Nation's role critical to Allies' WWII success

China's contribution to the overall Allied victory during World War II is a topic that is gaining increasing historical attention in the West. I was motivated to write a book about China's wartime role (China's War with Japan, 1937-1945: The Struggle for Survival - US title, Forgotten Ally) because I felt the significance of the Chinese contribution to World War II was not sufficiently understood in the West. To understand this significance, we need to consider the alternative possibilities during one of the worst years of the war, 1938.

A year after the war broke out at the Marco Polo Bridge near Beijing in July 1937, much of eastern China lay in Japanese hands. In late October, the temporary military headquarters at Wuhan, Hubei province, fell to the enemy. Many outside observers assumed that China could not hold out.

Yet China did not surrender. Although it had little assistance from the outside world, barring some military aid from the USSR, both the Kuomintang and Communist leaderships continued to plan for resistance. But if Chiang Kai-shek's government had made a different decision in 1938, then China's fate would have been very different. If China had surrendered in 1938, Japan would essentially have treated China as a colony. Japan's forces would also have been freed for an all-out assault on the USSR, Southeast Asia, or even British India.