Significance of the Chinese military contribution to World War 2 disputed.
- Thread starter Phead128
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solarz
Brigadier
It took the Japanese vast manpower to hold the territory not only because of China's land size, but also because of the continuous resistance offered by both guerilla forces and the common Chinese folk.
The Nationalist Chinese army was under poor leadership and vastly outgunned by the Japanese. Considering those circumstances, they performed admirably well.
Couldn't agree with you more. I remember reading it somewhere (maybe some history text), the Japanese had boasted that they needed only 3 days to conquer Shanghai and 3 months to conquer the entire China (to that effect)... Even though outgunned, the Shanghai defence forces was able to hold back for approximately 3 months and the entire war in China lasted for around 8 years (and even then the Japanese didn't managed to fully defeated China and conquered it.)
In that light, I would say that China did very well... and had contributed a lot to the war and allies... For they held back the majority of the Japanese forces in Asia.
armchairwarrior
New Member
I come from a port city that is very little known outside of china maybe not even inside china, unless you are a sinologist etc...
the japanese couldn't even conquer the port city at the height of their naval power. they control almost all major ports inside china. but for wenzhou.
when you have a determine local opposition with natural defenses such as mountains and locals with butt load of arms. the japanese troops didn't have a good chance.
by the end of the war there from what i remember according to my greatgrand father who fought them. 1 japanese solider hiding on top of the hill next to the city and port. that hill is gone now, the local government decided to dynamite it a decade back to build more sky scrappers.
before we left for the west, some of my elders handed in guns and rifles to the local government.
a local tradition is acknowledge the rulers in the capital and send them their tribute, but we do as we please. this system has been going on since the first imperial unification. unknown to the west and some in china, the reforms really didn't start in the late 70's, but it started in the 50's in wenzhou unofficially off course. the local bosses decided they didn't get the orders from Beijing. some how the orders from the party bosses kept getting lost etc...
it was also a foreign treaty port that had no foreigners. wenzhou would be the american equivalent of Texas and new york city.
this type of chinese locality happens in alot of places. the country is huge, some parts of the country is much better armed and no need to fear from the troops, either communist or nationalist because they were all local. when japanese encounter these type of locals they always had problems.
from what my greatgrand father told me, the local leaders offer them the same deal as they did with the imperials. they get money and locals get left alone. they pretend to be conquered and the Japanese commanders would look the other way and keep marching. the japanese answer the thing with looting all houses of antiques and silver and gold. this didn't go well. locals went to the caves to get weapons and the rest is history.
the japanese couldn't even conquer the port city at the height of their naval power. they control almost all major ports inside china. but for wenzhou.
when you have a determine local opposition with natural defenses such as mountains and locals with butt load of arms. the japanese troops didn't have a good chance.
by the end of the war there from what i remember according to my greatgrand father who fought them. 1 japanese solider hiding on top of the hill next to the city and port. that hill is gone now, the local government decided to dynamite it a decade back to build more sky scrappers.
before we left for the west, some of my elders handed in guns and rifles to the local government.
a local tradition is acknowledge the rulers in the capital and send them their tribute, but we do as we please. this system has been going on since the first imperial unification. unknown to the west and some in china, the reforms really didn't start in the late 70's, but it started in the 50's in wenzhou unofficially off course. the local bosses decided they didn't get the orders from Beijing. some how the orders from the party bosses kept getting lost etc...
it was also a foreign treaty port that had no foreigners. wenzhou would be the american equivalent of Texas and new york city.
this type of chinese locality happens in alot of places. the country is huge, some parts of the country is much better armed and no need to fear from the troops, either communist or nationalist because they were all local. when japanese encounter these type of locals they always had problems.
from what my greatgrand father told me, the local leaders offer them the same deal as they did with the imperials. they get money and locals get left alone. they pretend to be conquered and the Japanese commanders would look the other way and keep marching. the japanese answer the thing with looting all houses of antiques and silver and gold. this didn't go well. locals went to the caves to get weapons and the rest is history.
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ALL CHINESE PEOPLE.
Please help me out.
In this link right here:
They are saying things like:
"China is as significant as Yugoslavia for holding down the Germans..."
"In terms of military contribution, China isn't deserving mention like the Big 3"
"China is weak."
PLSSSS. Help
Please help me out.
In this link right here:
They are saying things like:
"China is as significant as Yugoslavia for holding down the Germans..."
"In terms of military contribution, China isn't deserving mention like the Big 3"
"China is weak."
PLSSSS. Help
China by herself played an important role in the Great War... for reasons many had already pointed out. However when it come to greatest leaders or leaders that influence the war, China's own leaders - namely Chiang Kaishek and to a certain extend Mao Zedong, was not consider as the greatest leaders or leaders that had great influence for the War.
Chiang Kaishek is not a great leader, at least militarily... as for Mao Zedong... I think, during the war the communists are still weak and so there really is very little they could do against the Japanese.
Although we did see many great battles... especially after 1941, it is seen that many of the battles are either advice or directly orchestra by western (namely US and British) generals.
Thus I think that it is quite fair to say that the three great leaders do not include China in it.
edit:
I found this site which is quite interesting, it actually show many of the operations and important battles in the eastern part of the world in WWII.
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armchairwarrior
New Member
problem with that list is, alot of fighting was done by locals not the governments. they don't get listed.
Roger604
Senior Member
Okay.... this is what you do....
Emphasize that you want an objective measure of contribution.... not blind nationalism.
So you ask the Wikipedia folks, who killed / wounded the most Japanese military personnel? Was it USA? Russia? UK? France?
It was China, and if it wasn't for China, USA would be defeated and Hawaii would be Japanese.
Then it's misleading to focus on Chiang Kai Shek because China had no real central authority in those days. Instead, you should look at the relative contributions of the countries and the people.
This is a seriously flawed view of the events. It definetly comes across as blind nationalism.
The Chinese in WW2 were busy fighting themselves and positioning themselves for power in a Japanese ruled China. There was a lot of backstabing to save your own butt. I can't blame them.
China was in such shambles and so disorganized Japan was able to really exploit that.
This is not to say many Chinese did not fight valiantly in the sino-japanese war that had started long before the USA entered the theater.
What I find fascinating is the muslim resistance to the japanese and soviets in WW2.
I must disagree with the above poster who says if not for China Hawaii would be under Japanese rule....if not for the USA mobilizing and fighting the war in the pacific..and finally urging russia to take back manchuria, china would not exist as we know it.