 as they fly

in formation past a national flag during

a military parade in Tiananmen Square in

Beijing on September 3, 2015.

Photo: CFP

a young girl is

bathed in afternoon

sunlight as the

commemoration

ceremony comes to

a close.

Photo: CFP

Chinese soldiers

march in formation

during a military

parade in Tiananmen

Square in Beijing on

September 3, 2015.

Photo: CFP

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70 YEARS70 YEARS

Households across the

country tuned in to

the blanket coverage of

the military parade in

Beijing on September

3, 2015.

Photo: CFP

modern military hardware was on display

during the v-day celebration parade in

Beijing on September 3, 2015, including

several fly-overs of chinese aircraft.

Photo: CFP

Spectacular Fly Overs

from the country’s

airforce impressed

onlookers during the

commemoration on

September 3, 2015.

Photo: CFP

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August 15th, 1945, three months after Nazi Germany’s final defeat, the world heard the then Emperor Hirohito conceding defeat, and announcing

that Japan would surrender to allied countries unconditionally. “We have ordered our govern-ment to communicate to the governments of the United States, Great Britain, China, and the Sovi-et Union that our Empire accepts the provisions of their joint declaration.”

A surrender ceremony was held on USS Mis-souri at Tokyo Bay on September 2, 1945. As one of the main battlefields in World War Two, China’s resistance war lasted longer, suffered one-third of the world’s total casualties and paved the way for a quicker defeat of Na-zi-Germany and Italy in Europe.

For Europe, it was a war of almost six years since the occupation and partition of Poland in Sep-tember 1939. But for China, the war dragged on for 14 years, starting with the occupation of its northeast in September 1931, and then turning to all-out war after the Marco Polo Bridge Inci-dent in Beijing on July 7, 1937.

Rana Mitter, Professor of History and Politics of Modern China at University of Oxford, (see page ), believes China played an important and sub-stantial role during the war through its lengthy resistance to Japanese aggression, stating, “Because China did continue to resist Japan, it made it pos-sible eventually for the allies to join it after Pearl Harbor, and eventually win the victory in Asia.”

China’s Theatre of War

Hu Dekun, President of the Chinese Association for the His-tory of World War Two, also Professor at Wuhan University, says China was the first country to fight against the fascists, and it fought alone against Japan until 1941 at which point the Pacific War broke out.

As Hu points out, “The Marco Polo Bridge Incident marks the whole nation’s resistance against Japanese invasion. China is the first battlefield against fascism in the world. The Communist Party of China and Kuomintang both fought against the Japanese invaders. In the following 4 years, Chi-na fought alone. That was incredible.”

China’s efforts were indeed incredible, similar to those of Britain which fought alone in the early years against the German military machine after the fall of France; until of course Adolf Hitler opened a second battlefront against Josef Stalin’s Red Army. Japan struck Pearl Harbor in 1941, and attacked British and US troops in Southeast Asian nations at the same time.

Even then, China was still the main battlefield against the Axis powers in the east. Among Japan’s 51 ground corps, nearly 70 percent were located in China. Rana Mitter says China’s resistance is of great strategic significance to World War II. “They made sure that very large numbers of Japanese troops… were held down in China rather than being rede-ployed, sent away instead to the Pacific or elsewhere. And that means that by making that contribution, China played a significant role in the overall ally’s victory.”

It is in the words of the officials and leaders at the time where China’s importance is truly acknowledged and understood. Sugiyama Hajime, Japan’s then Chief of Army General Staff once admitted, “It is actually im-possible to move northward since massive troops have been deployed in China.”

U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt praised the Chinese people’s efforts against Japanese aggression, publically stating, “We are fighting on the same side as the brave people of China - those millions who for four and a half long years have withstood bombs and starvation and have whipped the invaders time and again in spite of the supe-rior Japanese equipment and arms.”

Former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill underscored the importance of China to the allied nation’s war effort, stating, “If the Japanese attack the West Indian Ocean, all our positions in the Middle East will be lost. Only China can help us to prevent that from happening.” Meanwhile, former Soviet leader Joseph Stalin outlined the strategic importance of Chinese resistance, noting, “Only when the Japanese invaders’ hands and feet are tied up, can we avoid fighting on two fronts simultaneously when the Ger-man invaders attack us.”

Pinning down the majority of Japanese divisions in China helped ensure a quicker victory in Europe, as China effectively delayed or prevented Japanese troops from advancing elsewhere as planned. This made it impossible for the three Axis countries from joining hands in Euro-Asia, relieving Russia of fighting on two battlefronts, while allied nations could fight side by side on both theatres. By Hou Limei

For China, the war dragged on for 14 years, starting with

the occupation of its northeast in September 1931, and then turning to all-out war after the Marco Polo Bridge Incident in

Beijing on July 7, 1937.

Besides fighting at home, China also sent expedition troops to Burma, known today as Myanmar, in 1942, to fight alongside British forces and help secure vital supply lines in Southeast Asia. But the cost of war, which involved four million troops from both sides, was a bitter pill to swallow. Approximately 35 million Chinese people were killed or wounded, representing approximately one-third of the world’s total casualties.

“We are fighting on the same side as the brave people of China - those millions who for four and a half long years have withstood bombs and starvation and have whipped the invaders time and again in spite of the superior Japanese equipment and arms.”

“Only when the Japanese invaders’ hands and feet are tied up, can we avoid fighting on two fronts simultaneously when the German invaders attack us.”

“If the Japanese attack the West Indian Ocean, all our positions in the Middle East will be lost. Only China can help us to prevent that from happening.”

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Winston Churchill

Joseph Stalin

HISTORY HISTORY

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Continued fighting in China pinned down many of their divisions, delaying or even

barring them carrying out the strategies jointly designed with

Nazi-Germany

STORIESINSPIRING

In China’s northeastern provinces, a14-year battle was waged against Japanese occu-pation and colonial rule. For the entire nation, it meant an all-out war spanning

eight years. National salvation depended on both collective efforts and individual sacrifices. In many cases, it seemed as if the fate of the entire Chinese nation rested on the shoulders of certain individuals. Whether those individuals were guerilla fighters or simple livestock herders.

Soon after gaining full control of the Northeast following the September 18th incident in 1931, Japan set up a puppet Manchuria regime and imposed colonial rule, seizing resources, and en-forcing cultural invasion. As China withdrew its regular army, guerrilla warfare became the main form of resistance.

Areas along the Songhua River in Heilongjiang Province, especially the vast mountains and deep jungles, witnessed prolonged periods of this guer-rilla warfare. 91-year-old Huang Dianjun is clear as to why he chose to fight. “(People were being) Oppressed by the Japanese, beaten and cursed by them. We were furious and full of anger. We had to stand up for ourselves.”

Huang joined the combats in the snowy moun-tains. The group of men with whom he joined forces were led by General Yang Jingyu. Writer and historian Sa Su says General Yang was one of the most heroic figures during this period; a brave soldier with a vast military know-how.

“He was the master of guerrilla warfare,” explains Sa. “He was 1.9 meters tall and was nimble. So, he was regarded as a god by many Chinese people. His troops were quick to attack and quick to retreat. They often travelled long distances, leaving enemy troops racing behind at a loss. If there was an op-portunity for combat, he seized upon it.”

Heavily outnumbered by the enemy, the guerrillas led by General Yang managed to inflict significant losses to the Japanese, who in response mobilised elite troops to catch the General.

In order to catch the famed General, a scorched earth strat-egy was carried out, which saw the looting of rural harvests in order to cut off any means of supply. In February 1940, Yang Jingyu and his men were separated and surrounded by Japanese troops. Yang managed to escape and ran for five days, with no food or supplies. Outnumbered and out-gunned, Yang was eventually killed by machine gun fire. But during this monumental struggle, Sa Su says Yang Jingyu even managed to win the respect of the enemy soldiers.

As Sa explains, “The Japanese media reported that their soldiers couldn’t help but burst into tears as a result of (Yang’s) braveness when they approached the dead body.” Unable to understand how he could hold out for so long, the Japanese ordered an autopsy, only to find tree bark, cotton and grassroots in his stomach; items that he had eaten in an effort to stay alive.

The Japanese commander at the scene, Ryuichiro Kishitani, was shocked by Yang’s fortitude. After Japan’s final defeat, Ryuichiro committed ritual suicide via hara-kiri. Ryuichiro’s will read, “His Majesty might be wrong in launching this war. China has steely soldiers like Yang Jingyu. It would not fall.” Yang’s death inspired more people to fight and as a result, during the 14-year occupation of the Northeast and the eight-year national war, scores of young men joined the battles.

In the South, in Laiyuan County, about 210 kilometres southwest of Beijing, a young oxherd’s story moved the hearts of all those that heard it. On October 25, 1942, Wang Erxiao was herding his ox on a mountain slope when he saw dozens of Japanese soldiers approaching, searching for wounded Chinese soldiers. The Japanese troops threatened Wang’s life.

Aware that thousands of villagers were hiding in the valley, the boy decided to lie to the Japanese troops and instead lead them into an ambush by the Chinese army. 85-year-old Shi Linshan remembers how he worked together with Wang to warn the Chinese soldiers that Japanese troops were approaching.

Shi recalls, “A bayonet was pointed at his back towards his heart. They forced him to show them the way to the Chinese army base. He led them in circles. He was stalling so that our soldiers could retreat.” Upon being ambushed by the Chinese, one angry Japanese soldier stabbed Wang and tossed his body onto a mountain rock. The boy died. A song depicting the sacrifice of 13-year-old Wang Erxiao later became a national hit.

1942 was a tough year for people of North China. Japan was eager to dispatch some of their troops in China to other countries and even cross into Si-beria to open a second warfront against the Soviet Red Army. But continued fighting in China pinned down many of their divisions, delaying or even barring them carrying out the strategies jointly designed with Nazi-Germany.

Frustrated, the Japanese troops intensified their scorched earth policy, killing, burning and looting, in order to tighten their grip of North China. Meanwhile, China’s regular army were engaged in major battles elsewhere. The task of pinning down as many enemy troops as possible was almost an impossible task, which they were able to pull off; often relying on individual sacri-fices, such as the case of Wang Erxiao.

Inspiring Stories:The Guerrilla Fighter and the Ox Herder

By Min Rui

Yang Jingyu, the guerrilla General from China’s northeast Heilongjiang Province.

The Japanese media reported that their

soldiers couldn’t help but burst into tears as a

result of Yang’s braveness when they approached

(his) dead body.

Deputy Curator of the Museum of the Chinese People’s War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, Luo Cunkang, emphasises the distinguished contribution Chi-nese people made to the global anti-Fascist war.

As Luo points out, “China was the main oriental battle-field in the whole picture of the world’s anti-Fascist war. However, some Chinese people have little awareness of the important role that China played in this regard. The international community has put little emphasis on this fact.”

1.5 million Japanese soldiers were eliminated in China, accounting for about 70 percent of Japanese casualties in World War Two. This helped the allied troops achieve overall victory, but this came at a huge cost of national sac-rifice and individual pain, with China sustaining 35 million casualties.

The task of pinning down as many enemy troops as possible was almost an impossible task, which they were able to pull off; often relying on individual

sacrifices.

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HISTORY HISTORY

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By Li Linxi

In the early stages of the war, China fought mostly unsupported, similar to the sit-uation faced by Britain. Appeasement lingered and there had been a lack of gen-

uine understanding of the true brutal nature of fascism as a global menace. The world stood by as a number of countries, including China, fell to enemy hands one after another. The joint global ambition of the trilateral Axis to carve up the world was coming to fruition.

Things changed when German, Italian and Japa-nese troops advanced to more warfronts – the So-viet Union and North Africa on the western theatre and Pearl Harbor and the Southeast on the orient. The world now saw a real common threat and a shared responsibility to fight back. The American Volunteer Group, popularly known as the Flying Tigers, was the only defensive force in the skies of China between 1941 and 1942, to ensure material supplies of desperate needs in defiance of Japan’s superior air power.

In total, the Flying Tigers destroyed nearly 300 Jap-anese aircraft, sustaining losses of 26 crew mem-bers and 73 aircraft. As Daune Schultz, author of “the Maverick War”, wrote, “For a time, the Flying Tigers provided the only victories against the Japa-nese anywhere in the Far East. The handful of men had shown that the Japanese were not invincible.”

91-year-old J. V. Vinyard, who took part in the operation, explained, “My assistance to the Chinese was one of my greatest moments of my life that I will never forget it.” The US also provided massive aid in the form of aircraft, guns, medicine, and military instructors. After 1941, assistance from the US and its engagement in the Pacific War dramati-cally improved the situation in China.

Earlier, between 1937 and 1941, when Japanese troops rampaged across half of the Chinese territory, the Soviet Union offered help and even fought shoulder to shoulder with China to resist

the invaders’ blitzkrieg and shatter their dream of annihilat-ing China within three months. In May, 2015, President Xi Jinping awarded 18 representatives of Russian veterans with commemorative medals, adding that the Russian veterans made a huge contribution to China’s own victory.

Between 1937 and 1941, about 5,000 military experts were sent to China from the Soviet Union. Moscow also offered loans, as well as industrial and military assistance to rebuild the battered Chinese army. The Soviet Volunteer Air Force joined the war from the very beginning. They carried out air operations over Nanking and the central city of Wuhan. They even flew across Japanese-occupied areas and launched bomb attacks on the Japanese airbase in Taiwan.

The Squadron destroyed and damaged almost 1,200 Jap-anese jets, losing 236 crewmembers in the process. It was a hard time for Shudlo Taras Georgievich and his fellow pilots. The 88-year-old veteran recalls the help provided by the Chinese people at that time. “The local Chinese helped us a lot. It’s fair to say that they were supporting us with a marvelous level of devotion, although they were actually very poor at the time.”

A number of international organizations and individuals also came in to support China’s struggle. One such indi-vidual was Canadian Physician Dr. Norman Bethune, who arrived in 1938 and joined the Eighth Route Army. Bethune went to the frontlines for emergency operations and assisted in training Chinese doctors and nurses. Bethune died of an infection after an operation in late 1939.

For decades, he has been held up as a role model in China, for his values, dedication and integrity. Bethune’s stories are included in school textbooks and there are hospitals named after him. Norman Bethune was one of many foreign nationals who offered a helping hand to war-ravaged China in this time of need.

There were also doctors, educators, industrialists and journalists from around the world, including overseas Chinese, such as Singaporean business-man Tan KahKee, who organized campaigns to raise awareness of Japanese atrocities and dona-tions to extend financial and material support to those that needed it. Many died when carry-ing out their missions in occupied areas, along transport routes, or at project sites, such as the China-Burma Highway – the only international supply line at the time.

3,200 overseas Chinese from Southeast Asia came as drivers and mechanics. These people, referred to as the Nanyang Volunteers, worked in harsh conditions and more than 1,000 of them died as a result of Japanese air raids and disease, or were lat-er executed by the Japanese after the fall of Burma, known today as Myanmar. Today, a monument is situated alongside the road commemorating the Nanyang transport volunteers who died as a result of the war. Though these brave volunteers, from all over the world, are now gone, their contribution to the victory and future prosperity of China will never be forgotten.

Former members of the American volunteer group known as the “Flying Tigers,” who assisted China during the War, took the time to reflect on their wartime experi-

ences. 92-year-old Roy Dillon and 94-year-old Wes Ament are members of the “Flying Tigers”, official-ly known as the American Volunteer Group of the Chinese Air Force.

Since May 1942, the two veterans started to undertake flying missions over the Hump, above the Himalayan Mountains. The so-called “death route” was built to transport military supplies to China, after the last land route connecting southwest China’s Yunnan and Myanmar was ruined by Japanese troops.

Dillon recalls the incredibly difficult flying conditions, which constantly hampered their mission of assisting the Chinese. “The Japanese at one time had control of (Myanmar), and that’s why we had to move to fly these northern routes. And the C-47 didn’t have the altitude capability or the climbing ability or the weight-carrying ability to fly these high altitudes.”

The “Flying Tigers” later used the more advanced transport plane, the C-46, with a higher loading capability. But the flying conditions in the high-altitude mountainous area and hazard-ous weather still made the flight a challenge for pilots.

Wes Ament recalls that he started to fly theC-87 trans-port plane that was refitted from a B-24 bomber aircraft on January 6, 1945; going on to fly 185 hours in just two months. Dillon flew over the Hump 174 times and for nearly 720 hours between 1944 and 1945, losing many compan-ions during the process. As Dillon explains, “From June to December of 1943, 153 airplanes crashed and 186 airmen lost their lives. Altogether during the war there were 1,300 airmen lost and over 500 airplanes lost.”

Ament and Dillon now live in the Calaveras County of California but due to their advanced age they were unable to make the long journey to China on September 3, 2015, which meant they were unable to attend China’s military parade marking the victory of World War II.

But as Dillon says, “We’ve already waited too long to be able to go over and participate in the celebration, but our hearts will be there,” and he further adds, “We were able to contribute to the victory over the Japanese during WWII. As little as it was, it was still something that I’m proud of and Wes is proud of. We consider it a privilege to be able to contribute to that.”

The Flying Tigers

International Assistance:A Welcome Helping Hand

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SANMAO SANMAO

Sanmao’s bitter experiences

and hardships resonated with many readers

during that time.

If one were to be asked what the most famous cartoon character in their countr y was, Americans would like-ly nominate Mickey Mouse, while

Belgians would proudly point towards the young adventurer Tintin. In China, that hon-our goes to Sanmao, a skinny boy with only three hairs on his head. Hailed as one of the world’s longest-running comic strip charac-ters, this tenacious orphan has captivated and inspired generations for eight decades.

At 80 years of age, Sanmao, China’s most popular comic strip hero, shows no signs of ageing. With skinny limbs, a big head and three curly strands of hair on the top of his head, Sanmao is regarded by Chinese people as a brave and quick-witted hero, comparable with Tintin. But unlike his western counterparts, Sanmao’s tales are much darker as they mirror some of the most turbulent moments of Chinese history in the Twentieth Century.

Shao Jianqiu, a comic enthusiast born in the 80s, explains, “When I read the books as a kid, I could only memorise the scenes. But as I got older, I started to recognise the political conno-tations and ironies of these comic strips. There is a lot of historical background embedded in the cartoons. In terms of the plot, style, and the inci-sive reflection on society at the time, the Sanmao series are true masterpieces.”

In 1935, Sanmao, literarily meaning “three hairs” in Chinese, was devised by cartoonist Zhang Leping in Shanghai. By that time, modern comic strips had already been popularised for around ten years; but it was rare to see a comic strip featuring a child as the protagonist.

Zhang Weijun, the cartoonist’s youngest son, recalls that when the Sanmao stories were first serialised in 1935, “he hadn’t roamed on the streets and joined the army yet. He was just an average kid living in a Shanghai lane house. He was pretty naughty and had a sense of justice.”

The birth of Sanmao filled a blank in the Chinese comic industry. Adopting line-drawing techniques, Zhang Leping avoided dialogue and instead used simple brushwork to re-veal the complexity of one’s inner world and the chores and trifles of living in old Shanghai.

But the real life situation in China deteriorated rapidly as Japan levied its war of aggression against the China and the Chinese people. Zhang along with a number of other car-toonists left home and travelled around the country in order to disseminate the message of resistance and patriotism.

During his eight-year rove, the artist witnessed how bloodshed, violence and misery ravaged China. Heartbreakingly, he also watched as ordinary people, particularly young children, became victims of the war. Zhang Weijun said that witnessing these atroci-ties drastically transformed his father’s artwork.

As the younger Zhang explains, “I think his war-time experience became his baptism and purified him. From then on, he was determined to see the world and reflect on its problems for the sake of common people. He came back to Shanghai in 1945. One year later, he drew the comic ‘Sanmao Joins the Army,’ which combined the happenings that he went through. Once published, the re-sponse was overwhelming. “

In this blood-soaked cartoon story, the homeless Sanmao puts on an ill-fitting uniform to fight against the Japanese army. Despite his short stature and gaunt features, the boy is able to survive on the bullet-ridden battlefield and uses his size and intelligence to his advantage in order to defeat far superior enemies. But there is a tragic element to Sanmao’s efforts which more often than not end in vain. But the message is clear: Never give up.

After the success of his first book, in 1947, Zhang Leping created another classic work: The Won-derings of Sanmao. This time, China’s beloved urchin lingered on the streets alone and spent his time hanging around with beggars, refugees and orphans in post-war Shanghai.

Constantly being beaten and mocked, he looks on hungry and helpless while the rich feast and cele-brate. Sanmao’s bitter experiences and hardships resonated with many readers during that time.

After the establishment of People’s Republic of China, Zhang produced a sequence of comic strips illustrating Sanmao’s new life under a new government. However, it is the first two series of comic strips which linger long in people’s memories.

Dong Xiaoyan, director of the Zhang Leping Museum, which commemorates the artist’s contribution to the Chi-nese cartoon industry, explains that, “Sanmao grew up with generations of Chinese children. He is vivacious and tough. That’s why we not only receive local visitors but also admit people from all around China and the rest of the world. “

For decades, filmmakers, musicians and animators have doted on this mischievous and good-natured young boy. The famous Taiwan writer Chen Maoping empathised with the character so much that she decided to change her pen name to “Sanmao.”

Zhang Weijun, son of the cartoonist, believes that the reason behind Sanmao’s everlasting popularity is that the franchise, “In particular ‘The Wonderings of Sanmao,’ is not just for children. The stories might better suit adult readers, since they reflect the fickleness and inconsistency of society. Generally speaking, cartoons are an art form representing comedy and humour. There are no doubt humorous and funny elements in my father’s books. But he illustrated them in a tragic way. Compared to comedy, depicting tragedy makes it much easier to strike a chord.”

三毛从军记The chine

se

tintin

By Li Shiyu

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ANALYSIS ANALYSIS

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Rana Mitter, professor of the history and politics of modern China at Oxford University, is the foremost specialist on Chinese history outside of China.

His 2013 book, “China’s War with Japan, 1937-1945: The Struggle for Survival” is a meticu-lously researched work, which took Mitter over a decade to complete. This work, which has also been published under the title “Forgotten Ally: China’s World War II, 1937-1945,” provides a comprehensive snapshot of the period and of a field of historical study that many people in the western developed world are unaware of.

As part of his extensive research for his book, Mit-ter regularly visited the city of Chongqing. As Mit-ter explains, “During the period from 1937 to 1946, it was the temporary wartime capital of China. You could say that Chongqing stood alongside London, Washington and Moscow, as an important allied capital. But this history in the name of Chongqing is still not well known in the West today. So when I explained that I wanted to try to restore some of that history for a bigger audience, actually I found the reaction of Chinese friends was very positive.”

Mitter cites May 4th, 1939 - the 20th anniversary of ‘Wusi’ - as an important date in the city’s history. “Even today most people in China will know that May 4th was a moment when China decided to renew its culture, create new culture, Mr. Science, Mr. Democracy, (德先生 赛先生), all these ideas. And exactly 20 years later to the day, May 4th 1939, there was an attempt by the Japanese to obliterate and destroy that legacy. So I thought the fact that China and Chongqing had resisted that air raid on that date was also an important symbol of the way in which China rethought its own role and thought about resistance during that time.”

As Mitter explains, though the Chinese people’s war against Japanese aggression started earlier and lasted longest, students of history in western countries have a very limited knowledge of China’s role in World War II. “I think it’s very important in the west that we don’t think that everything began with Hitler’s invasion of Poland in 1939, and remem-ber that China had been fighting almost alone, not quite but almost unsupported, for some two years before the outbreak of war in September 1939 in Europe.”

As for the reason why China’s role in World War II has not received much attention in the west, Mitter believes this is largely due to patterns that emerged globally in the years immediately after the war which affected communications between east and west. In turn, looking at the history of China’s War of Resistance against Japanese aggression will help western countries understand China’s development and its relations with neighboring countries.

“People often don’t realize that many of the issues, including the continuing tensions and difficulties between various actors in the region, but also the desire to create a more mutual and consensual structure of engagement within the region, in some sense draws from the legacy of 1945,” Mitter points out. “There was never a full peace treaty that includ-ed everyone in Asia, unlike in Europe in 1945. So to some extent, I think all of the major actors in the region are still trying to finish the unfinished business of 1945.”

On September 3, 2015, China held a military parade to mark the 70th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese People’s War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the Anti-Fascist War, otherwise referred to as the Second World War. 70 years on, Mitter feels that individ-uals in the west should do more to remember the Chinese contribution to the war in Asia.

17

As Mitter explains, “It’s certainly fair to say that China was an economically and militarily much weaker power than either the British Empire or the United States, or indeed the Soviet Union. But that does not mean that China’s contribution wasn’t important. In terms of holding down a lot of Japanese troops in China itself, this was a major drawback to the Japanese. For instance, in 1938, if Chi-na had surrendered to Japan in that year, the whole history of Asia and even the rest of the world might have been very different.”

As for the professor’s interpretation of the pe-riod, which he goes into at length in his book, he states that, “You can look at it as a battle; a conflict between three paths for modern Chi-na. One was of course the path of communism under Mao Zedong. The second path is of na-tionalism, but an anti-communist nationalism under Chiang Kai-shek.

The third path was if China had been conquered and became part of a Japanese Empire and Wang Jingwei or other people who collaborated with him might have taken over China. Now we know eventually the communist party would win, but people didn’t know that in the 1930s for sure; it could have gone one of three directions. That’s

one of the reasons why I think that period is so interest-ing. It’s not just about the war. It’s about different path-ways for the future of modern China and the war gives a really focused opportunity to understand what those different paths were.”

During those tumultuous years, up to 20 million Chinese lost their lives and approximately 80 million to 100 million people became refugees. Despite the intensity of the battles, the famine that resulted, and its state of diplomatic isolation in the first few years of the war, China was able to prevail. Rather than being a third-rate power relying purely on the Allies’ assis-tance, China stood out as a crucial player in the defeat of the Axis. By the end of the War, China regained its full sovereignty; a century after the establishment of the unequal Treaty of Nanjing.

According to Mitter, the war with Japan shaped today’s modern China. “The war against Japan gave rise to one of the single most turbulent, traumatic and destructive experiences that China has ever gone through. I think one lesson that not just China but everyone in the region should learn is that it’s important to work out a security environment in the region that is consensual and stable. It’s time for all the major players to learn the lesson of the disaster of the war and get round together to work out how they are going to work out a consensual frame-work for the region that everyone could engage with.

An artist’s impression of Japanese troops entering the Zhabei area in Shanghai. More than one million Chinese and Japanese soldiers took part in the Battle of Shanghai in 1937.

Presenting China as the Forgotten Ally

Expert Analysis:Rana Mitter Professor, History and Politics of modern China, Oxford University.

It’s time for all the major players to learn the lesson of the disaster of the war and get round together

to work out how they are going to work out a

consensual framework for the region that everyone

could engage with.

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HISTORY TODAY

In the freezing winter of 1937, the Japanese army captured Nanking, today’s Nanjing, and began a massacre exceeding 40 days. Within just six weeks, the then

Chinese capital became a city of terror where 300,000 innocent lives perished as a result of the slaughter. An American missionary by the name of John Magee was in Nanking when the massacre took place. Magee secretly filmed the killings and later presented the film as part of his testimony during the International Military Tribunal for the Far East in 1946.

Magee described the murders as a witness at the Tokyo Trial in the following exchange with the prosecutor.

Prosecutor: “What was the action of Japanese soldiers towards the civilian Chinese men after they had possession of the city of Nanking on December 13, 1937?”

Magee: “The killing began immediately in sever-al ways, often by individual Japanese soldiers or up to thirty soldiers together going about. Each one seemed to have the power of life or death. And then soon there was organized killing of great bodies of men. These people were being killed by rifle fire and machine guns principally.”

In addition to the brutal massacre of innocent civil-ians, Japanese troops also committed countless cases of rape, looting and arson, and burned one third of the city to the ground. According to the conclusion from the latest research, Japanese troops committed 173 cases of organized killings in which the number of casualties exceeded 800 in each instance.

Over the course of 14 years of war, China suf-fered a total of 35 million military and non-mil-itary casualties, accounting for a third of the total casualties of all the countries in WWII. The occupation of Nanking and the massacre was the most-discussed war crime at the Tokyo Trial where Japanese war criminals were convicted. However, the trial did not thoroughly expose

Japanese militants’ overall crimes and the nature of their invasion of China. To this day, right-wing Japanese nationalists refuse to recognize the numbers of victims, discredit survivors, and claim that the Nanking massacre was partially or entirely fabricated.

Diana Lary, Emeritus Professor of History at the University of British Columbia in Canada, says Ja-pan’s denial of its wartime atrocities is an insult to the international community. “The Japanese, official-ly, they sort of come up with the idea that it’s not in Japanese culture to apologize which I find ridiculous. A lot of people (in Japan) would say we really suffered more than anyone else because we were bombed by the atomic bomb and by conventional bombing. To me that’s irrelevant because they still have to recognize what happened. In China, people always use the word ‘Bu Chengren’ (不承认), won’t admit’, and that’s very insulting to China, Korea and the other places (that Japan) occupied. It simply makes it very difficult for Japan’s neighbors to deal with her.”

Aside from the killings, Japan also tries to conceal its wartime medical crimes including those committed by Unit 731, the Japanese army’s biological warfare division headed by the infamous Shiro Ishii. But official efforts have not stopped conscientious individuals from ex-posing the truth of how illegal human experimentation formed part of Japan’s military aggression.

Yutaka Mio was the first Japanese citizen to officially testify on the Japanese army’s biological warfare program in the 1930s. The former imperial police officer was sta-tioned in Japan’s puppet state of Manchuria during World War II. As Yutaka testified, “Those people transported

to Unit 731 were all used for experiments. I am very sure about that. They could never get out of there alive. I was on a transport mission specifi-cally for Unit 731. We sent ‘Maruta’ there.”

“Maruta” was the name given to the experi-ment subjects of Unit 731. They were civilians and prisoners of war from China, the Soviet Union, the Korean Peninsula and Mongolia. At the base of Unit 731 in Harbin, these defense-less individuals were killed through vivisec-tion without anesthesia, bacterial experimen-tation, weapons testing and other atrocious experiments. At least 3,000 people perished at the hands of Japanese “scientists.”

Memories of Blood and Terror

By Luo Wen

From 1931 to 1945, Unit 731 also waged germ warfare in China along with Unit 1644. Studies by Chinese and foreign scholars suggest that the number of Chinese victims stands at around 270,000. In an effort to destroy evidence, the retreating Japanese invaders blew up the base when the Soviet army took Harbin in 1945. The experiments remained secret for a long time af-ter the war. Instead of being tried for war crimes, the researchers involved in Unit 731 were given immunity in exchange for their data.

But recently, more and more materials relating to Japan’s illegal human experimentation in World War II have been disclosed, including the live dissections of American prisoners of war revealed at the Kyushu University’s Mu-seum. But a state of denial continues amongst certain groups in Japan.

The world has every reason to be on alert at a time when many Japanese politicians and cabinet ministers pay respect to convicted war criminals at least twice a year, when docu-ments and school textbooks systematically wa-ter down that part of history, and when Japan’s government and parliament constantly push for a greater military role overseas.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon made an of-ficial visit to China from September 2 to 6, 2015, during which time he was able to attend China’s V-Day celebrations. Prior to the visit, Su Yi,

CRIENGLISH.com’s UN Correspondent based in New York was able to put questions towards the UN Secretary General.

Prior to attending the V-Day celebrations, Ban spoke highly of China’s contributions and sacrifices made during the war. The UN chief said this year provides an important opportu-nity for the international community to review that part of history and look forward towards building a better world.

As Ban Ki-moon explained, “China’s contributions and sacri-fices during the Second World War are very much recognised and appreciated for all such sufferings and sympathised by the world’s people. And on the brighter future, China has a very important role to play. As the second largest economy and a peace-loving country, there are a lot that China can contribute to this rapidly changing and transformative age.”

During his visit to China, Ban met with Chinese leaders to discuss a wide range of issues, including the 70th anniver-sary of the founding of the UN, climate change and the key UN sustainable development summit which also took place in September. Ban Ki-moon says China has contributed a lot to the realisation of the Millennium Development Goals that were set by world leaders in 2000.

The eight-point development agenda which covered several key issues such as eradicating poverty and fighting against HIV/AIDS is set to expire later this year. The international community adopted a more ambitious post-2015 sustainable development agenda at the UN development summit. The UN chief is calling on member states to include these goals into their own development strategies, adding, “I am con-vinced that China can play a hugely important role in help-ing these sustainable development goals (be) implemented.”

Prior to Chinese President Xi Jinping’s speech at this year’s general debate, Ban Ki-moon had outlined his hopes for the Chinese president to deliver a stronger message on international security issues, peacekeeping operations and South-South cooperation. This year also marks the 70th anniversary of the founding of the UN. Looking back at the seven decades, Ban summarises the achievements of the world body as the end of colonialism and the success in development issues.

300,000 victims died as a result of the Nanjing Massacre; Photo: cfp

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on China’s War Efforts

To this day, right-wing Japanese nationalists refuse to recognize

the numbers of victims, discredit survivors, and claim

that the Nanking massacre was partially or entirely fabricated.

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OPINION

China has been celebrating the 70th An-niversary of the defeat of fascist forces throughout the year, with various events paying homage to the surviving

veterans and cherishing the memories of those brave Chinese who sacrificed their lives. Events have also honoured those foreigners who sup-ported China in its struggle to break away from the chains of tyrannical Japanese occupation.

April 5 is observed as “Tomb Sweeping Day” every year as people across China pay respect to the soldiers and civilians who lost their lives in the war. It’s a great tradition to honour the dead and pay homage to the ancestors by visiting the tombs and memorials com-memorating the sacrifice of the Chinese in liberating their nation but this year it had a special meaning.

Earlier, the Railway Guerrilla memorial in Shan-dong Province was visited by thousands of stu-dents. During the Anti-Japanese War, railway guerrillas in Shandong Province led by the CPC attacked the enemy on trains and blasted bridges.

A heritage park honouring the Flying Tigers was inaugurated in South China’s Guilin City. The Fly-ing Tigers, officially known as the American Volun-teer Group of the Chinese Air Force, were formed in 1941, led by U.S. General Claire Lee Chennault to help China drive out invading Japanese troops. On September 2, 2015, the eve of the high-profile V-Day celebrations, President Xi Jinping awarded medals to 30 Chinese and foreign veterans and civilians who fought for China in World War II.

Among those honoured with medals were Anna Chan Chennault, wife of American pilot Claire Chen-nault, mentioned above; Joseph W. Stilwell, grandson of Joseph Stilwell, commander of China-Burma-In-dia Theatre; and M. W. Bethune, the grandson of Norman Bethune, a famous Canadian army surgeon in China, who saved thousands of lives with his sur-gical skills even to the peril of his own life. A female medical soldiers’ formation at the parade was named after Norman Bethune to honour his contribution to Chinese people’s fight against Japanese aggressors.

China’s central government decided to grant such medals to roughly 210,000 veterans or relatives. The front of the medal is embossed with WWII soldiers, a pagoda from a revolu-tionary base in Yan’an, the Yellow River, and an olive branch. It symbolises the CPC’s decisive role during the war, China’s drive for rejuvenation and its aspirations for world peace.

Symbolism, which plays an important role in Chinese culture, was evident throughout the military parade that took place on September 3. The parade lasted for seventy minutes; military aircraft flew in formations depicting the number seventy while 70,000 white doves symbolising peace and 70,000 multicoloured balloons were released to mark the end of the ceremony.

The white doves accentuated President Xi Jinping’s message as he announced the massive cut of 300,000 troops in the Peoples Liberation Army; stating that China was committed to peaceful development. Xi Jinxing solemnly pledged that his country would “never seek hegemony or expansion. It will never inflict its past suffering on any other nation”. His resounding words re-iterated: “Let us bear in mind the great truth of history: Justice will prevail! Peace will prevail! The people will prevail!”

Unfortunately, the strong message was those who chose to stay away from an event that was more for healing wounds rather than raking them. The Occident, which is propagat-ing that the parade was an indication of China flexing its muscles, remain oblivious to Japan’s amendment of its con-stitution to build its armed forces again, which may actually endanger the region and the world.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who was extended an invitation to participate, not only spurned the gesture but was critical of the attendance by UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon. Japan could have taken a leaf out of the book of its WWII ally Germany, whose leaders attend V-Day events in France repeatedly.

The Parade

CHINA22

Analysis of the events surrounding China’s V-Day parade and the wider issues that the celebration presented.

By Sultan HaliRetired Pakistan Air Force Group Captain

24 25CHINA PLUS

OPINION OPINION

In fact, Abe missed a great opportunity to provide closure to the subject, where he could have attend-ed the proceedings and sought forgiveness from not only the Chinese but its other neighbours who suffered at the hands of Japan during the war.

On the contrary, in a gesture to bury the hatchet, Chi-nese Premier Li Keqiang and South Korean president Park Geun-hye, representing countries that were both victims of Japan’s atrocities, expressed common interest in seeking cooperation with Japan. The ball is again in Shinzo Abe’s court to respond altruistically or otherwise.

The military parade was thoughtfully choreo-graphed. It has been 84 years since China was dragged into war following Japan’s invasion of northeast China in 1931. Of the 500 pieces of military hardware displayed during the parade, 84 percent are closed as modern equipment and had heretofore not been displayed by China.

The PLA guards of honour and 10 foot formations were each named after a morale-boosting battle fought by Communist-led troops or Chinese war heroes and model combatants. Besides the 12,000 Chinese troops who goose-stepped past the Tian-anmen Rostrum in 128 carefully measured paces, each precisely 75 cm, 1,000 foreign troops from 17 countries also marched in step, drawing polite applause from the spectators.

The message that came out loud and clear from the military parade is that China and its people cherish and love peace but to safeguard that peace, they are willing to build deterrents since weakness invites aggression. A signatory of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, China has repeatedly vowed to ad-here to the policy of no-first-use of nuclear weapons and the policy that it will, unconditionally, not use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against non-nucle-ar-weapon states and nuclear-weapon-free zones.

China’s latest white paper on military strategy issued this year underscored its principles of “defence, self-defence and post-emptive strikes.” The country should be applauded for doing so.

For Hans Van de Ven, Professor of Modern Chinese History at Cambridge, China’s Second World War commemoration on Thursday was a method by which China attempted to strength-

en its national identity among the general public. “The War is presented as an effort by all of China to resist aggression and that sort of eradicates the differences between the Communists and the Nationalists and so I think attempt to be inclusive was really there and many people will see this as positive.”

Professor Van de Ven, who has also served as guest pro-fessor at the Department of History of Nanjing Univer-sity and was co-editor of “Negotiating China’s Destiny in World War II,” says China played an important role during the Second World War but its story has not been properly told. By inviting foreign contingents to partic-ipate in its military parade, China sees itself as part of a broader alliance.

As Van de Ven, explains, “Had China sided with Japan, which was not entirely impossible, then Japan would have been able to utilise China’s resources and China’s man-power for not only the occupations of South East Asia but also to fight the Russians, and the whole World War II would have been rather different.”

However, Professor Van de Ven did point out that Euro-pean audiences often associate such military parades with assertions of power and that is part of the reason as to why China’s V-Day Parade is misinterpreted in some cas-es. He explains that in Europe, war commemorations are usually on the solemn side and adds that while national scale commemorations are important, he would be glad to see more local remembrances that engage people who have survived the Second World War.

“By this I mean there are national commemorations in the UK and across the European countries as well as the United States, but we also have some local commem-orations in universities, in schools, villages and in our neighbourhoods, and people are telling their own stories. I think it would really, really good if that could happen in China as well.”

Jeffrey C. Kinkley, professor of history at St. John’s Col-lege of Liberal Arts and Sciences, St. John’s University in the US, believes that, “The military parade itself of course conveyed an image of China’s strength and modernisa-tion. President Xi Jinxing’s announcement (that) he will be cutting the size of the Chinese military by 300-thou-

A Scholarly View of China’s V-Day

sand troops; this sends a message of peace I believe.” In his speech, Xi Jinping announced a reduction in the size of the Chinese military over the next 2 years. It is the fourth time for China to announce military cuts since the Reform and Opening Up process first began in the early 1980s.

On September 3, 2015, 50 formations includ-ing a total of 12-thousand troops took part in the Victory Day parade. As many as 500 pieces of armaments and 200 fighter jets were reviewed during the parade. This marked the first time for China to hold a military parade to commemorate the occasion.

Professor Kinkley says the Chinese government is trying to draw more attention through these commemorative activities to its alli-ances with other anti-Fascist forces during the Second World War. “In recent international relations, the Chinese government has been stressing the fact that the US and China were allies during World War II. We were both dedicated to defeating imperial Japan and its terrible policies of those days.”

Kinkley says when it comes to China’s international image, the majority of members in the international community see China as a rising economic power. “China’s international image remains in the middle that everybody recognises China is the world’s second greatest economy. Therefore we will have ups and downs. I can only speak for Americans - most Americans see China as something like a economic rival but also very much an economic partner.”

To safeguard that peace, they are willing to build

deterrents since weakness invites aggression.

抗 战 胜 利 7 0 周 年Commemorating the 70th Anniversary of the victory of the Chinese People’s War of

Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the end of World War II

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70 YEARS 70 YEARS

Photo: cfp

About China Plus:

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