How WWII Began in China

Review by Bill Doughty

The Second World War in the Pacific did not begin on December 7, 1941 and it did not begin at Pearl Harbor.

Of course, that's when and where the United States entered the war after that Day of Infamy, but infamous acts of aggression had already been launched against America's key Pacific ally -- China -- in the ten years leading up to the attack on U.S. military installations on Oahu.

"Forgotten Ally: China's World War II 1937-1945" by Rana Mitter presents the history of China in  those volatile years. The book outlines Chinese resistance against Imperial Japan's military colonization and dominance, internal struggles between Nationalists led by Chiang Kai-shek and Communists led by Mao Zedong, and how China perceived treatment by other key Allies -- Great Britain, United States and Soviet Union, especially at the end of the war.

Mitter contends the Second World War began at the Marco Polo Bridge, in the summer of 1937. On December 12 of that year Japanese military aircraft bombed and sank the American gunboat USS Panay on the Yangtze outside Nanjing, killing tree Sailors and wounding forty-eight people. War was averted with the United States, but "the Panay affair was a clear warning that the West could not rely on neutrality to shut itself off from the ever-spreading war."

Chiang, Song and Stilwell in happier days. Photo from history.army.mil

In an era of industrial competition and resource control -- rather than global cooperation and interdependent trade -- Japan saw its survival dependent on access, by force, to natural resources, especially petroleum.  As early as 1938, Japan was dedicating 70 percent of its budget to military spending. And the homeland was being primed for war through nationalism, xenophobia and paranoia. (A companion book to read with Mitter's that shows how these changes came about in Japan is Eri Hotta's "Japan 1941: Countdown to Infamy.")

Mitter explores the contentious relationship between China's Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek and the appointed U.S. military alliance leader in the region, Lt. Gen. Joseph Warren "Vinegar Joe" Stilwell. Despite the efforts by Chiang's popular and outgoing wife, Song Meiling, for everyone among the Allies to get along, Chiang and Stilwell didn't trust each other or agree on strategies for defending Burma and British India, not to mention key strategic areas in eastern China.

In Part IV of "Forgotten Ally," titled "The Poisoned Alliance," Mitter writes of the "duel" between the two military generals. "That encounter would last only four years, but the aftermath of his tenure would shape Chinese-American relations for more than half a century." FDR firmly demanded Stilwell have unrestricted command of all of Chiang's forces, and the Chinese were made to feel expendable, according to the author.

The author describes the bombing of Chonqing, the dissipation of power with the rise of the Communists, the horrors of the occupation of Nanjing (Nanking), and the unintended aftermath of the Doolittle Raid 72 years ago this weekend and less than five months after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

"As the Burma campaign ground on, another incident took place which showed the low status that China held in the minds of the Western Allies. On April 18, 1942, sixteen B-25 bombers took off from the aircraft carrier USS Hornet and raided military and industrial targets in cities including Tokyo, Osaka, and Nagoya. They did relatively little damage, but the raids showed that Japan was now vulnerable to attack from the air ... The news of the attack was a huge propaganda boost for the American war effort. But it appalled Chiang ... they all crash-landed at various points in eastern china, bar one that landed in Vladivostok on the Russian coast and was interned for a year. However, the Japanese reacted with fury. They attacked and committed atrocities agains the local population in the surrounding areas. What went down very well with the American public had a hugely negative effect on the Chinese war effort."

Historian E.B. Potter writes in "Bull Halsey," his biography of the great admiral who led the escort of Doolittle's Raiders and USS Hornet, that the Japanese launched "a campaign that thrust 200 miles into the interior of eastern China. The Japanese plowed up the landing fields and tortured and killed anyone even remotely suspected of having aided the Doolittle crews." Two hundred and fifty thousand men, women, children and babies were killed in the three month campaign.

Resistance in China against the Imperial Japanese over more than a decade gave the Allies time to fight both in Europe against Hitler and the Nazis and develop strategies to lead across the Pacific from 1942 through most of 1945. Mitter writes:

"Without Chinese resistance, China would have become a Japanese colony as early as 1938. This would have allowed Japan dominance over the mainland, and would have allowed Tokyo to turn its attention to expansion in Southeast Asia even more swiftly, and with less distraction. A pacified China would also have made the invasion of British India much more plausible. Without the 'China Quagmire' -- a quagmire caused by the refusal of the Chinese to stop fighting -- Japan's imperial ambitions would have been much easier to fulfill."

By 1943, Imperial Japan had to prioritize its strategy. After a summit in Tokyo, the military government moved to defend the home islands and their conquered Southeast Asia areas rich in petroleum. "Japan's war economy was under great pressure, with iron ore, steel, coal, and oil all in short supply."

Meanwhile, the Allies held their own summits around that time in Cairo and Teheran.

Commander in Chief Franklin D. Roosevelt's idea during World War II for a balance of power in the world after the war was "The Four Policemen" -- United States, Great Britain, Russia and China.  Allies who would cooperate and collaborate.

Churchill, FDR and Stalin seated. (Adm. King and Adm. Leahy behind FDR)

Yet, when a critical final conference was held on February 4, 1945 and the future of Asia was discussed, one of the Four Policemen was not represented: China. "When he heard even the public terms of the agreement, Chiang was plunged into gloom, thinking that the world would be thrown back into the same race for dominance that had marked the aftermath of the Great War,"  Mitter writes. Of course, the former fascist Axis powers of Germany and Japan turned away from imperialism and colonialism and toward freedom and democracy, but the same could not be said for the Soviet Union.

The final conference with FDR, Stalin and Churchill was held at Yalta -- in Crimea.

"Forgotten Ally's" author, Rana Mitter, is Professor of History and Politics of Modern China at the University of Oxford and a fellow of St. Cross College. The book was published in 2013 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Burma, Myanmar in Her Eyes: ‘Freedom From Fear’

by Bill Doughty

During Women’s History Month, in the weeks leading up to the Burmese New Year, and in light of new incidents of ethnic violence in that beautiful but torn country, it is timely to read the words of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.

Aung San Suu Kyi is a pivotal figure, philosopher and heroic leader in Burma (now also known as Myanmar) who calls for “a genuine respect for freedom, peace and justice.”

Aung San (right) and family in 1947, with Suu Kyi is in front.

She is the daughter of Aung San, a former leader of the country’s independence movement against British colonialism.  Aung San first aligned with the Japanese just prior to WWII until he saw the fascism of Imperial Japan’s military and sided with the Allies.  He was assassinated by a rival in 1947 on the eve of the country’s independence but is remembered today as the father of modern Burma.  

Aung San’s daughter, an Oxford-educated winner of the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize, continued her father’s push to democratic rule and freedom but was arrested, separated from her family and kept under house arrest for 15 of 21 years between 1989 and 2010.  Her selfless commitment, backed by the free world, led to elections and the beginning of a transition from military junta control to civilian government rule. Today, Aung San Suu Kyii  chairs Myanmar’s leading opposition party, the National League for Democracy.

“Freedom From Fear” was first published in 1991 and reissued in 1995, edited by Aung San Suu Kyi’s late husband, Dr. Michael Aris.  It is presented in three parts.

Part I, “The Inheritance,” focuses on her early writing, including a biography of her father and review of literature in the context of religion and politics.  The chapter “My Country and People” is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand the ethnic diversity of Burma.  It provides the geography, history and sociology needed to explain the differences of Mon-Khmers, Tibeto-Burmans and Thai-Shans -- Chins, Kachins, Krens, Kayahs, Mons, Arakanese (Rakhines) and Shans; how these people were impacted by Indian, Chinese, Portuguese and British culture; and how the country has been influenced by religions such as natural spirit worship, Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity, Islam and others.

Although she doesn’t mention the immigrant ethnic Rohingya Muslims in her 1991 book, Aung San Suu Kyi recently called ethnic violence between Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims in western and central Burma “a huge international tragedy.” She restated her desire to promote reconciliation after 200 people were killed and 100,000 were displaced from their homes in 2012.  This weekend, President Thein Sein declared a state of emergency in the Meikhtila region after ethnic/religious clashes killed at least 20 people.

Aung San Suu Kyi challenges people to rise above their superstitions, prejudices and, most of all, fears.

Part II, “The Struggle,” shows a chronological sequence of the movement toward democracy.

“The quest for democracy in Burma is the struggle of a people to live whole, meaningful lives as free and equal members of the world community.  It is part of the unceasing human endeavour to prove that the spirit of man can transcend the flaws of his own nature.”

Aung San Suu Kyi outlines her vision, objectives and strategy. The book’s namesake chapter, “Freedom from Fear,” calls for courage in the face of oppression:

“It is not power that corrupts but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it. Most Burmese are familiar with the four a-gati, the four kinds of corruption. Chanda-gati, corruption induced by desire, is deviation from the right path in pursuit of bribes or for the sake of those one loves. Dosa-gati is taking the wrong path to spite those against whom one bears ill will, and moha-gati is aberration due to ignorance. But perhaps the worst of the four is bhaya-gati, for not only does bhaya, fear, stifle and slowly destroy all sense of right and wrong, it so often lies at the root of the other three kinds of corruption ... It would be difficult to dispel ignorance unless there is freedom to pursue the truth unfettered by fear.”

In a message that continues to resonate for developing free nations, Aung San Suu Kyi discusses how Germany and Japan became strong democratic states after the Second World War.  In the chapter, “The Need for Solidarity Among Ethnic Groups,” she writes, “We must all work together if we are to live together in unity and harmony.

Part III, “Appreciations,” offers reminiscences, observations and assessments by others.  

The 1995 edition, which includes forewards by Václav Havel and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, concludes with “The Spirit of Reconciliation,” Aung San Suu Kyi’s statement in 1995 after nearly six years of detention.  She writes, “I have always believed that the future stability and happiness of our nation depends entirely on the readiness of all parties to work towards reconciliation.”

In another book, 1996’s “Letters from Burma,” Aung San Suu Kyi waxes philosophically on life in her homeland.

Many of her letter-essays in “Letters from Burma,” which were published in Japan’s Mainichi Shinbun, culminate in moral reflections, such as this powerful observation:

“Unity in diversity has to be the principle of those who genuinely wish to build our country into a strong nation that allows a variety of races, languages, beliefs and cultures to flourish in peaceful and happy co-existence.  Only a government that tolerates opinions and attitudes different from its own will be able to create an environment where peoples of diverse traditions and aspirations can breathe freely in an atmosphere of mutual understanding and trust.”

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has a strong and inspiring voice, in many ways like that of Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., not only for women and men in her country but for people everywhere.