236. China and World War II (Part 2)

Episode Summary

Executive Summary: The episode examines China’s catastrophic war with Japan from 1937 to 1945, focusing on the Nanjing massacre, Chiang Kai-shek’s brutal but stubborn resistance, the Yellow River flood, collaboration under Wang Jingwei, and the fraught U.S.-China alliance after Pearl Harbor. It argues that China’s suffering was immense, morally ambiguous, and globally consequential, helping shape the wider Second World War and the Communist victory that followed.

Main Topics: The Rape of Nanjing (Priority: 5/5): The discussion opens with the Japanese capture of Nanjing in December 1937 and the ensuing six-week orgy of murder, rape, looting, and destruction, one of the worst war crimes of the 20th century. Why Japanese troops committed atrocities (Priority: 5/5): Rana Mitter explains the violence through a mix of military brutality, racial contempt, poor training, battlefield frustration, and permissive command culture, while noting similar patterns in other wartime conquests. Chiang Kai-shek’s desperate resistance and the Yellow River flood (Priority: 5/5): Chiang’s decision to breach the Yellow River dikes in 1938 is presented as a horrific but strategically motivated act intended to slow the Japanese advance, at enormous civilian cost. Collaboration and Wang Jingwei’s regime (Priority: 4/5): Wang Jingwei’s break with Chiang and his Japanese-backed government in Nanjing are explored as a Chinese equivalent of Vichy, with mixed local reactions and limited legitimacy. The U.S. enters the war and the Stilwell conflict (Priority: 4/5): After Pearl Harbor, the Americans back Chiang but the alliance becomes toxic, especially through the antagonistic relationship between Chiang and General Joseph Stilwell. The rise of the Chinese Communists (Priority: 4/5): War devastation, famine, and nationalist weakness help the Communists expand in Yan’an, while American observers briefly consider them as a possible alternative power base. Memory, legacy, and the war’s global significance (Priority: 5/5): The episode ends by arguing that China’s resistance mattered to the wider Allied war effort and that modern China’s memory of the conflict remains politically powerful and contested.

Key Arguments: The Nanjing massacre was not an isolated excess but a sustained six-week campaign of mass violence enabled by Japanese military culture and command failure. Japanese soldiers were shaped by harsh training, class contempt, propaganda about Chinese inferiority, and resentment after encountering real resistance elsewhere in China. Chiang Kai-shek’s actions were morally appalling at times, but his refusal to surrender likely prevented China from becoming a Japanese client state. The Yellow River flood was one of the war’s great atrocities, committed by the Chinese state against its own people, yet it may have bought time for continued resistance. Wang Jingwei’s collaborationist regime had some local support or acquiescence, but it lacked deep legitimacy and was structurally dependent on Japan. The U.S.-China alliance after 1941 was strategically necessary but deeply dysfunctional, with Stilwell and Chiang fundamentally at odds over war aims and military strategy. The Chinese Communist Party benefited from wartime chaos, especially famine and nationalist corruption, but the Americans’ hopes of a durable partnership were ultimately unrealistic. China’s resistance was not just a national tragedy; it affected the broader trajectory of World War II by tying down Japan and shaping the conditions that led to Pearl Harbor and the global conflict. Postwar Chinese memory of the war was distorted under Mao, who emphasized Communist resistance and minimized the Nationalists’ role until later decades. The war’s devastation helped create the conditions for Communist victory in the civil war, though that outcome was not absolutely predetermined in 1945.

Data Points: Duration of the Nanjing violence: About 6 weeks - The massacre and occupation violence lasted from mid-December 1937 to mid-January 1938. Estimated deaths in Nanjing: Tens of thousands, possibly well into six figures - Rana Mitter emphasizes that the exact number is unknown but the scale was enormous. Yellow River flood deaths: 850,000 to 1,000,000 - Estimated postwar figures for deaths caused by the 1938 flooding of central China. Henan famine deaths: About 4 million - A wartime famine in Henan province in 1942-43, linked to grain seizures and poor harvests. Chinese refugees during the war: 80 to 100 million - The war produced one of the largest internal refugee crises in world history. Key years of crisis for Chiang Kai-shek: 1938, 1940, 1944 - Three moments when nationalist China came close to collapse. Operation Ichigo: Mid-to-late 1944 - The last major Japanese offensive into central China, nearly breaking nationalist resistance. Pearl Harbor: December 1941 - The U.S. entry into the war transformed China’s strategic position and alliance structure. Soviet invasion of Manchuria and atomic bombings: August 1945 - These events brought the war to an abrupt end and prevented a likely nationalist collapse. Year Wang Jingwei died: 1944 - He died before Japan’s defeat, in Nagoya University Hospital. Year of the Tiananmen WWII commemoration parade: 2015 - A major public event marking the 70th anniversary of victory, featuring veterans from both Nationalist and Communist forces.

Pivotal Quotes: "The victorious army must have its rewards, and those rewards are to plunder, murder, and rape at will, to commit acts of unbelievable brutality and savagery." — George Fitch: A contemporary condemnation of Japanese conduct after the fall of Nanjing. "In all modern history, surely there is no page that will stand so black as that of the rape of Nanking." — George Fitch: Fitch’s description of the atrocity after visiting the Japanese embassy in December 1937. "I saw Stilwell today, he disgusts me. I despise him. I've never met anyone like that." — Chiang Kai-shek: Chiang’s diary entry reflecting his deep hostility toward the American general.

Implications: The episode reframes China as central, not peripheral, to World War II. It shows how wartime brutality, alliance friction, and civil conflict shaped modern China’s political order and why the memory of resistance remains a powerful national resource.