In 1938, after the Battle of Wuhan, Wang Jingwei left Chongqing and the Republic of China team in Chongqing for Hanoi. He negotiated with Japanese officials and eventually set up a puppet regime know as the Wang Jingwei Regime and also as the Reorganized National Government of the Republic of China. It was almost totally under Japanese domination, with little autonomy.

Wang Jingwei's background, including his studies in Japan as a youth, his pessimism towards Japan and his lack of faith that China would ever gain allies against Japan, all contributed to his decision to set up an alternative Republic of China puppet government in Nanjing during the Second Sino-Japanese War.

He died in 1944, but his successor was executed after the war for treason. Today, Wang is remembered as a hanjian (a traitor to the Han nation) and a kuilei (a puppet).

The Wang Jingwei Regime complicated China's remembrance of the Sino-Japanese War. Until 1982, the Communist Party of China didn't distinguish between Wang Jingwei's Regime in Nanjing under Japanese occupation and Chiang Kai-shek's government in Chongqing resisting Japanese aggression.

Over 200 million Chinese faced difficult decisions in deciding whether to flee their hometowns during the war, or to stay under Japanese occupation and puppet regimes.

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Japan controlled Taiwan as a colony from 1895 to 1945. During the Second Sino-Japanese War, Chinese language education and publications stopped and the Imperial Subject Movement tried to Japanize residents of Taiwan. The Baojia system was helpful in controlling the locals and confiscating grain during the war. The Taiwanese were mobilized to support the Japanese War Effort and experienced conscription, bombing and the Comfort Women system. The Cairo Declaration in 1943 announced that Taiwan, the Penghu Islands and Manchuria would be part of the Republic of China after Japan's defeat.

The Kwantung Army created the puppet state of Manchukuo, with Emperor Puyi as figurehead. Its Unit 731 did biological weapons testing and medical experiments on locals. Opium laced cigarettes were also sold to unsuspecting Chinese. Japanese farmers relocated to Manchuria. Industry and mining flourished.

Around 200,000 Chinese women were exploited as Comfort Women, with harrowing stories.

Puppet regimes were also established in North China, Inner Mongolia and at Nanjing. The Japanese military, really in control, found benefit in having Chinese figureheads, like Wang Kemin and Wang Jingwei, maintaining appearances of Chinese led local governments.

Image: "Japanese HK Occupation Poster 1" by greggman is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

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By the early 1940s, the Communists in Yan’an were feeling relatively secure. The Japanese advance in north China had not reached that area. The Sino-Japanese War and the United Front meant that Chiang Kai-shek’s main concern had been Japan and not the Communist Party. The Nationalist Government in China even funded the Communists in Yan’an.

Thousands of recruits flocked to Yan'an.

Chairman Mao Zedong used this opportunity to consolidate his leadership of the Communist Party of China. The term Mao Zedong Thought was first introduced and a cult of personality built around Chairman Mao. Mao became the ideological leader of the Chinese Communists. Wang Ming and the 28 Bolsheviks were criticized for Factionalism. Wang Shiwei was purged and executed for criticizing Mao and the "big men" in Yan'an. Intense self-criticism and public criticism sessions re-educated Communists to rebuild them into loyal, obedient Communists with a fighting spirit. This was the first Rectification Campaign, but it was not the last.

Major source: Gao, Hua. (2018). How the Red Sun Rose: The Origins and Development of the Yan’an Rectification Movement, 1930–1945. The Chinese University of Hong Kong Press

Image source: "In Memory of the Thirtieth Anniversary of the Publication of Chairman Mao's Splendid “Talks at the Yan'an Forum on Literature and Art” (纪念毛主席的光辉著作《在延安文艺座谈会上的讲话》发表三十周年)" by Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, UofT is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

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For ten months in 1938, Hankou in Wuhan was the center of China's Second United Front and defense against the Japanese invasion.

Artistic expression, political parties and free speech all blossomed. Neither the KMT nor the Communist Party fully controlled the city and a variety of generals, thinkers and artists came together to defend against Japanese aggression. Wuhan was under the control of Generals Li Zongren and Bai Zhongxi, heroes of the Chinese victory at Taierzhuang.

There was optimism that the Japanese could be stalled and stopped. Robert Capra came to Wuhan to film the heroic defence. Dr. Norman Bethune brought medical care to the Eighth Route Army. W. H. Auden and Christopher Isherwood visited and wrote a book about the war zone. General Han Fuju was executed for giving up Shandong without a fight.

But the Chinese underestimated Japanese combined arms and amphibious attacks. The forts they built to defend against the Japanese Navy moving up the Yangzi River were vulnerable to land based attacks. The Chinese Nationalist Army during the Second Sino-Japanese War suffered similar defeats to the Qing defenders during the Opium War.

With the fall of Hankou came an end to the freedom and optimism of Wuhan in 1938. Chiang Kaishek lost 80% of his officers and over a million soldiers dead or injured. The Japanese attackers also suffered their worst losses of the war and stopped their assault on the Yangzi River and instead turned their focus to north China.

The internationalist wing of the Communist Party of China also had their final moment with the fall of Hankou. Soon, Mao Zedong's supremacy from rural Yanan would become dominant.

Major sources:

MacKinnon, Stephen. (1996). The Tragedy of Wuhan, 1938. Modern Asian Studies , Oct., 1996, Vol. 30, No. 4, Special Issue: War in Modern China (Oct., 1996), pp. 931-943. Cambridge University Press

and

Wu, D. (2022). The cult of geography: Chinese riverine defence during the Battle of Wuhan, 1937-1938. War in History, 29(1), 185-204.

Image: "Joris Ivens, John Fernhout en Robert Capa aan het werk in Hankow, China, RP-F-2012-139.jpg" by Rijksmuseum is marked with CC0 1.0. 

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The treasures of the National Palace Museum, originally the Forbidden City, followed China's path. They escaped the invading Japanese by leaving Beijing, first for Shanghai, then Nanjing and then followed southern, central and northern routes to Sichuan and safety. The Chinese government followed a similar path, as did countless Chinese individuals and families. Japanese bombers followed these refugees west, devastating China. But the Chinese people, Chinese government, Chinese culture and the antiquities from the National Palace Museum survived the Sino-Japanese War. This is the story of China's survival during the war.

Topics like wartime inflation, the Chinese victory at Taierzhuang and the government decision to breach the Yellow River dikes and to flood Chinese land are also discussed.

Image Source: National Palace Museum

Main Source: Brookes, Adam. (2022). Fragile Cargo: The World War II Race to Save the Treasures of China's Forbidden City. Atria Books

Secondary Source: Bloch, Kurt. Far Eastern War Inflation. Pacific Affairs , Sep., 1940, Vol. 13, No. 3 (Sep., 1940), pp. 320-343. Pacific Affairs, University of British Columbia

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On July 7, 1937, the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II began with the Marco Polo Bridge Incident. It is also known as the Lugou Bridge Incident. Within days of the small skirmish with 100 Chinese garrison troops, the Japanese had brought in 180,000 troops. After that, the fighting between the Chinese and the Japanese did not stop until 1945.

Japan then attacked Shanghai. Nationalist troops resisted for three months, including with hidden artillery that killed the Japanese Empress' cousin during an amphibious landing. But the Japanese eventually captured China's largest port city and turned their attention to the national capital of Nanjing, after sacking the historic, cultural city of Suzhou.

Chiang Kai-shek ordered Nanjing to be both defended and evacuated. Treasures from the Forbidden City were moved west, along with government officials. Soldiers were brought in and they fortified in anticipation of the attack. Refugees streamed west, including some to Nanjing. Trapped between the attacking columns and the Yangzi River, only a small number were able to evacuate once the battle was lost. Those who were not able to find refuge in the Nanjing Safety Zone were most often killed or raped and murdered. The Nanjing Massacre, also known as the Rape of Nanking, was one of the worst war crimes in human history.

John Rabe, a Nazi, helped save thousands, perhaps even two hundred thousand lives as he led the Nanjing Safety Zone. He used his Nazi armband to get Japanese soldiers to leave the Chinese alone. He reported Japanese abuses to German officials, including Hitler, but in Germany, after being transferred back to Berlin, he was taken and interrogated by the Gestapo.

Robert Wilson, a surgeon, refused to leave and gave medical care day and night for free, at the cost of his own health.

Minnie Vautrin gave up food, took beatings and had her life threatened for protecting Chinese in the Safety Zone, which the Japanese did not recognize. Her efforts to save Chinese lives and spirits cost her life. She told the Chinese that China would not perish and that Japan would fail in the end.

It did and War Criminals were tried and executed, both in Tokyo and in Nanjing, for acts during the Nanjing occupation.

The Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall is today a place of remembrance and of education.

Image: "Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall" by kevin dooley is licensed under CC BY 2.0. 

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After the Long March, the Chinese Communists were mostly in northern Shaanxi, wanting a breather. 

Japan had continued its aggression in China after it set up the puppet state of Manchukuo under Emperor Pu Yi. It manufactured incident after incident and had expanded its army’s reach into northern and northeast China. It was trying to influence Inner Mongolia and Hebei, around Beijing. It looked to set up warlords as puppet leaders under Japanese control.

Students and intellectuals in Beijing and other Chinese cities began protesting against the Japanese and against politicians that they perceived as being too friendly to Japan. It was a reminder of earlier demonstrations against Japan like the May Fourth movement of 1919. 

The Communist Party and Comintern supported these student protests against Japan. The Soviet Union was very concerned by Japan’s aggression and the fact that Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan had signed an anti-Comintern pact in late 1936. Stalin wanted either an anti-Japanese China, or alternatively, a Communist controlled buffer state between it and Japan. 

Chiang Kai-shek and his KMT government in Nanjing was prioritizing pacifying internal enemies before resisting foreign aggression. Chiang was not against resisting Japan. He had done so when Japan had attacked Shanghai and at other times, but Chiang Kai-shek's strategy was clear-cut. First, eliminate the internal threat posed by the Chinese Communists, then turn attention towards the aggressive expansion of Japan.

His subordinates, especially Generals Zhang Xueliang and Yang Hucheng had other ideas.  

They then kidnapped Chiang Kai shek and placed him under house arrest in Xi'an. Negotiations ensued. Madame Chiang Kai Shek and Zhou Enlai both travelled to Xi'an. Eventually Chiang was released and Zhang Xueliang volunteered to travel with him back to Nanjing.

Zhang was then put under house arrest for 5 decades.

This ended the encirclement of the Chinese Communists and started the Second United Front. This time, they would focus on resisting Japanese expansion into China. But Japan was furious by this development and the Xian Incident helped cause the Second Sino-Japanese War.

Image: "1937 China Nanking Chiang Kai-Shek" by manhhai is licensed under CC BY 2.0.  

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Zhou Enlai planned in secret the details of the Chinese Communist's escape from the encirclement of the Central Soviet. He identified a Guangdong warlord who preferred to save his troops rather than fight the Red Army.

The First Red Army was able to pass through a number of blockhouses, before reaching the last of Chiang Kai-shek's fortifications near the Xiang River and suffering major casualties. They lost their heavy weapons and almost half their troops at that battle.

Then the Red Army moved quickly and often at night on The Long March. They reached northern Guizhou, close to the base of the Second Red Army, and rested.

At the Zunyi Conference, the 28 Bolsheviks lost their previous influence over the Communist Party of China and Mao Zedong began his rise to power. Mobile and guerilla warfare again became military policy.

The destination for the Long March changed at this point and instead of staying in Guizhou, the First Red Army tried to cross north into Sichuan. Faced with defensive resistance and at risk of annihilation, the First Red Army crossed the Chishui River four times. They escaped destruction, but now chose to move west and then north through Yunnan. They reached western, rather than eastern Sichuan.

The Long Marchers faced Snowy Mountains and a treacherous bog.

The First Red Army finally met up with the leader of the Fourth Red Army, Zhang Guotao, but couldn't reach agreement on a destination. Zhang preferred that they all settle around Sichuan, where he already had built a base and had the strongest Red Army.

Mao preferred to continue travelling to northern Shaanxi. His column arrived there in late 1935 and in 1936, moved within northern Shaanxi to Yenan.

It is said they crossed 18 mountain ranges and 24 rivers to reach there. Early on, Mao saw the Long March's myth-making potential and used it to turn this military retreat into a story of the Communists trip through the wilderness to a new land. It was symbolic of the journey from the old China to the new promised China.

Zhang Guotao's column was soon defeated and, having lost his military strength, Zhang also lost power in the Communist Party and after a trial and self-criticism, went over to the Guomindang.

Chiang Kai-shek might have allowed the Communists to retreat westward in order to follow them and take greater control over autonomous provinces like Guangxi and Sichuan. Because of the Long March, he was able to influence Sichuan for the first time and later made its then city of Chongqing his capital during World War II.

The Communist Party leadership survived because of the Long March, but most ordinary soldiers did not. Mao's wife gave birth painfully along the way. Of the approximately 80,000 troops who left the Central Soviet, only about 7,000 arrived in northern Shaanxi, and that was with recruitment along the way. Yet much had changed, including greater autonomy of the Chinese Communists from Moscow.

Image: "Map of the Long March 1934-1935-en" by Chinese_civil_war_map_03.jpg: User:Guimard derivative work: Rowanwindwhistler (talk) is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

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Mao Zedong had been chosen as President of the Chinese Soviet Republic, but he never controlled its Red Army. Wang Ming and the 28 Bolsheviks had more control, including over land policy and preparations to defend against the Fifth Encirclement Campaign.

On land, the Communist Party of China officials didn't want land redistribution to result in a countryside of middle peasants holding private property. With the Land Investigation Movement, they wanted to root out any hidden landlords or rich peasants. But what they didn't change was the limited amount of land to divide among a huge rural population. The result was that basically everyone would farm at the subsistence level.

Chiang Kai-shek was preparing for the Fifth Encirclement Campaign against the Chinese Soviets. This time it would be Seven Parts Political and Three Parts Military. His wife and he advocated for the New Life Movement. The Chinese people should live according to the four virtues.

He also carefully prepared for the military campaign by supervising the construction of roads in Jiangxi and block houses. The Chinese Soviets would be blockaded and logistics and supplies improved.

Otto Braun, Comintern Representative and Communist military strategist, through out the previously successful strategy of Luring the Enemy In Deep and guerrilla warfare and copied the KMT's blockhouse strategy. This time, the Communists would defend the territory of the Chinese Soviet Republic and only commit to Short, Swift Thrusts. Soviet territory was stripped bare to commit the resources for the new blockhouses and supplies for the Red Army defences.

It was a disaster for the Red Army and for the Chinese Soviets. The armies were wiped out by conventional warfare against a numerically and economically superior opponent. Residents, especially "class enemies" began to defect to the KMT. Eventually, even soldiers and Communist officials defected too.

The Fifth Encirclement Campaign was a great success for the Nationalists. The Chinese Soviet Republic was defeated, and this time, the Chinese people supported the KMT. Mao Zedong would blame the defeat on the Communists on Wang Ming and the 28 Bolsheviks. Mao would further rise to power. But first, would come The Long March.

Image: "Map of the Northeast Jiangxi Soviet" by SilverStar54 is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

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In September 1931, junior officer's of Japan's Kwantung Army in Manchuria set off explosives to make it look like a Chinese attack on Japanese interests along the South Manchuria Railway. This is often called the Mukden Incident or named after the nearby Liutiao Lake. The Kwantung Army then attacked Zhang Xueliang's nearby garrison and, with Japanese reinforcements, moved into the rest of Manchuria.

In 1932, the puppet state of Manchukuo was formed, with Puyi, the last Qing Emperor, as Chief Executive and then Emperor of Manchuguo. Few states other than Japan recognized the new State.

China increased tariffs on Japan complained to the League of Nations, which investigated and requested that Japan withdrew its troops. Instead, Japan withdrew from the League of Nations.

Zhang Xueliang, the Young Marshal, did not resist the Japanese takeover of his territory. But over 200,000 provincial army soldiers and long-time bandits did. Railcars were attacked and railways torn up. The Japanese responded by bombing hideouts and killing civilians in the process.

Then Japan's naval marines attacked the Chinese controlled part of Shanghai, in further unprovoked aggression following some anti-Japanese protests resulting from Japan's moves in Manchuria. China's 19th Army and Chiang's 5th Army under the command of the 19th Army, resisted Japan fiercely. For 33 days they fought a modern urban warfare battle and then Chinese soldiers defended against combined arms attacks in the river delta outside Shanghai. Japan's Navy couldn't win and needed help from its Army. Still, the Chinese resisted and Japan had to bring in more and more soldiers and equipment to save face. A negotiated settlement resulted in Japanese troops withdrawing and China demilitarizing Shanghai.

Japan had begun a new period of aggression against China and a 14 year war was beginning. The Nationalist government now was faced with a new threat. Not only did it have to face internal challenges like warlords, strong provincial governors and Communists committed to overthrowing the government. It also battled an aggressive and powerful country to its east that was beginning its invasions.

Image: "25126-Changchun" by xiquinhosilva is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

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