User:Blueshirts/Sino-Japanese War

The first project I have undertaken is the Second Sino-Japanese War. Nobody really understands how or acknowledges that the KMT troops were able to withstand the vastly superior Japanese army, and I think this deserves more attention.

China fought alone from the Mukden Incident of 1931, to the outbreak of war in 1937, until 1941 when the China Theater was incorporated into the greater conflict of World War II. If one counts from 1937, one would find that for more than four years China fought on its own, refusing to surrender, even when millions of soldiers died in battle and civilians perished in the crossfire. Not to mention that China was vastly underequipped, had comparatively miniscule industrial output, had little experience in modern warfare and logistics, and had to deal with insurrections from the Chinese Communists and resurgent warlords. On the other hand, France's extremely quick six week capitulation, along with the rest of Western Europe to Nazi Germany, casts no further doubt on just how much tenacity and resolve that China fought with. No nation on earth went through what China had to go through. As the announcer of a 1945 newsreel about the signing of the UN Charter says, "the Republic of China is the first one to sign, because she is the first one to stand up against Fascism" (paraphrased as my memory isn't all that clear).

Of course, the ROC army's defeat by the Communists in 1949 makes one have second thoughts on its ferociousness and steadfastness in fighting Japan. One thing to keep in mind was that Chiang Kai-shek and his government were not very popular, and made a series of stumbling economic and political measures that pretty much handed victory to the Communists. Thus, I also plan to address such issues in the future (perhaps in the far future). But right now, I will mostly concentrate on telling the history of the eight years (or fifteen years, depending on how one counts it) of war that China fought with such persistence and valor, that no other country even came close. (okay, maybe the Soviet Union, but they practically started the war together with Germany).