Key role slowly emerges from fog of war

Just as Russia's key role in the war against Nazi Germany has become accepted after years of Anglo-US bias over who did what, so China's role in defeating Japan is becoming clearer and more widely accepted as the facts become known.

My generation - I was born in 1947 - feasted on tales of the clipped upper-class tones of British young men filling the air waves as they flew their Spitfires and Hurricanes against the German hordes of bombers in the Battle of Britain; for US nationals the diet was of US Marines involved in blood-curdling fights against fanatical Japanese soldiers, backed by kamikaze pilots, in remote south Pacific island chains previously unheard of.

China and Russia's roles were obscured, partly because of the Cold War in the case of Russia and partly because of political upheaval in China that followed 1949.

As China emerges to take its rightful place among the top rank of nations, so its role in defeating Japan's Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere is becoming more and more widely known.

And about time too.

China fought Japan solidly from 1937 through to 1945, yet only two years ago did a masterly book on the subject appear in Western bookshops, Rana Mitter's epic volume China's War With Japan, 1937-1945; the Struggle for Survival.

As is always the case with China, the figures involved are staggering - it's estimated that between 14 and 20 million Chinese were killed and about 100 million people displaced. Add to that the effects of a famine, and a truly awful picture begins to emerge.

As for military casualties, the true figures have only emerged in recent years - Mao Zedong's Communist forces, fighting in an uneasy alliance with Chiang Kai-shek's Kuomintang Nationalists, saw 160,603 killed, 290,467 wounded, 87,208 missing in action, presumed dead, and 45,989 prisoners of war. Chiang's Kuomintang forces saw 1.32 million dead, 1.8 million wounded, and 120,000 missing in action.

Set those figures alongside the 326,000 British soldiers, sailors and airmen killed between 1939 and 1945, as well as the 400,000 US servicemen who lost their lives, and you begin to get a sense of the huge suffering China endured.

The appalling Rape of Nanking, never fully admitted by Japan as far as I can tell, is a glaring example of man's inhumanity to man.

Of course, even those statistics are dwarfed by Soviet losses, with an estimated 10 million soldiers killed, and an equal number of civilians dead, most of them Ukrainian.

What is crystal clear to historians and analysts alike is that China's struggle had a twofold effect - it tied up hundreds of thousands of Japanese soldiers who otherwise could have joined the push to overrun British-ruled India, and it allowed Russia to focus its efforts to repel the German war machine on Europe's eastern front.

Whatever the lingering effects of the titanic struggle in China, many of my generation can only wonder and offer thanks for the sacrifices made.

Contact the writer at chris@mail.chinadailyuk.com