ISSN: 1550-7521
ISSN: 1550-7521
Zhaozhen An*
Institute of Russian Studies, Heilongjiang Provincial Academy of Social Sciences, 501 Rd. Youyi, Harbin, 150018, PR China
Received Date: Jul 09, 2018; Accepted Date: Jul 24, 2018; Published Date: Aug 4, 2018
Citation: An Z. The Historical Contribution and Loss of China in the War of Resistance against the Japanese Aggression. Global Media Journal 2018, 16:31.
Copyright: © 2018 An Z. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
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The War of Chinese People's Resistance against Japanese Aggression is very important for the world; its international contribution occupies an important place: first, China violated the plan of the German and Japanese fascists on the global strategy; secondly, the fearless Chinese people created the condition and prerequisite for correcting the situation of World War II. World War II spread to Europe, Asia, Africa, the Pacific, the Atlantic Ocean, the Indian Ocean, and the Arctic Ocean. In this great anti-fascist war that changed the historical process, China is the main country that resisted the Japanese fascist aggression, and the Chinese field of resistance against the Japanese invaders represents the main field of the anti-fascist war of Asia and the Pacific, the field of the Second World War China made a huge contribution to the War of Resistance to the Japanese invaders, simultaneously with a huge sacrifice and suffered losses of property and loss in personnel.
CPR; Chinese people's resistance; Japanese aggression; World War II; Contribution; Loss
The Second World War, also known as the World War II, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although conflicts reflecting the ideological clash between what would become the Allied and Axis blocs began earlier. The vast majority of the world's countries-including all of the great powers-eventually formed two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. It was the most global war in history; it directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. World War II was the deadliest conflict in human history, marked by 50 to 85 million fatalities, most of which were civilians in the Soviet Union and China.
The Empire of Japan aimed to dominate Asia and the Pacific and was already at war with the Republic of China in 1937, but the world war is generally said to have begun on 1 September 1939, the day of the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany and the subsequent declarations of war on Germany by France and the United Kingdom. From late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. The war continued primarily between the European Axis powers and the coalition of the United Kingdom and the British Commonwealth, with campaigns including the North Africa and East Africa campaigns, the aerial Battle of Britain, the Blitz bombing campaign, and the Balkan Campaign, as well as the long-running Battle of the Atlantic.
On 22 June 1941, the European Axis powers launched an invasion of the Soviet Union. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The war in Europe concluded with an invasion of Germany by the Western Allies and the Soviet Union, on 8 May 1945. Following the Potsdam Declaration by the Allies on 26 July 1945 and the refusal of Japan to surrender under its terms. With an invasion of the Japanese archipelago imminent, Japan formally surrendered on 2 September 1945. Thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies.
The World War II covered vast areas that spread across Europe, Asia and Africa, the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean, the Indian Ocean, and the Arctic Ocean. It has 61 participating countries, populations over 1.7 billion, and a scale of 40 countries. In this great anti-fascist war that changed the course of world history, China was the earliest and longest country to fight against Japanese fascist aggression. China’s anti-Japanese battlefield is the main battlefield of the anti-fascist war in Asia and the Pacific, and certainly an important part of the World War II. The War of Chinese People's Resistance against Japanese Aggression made a historic contribution to the final victory of the world anti-fascist war, and it also suffered major personnel and property losses.
There are two main purposes to write this paper. First, there are not many studies on the historical contribution of China's anti-Japanese war in the international media. It is necessary to conduct an objective evaluation of it. Second, In regard to China's losses in the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, there are different opinions, so it is necessary to present the latest results to the readers.
In 1931, the Japanese militarism brazenly launched the events of September 18, Japan took northeast China. In 1937, Japanese began the events of July 7th and a comprehensive aggressive war in China. The greed of Japanese militarism is the transformation of China into a personal colony, the annexation of Asia and hegemony throughout the world. The mad aggression of Japanese militarism brought an unprecedented huge disaster to the Chinese and Asian peoples and is a black page in the history of human civilization. The events of the 18th of September are the starting point of the War of Chinese People's Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the prologue of the world anti-fascist war. For well-known over the world, the Chinese Anti-Japanese War made a major contribution to the victory of the world antifascist war.
Such as the speech of Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2015,” Seventy years ago today, the Chinese people, having fought tenaciously for 14 years, won the great victory of their War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, marking the full victory of the World Anti-Fascist War. The Chinese People's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War were a decisive battle between justice and evil, between light and darkness, and between progress and reaction. In that devastating war, the Chinese People's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression started the earliest and lasted the longest. During the war, with huge national sacrifice, the Chinese people held ground in the main theatre in the East of the World Anti-Fascist War, thus making major contribution to its victory.” [1]
For many years, Western history and school textbooks have said very little about the battles in the Far East, especially the Chinese people’s war of resistance against Japanese aggression.in recent years British historians have begun to revisit this part of our shared history. Such studies demonstrate an objective and just attitude as well as due respect for the history. Britain media telegraph reported, “Strategically, the war in China has supported Allied operations in Europe and strategic moves in the Pacific theatre. It also prevented and upset coordination between the fascists in Japan and the fascists in Germany and Italy. Like the British people, the Chinese people made an indelible historic contribution to the victory against the fascist forces”. [2]
The American media global security published an article titled “Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-45)” indicated, The anti-Japanese war waged by China deferred the Pacific War and served as a strong support for the United States and Britain in their struggle after the Pacific War broke out. By and large, the war of resistance to Japan carried out by China had delayed the outbreak of the Pacific War and had pinned down the Japanese so that they failed to get enough military strength when they finally launched the war. In fact, China's struggle enabled Britain, the United States, and the Netherlands to make fuller preparations and mitigated the Japanese troops' attack on them [3].
According to a Russian media named Zabinfo, in the media of the PRC, World War II is now referred to as the "World War II against Fascism." An equal’s sign is placed between German fascism and Japanese militarism. China heroically resisted the Japanese invaders for 14 years. By fighting on its territory, China shackled 80% of the Japanese armed forces. Thus, Japan was unable to send its troops to the Asia-Pacific and European theaters of military operations.it is the reason why it is stressed that China played an important role in the Second World War, and in the Asia-Pacific region is almost decisive [4].
Based on the above analysis, we can get a conclusion that, the Chinese Anti-Japanese War made a major contribution to the victory of the world anti-fascist war indeed. British scholar Rana Mitter wrote in his book "Forgotten Ally", "By holding down large numbers of Japanese troops on the mainland, China was an important part of the overall Allied strategy [5]." Here we can give the following four inductions:
China was the first to disclose the prologue of the world anti-fascist war. The Second World War was initiated by the Japanese, German and Italian fascists, separately in the east and west. Japan first began the events of September 18, lit the first hotbed of the world fascist aggressive war, the first field of war was formed in the east. Then Germany and Italy formed the field of war in the west. Germany, Japan, and Italy united in a union, became the most dangerous enemy for all peoples. The Chinese people held high the banner of anti-fascist aggression, began resolute resistance, made a successful start to the anti-fascist war, and opened the prologue of the world anti-fascist war. Before the World War II broke out in Europe in September 1939, China had already waged a resistance war for 8 years, before the war broke out in December 1941 in the Pacific Ocean; China had already independently waged a resistance war over 10 years.
China opened the eastern front of the world anti-fascist war. In 1937, Japan began the events of July 7th, the comprehensive aggressive war in China began, the goal was the occupation of China. The Chinese people began a nationwide war of resistance against the Japanese invaders; a largescale antifascist field was opened in the east. In the period of Japan's offensive and China's defense, the Chinese and Japanese general armed forces were more than 4 million people, the front line was more than 1800 km, the war spread to more than 10 provinces of China, the military area was about 1.6 million square kilometers, more than 400 million Chinese were dragged into war. The War of Chinese People's Resistance Against Japanese Aggression influenced the world anti-fascist war and represents the starting point of the Second World War.
China fettered the main forces of the Japanese ground forces, facilitated the military pressure of the allied countries. In the anti-fascist World War II, China fettered and repelled 2/3 of Japanese ground forces and partly to the naval and air forces. Chinese long-term resistance hampered the Japanese plan of aggression in Siberia, therefore the USSR escaped a bidirectional war; Japan went to the south with a heavy load of the Chinese battlefield, so the Japanese, German and Italian strategy to dominate the world failed. China sent an expeditionary force to Myanmar to resist the Japanese invaders together with the Allied army and offered assistance in terms of human, material and financial resources to the allied countries for an anti-fascist war.
China actively contributed to the creation of the international anti-fascist united front. The world anti-fascist war represented a world war; the creation of the international anti-fascist united front was an important guarantee of victory over the German, Japanese and Italian invaders. China not only created a united front of resistance against Japanese aggression in the east of the world, "but when Japan launched a war in the Pacific Ocean and World War II spread all over the world, China actively promoted strategic cooperation with the USSR, the United States, Great Britain, and France, promoted the creation of the World anti-fascist united front and favorable conditions for victory in the war". China fought shoulder to shoulder with the allied countries, played a big role in defeating the fascists, made a historic contribution to the creation of the united front and the strengthening of military results.
During the 14 years from 1931 to 1945, the Japanese invaders occupied the northeast, northern China, central China, southern China, etc., committed flagrant crimes in China, brought great wounds to the Chinese people, the country suffered human and property losses. "According to incomplete statistics, more than 35 million Chinese soldiers were killed and wounded in the Resistance War against the Japanese invaders; Chinese direct economic losses were calculated, namely more than $100 billion, indirect economic losses amounted to $500 billion at a relative cost in 1937 [6]."
The book on the examination and study of the wounded and killed, the property losses of China during the War of Resistance against the Japanese invader was compiled by the first research department of the research cabinet of the history of the Communist Party of China and the Chinese Second Historical Archive. The book was published in July 2014, it is a systematic data on the wounded and killed, property losses of China during the war of resistance against the Japanese invader. Data are given below.
The wounded and killed
The tabular count of the wounded and killed in different provinces of China during the eight years of the Resistance War against Japanese invaders shows that the number of wounded and killed during the eight years of the war was 8,609,852 (979,003 seriously injured, 2,240,685 wounded, 5,390,164 killed). Most injured and killed were in Hunan Province (1391742 people), 1271952 killed in Hubei Province, 947478 people killed in Henan Province, 399,590 people killed in Hebei Province, 1,637 killed in Shaanxi Province, 6,95849 people killed in Shanxi Province, 422,725 killed in Guangdong Province, 762,929 killed in Guangxi Province, 308,888 killed in Shandong Province, 38,555 people killed in Anhui Province, 279,655 people killed in Zhejiang Province, 594,545 people killed in Jiangsu Province, 76,617 killed in Yunnan Province, 43,124 people killed in Fujian Province, 46,270 people killed in Guizhou Province, 54,498 people killed in Suiyuan Province, 28,894 people killed in Chahar Province, 8,927 killed in Sichuan Province, 1,426 killed in Gansu Province, 639 killed in Ningxia Province, 205,784 people killed in Nanjing Province, 36,202 killed in Chongqing Province” [7].
Property losses
The statistical table on losses of public and private property of China is compiled by the commission of investigations and shows the amount of public and private property of China at 31,822,159,431 dollars at the price of the dollar in July 1937, among them 2,240,231 dollars in the field of ships (2,023,794 dollars in the field of sea vessels, 216,437 dollars in the field of seiners) , $128,359,718 in the field of mining and energy ($4,560,676 in industry, $7,456,205 in trade, $239,414 in mining, $795,121 in the financial sector), $24,133,000 in the field of ports, $768,264,836 in the field of communications ($460,656,683 in the field of railways, $131,952,188 in the field of inland waterway transport, $7,690,555 in the field of civil aviation, $28,360,533 in the field of telecommunications, $37,425,917 in the postal area, $102,178,960 in the field of communications equipment), $215,249,232 in roads, 116,817,848 dollars in the field of agriculture, forestry and hydraulic engineering (44,122,493 dollars in the field of agriculture, 18,694,469 dollars in the field of forestry, 54,000,884 dollars in the field of hydraulic engineering, 712,628,041 dollars in the field of public departments (47,764,136 dollars in the field of government agencies, 644,015,660 dollars in the field of education, 20,176,048 dollars in the field of people's organizations, 672196 dollars in the field of public affairs), 17,936,417,048 dollars in the field of personal properties and furniture, 3,329,200,354 dollars in the central tax revenue, 507,607,685 dollars in the field of local tax revenue, 7,019,890,065 dollars in loss of resources and so on [7].
Local financial losses
The tabular counting of local financial losses of various provinces of China was compiled by the Chinese Finance Department in November 1945, the financial losses of various provinces of China in the Resistance War against the Japanese invaders are given below (the currency: yuan): 32,248,703 yuan in Jiangsu Province, 3,023,498 yuan in Zhejiang Province, 15,496,493 yuan in Anhui Province, 27,275,440 yuan in Jiangxi Province, 27,338,454 yuan in Fujian Province, 26,170,767 yuan in Hubei Province, 25,023,101 yuan in Hunan Province, 26,735,170 yuan in Shandong Province, 23,998,323 yuan in Shanxi Province, 20,457,445 yuan in the province Hefei, 1,951,241 yuan in Henan, 338,334,700 yuan in Guangdong, 29,635,127 yuan in Guangxi Zhang Autonomous Region, 7,208,888 yuan in Guizhou Province, 1,702,155 yuan in Shaanxi Province, 3,218,750 yuan in Chahar Province, 3,018,857 yuan in Suiyuan Province, 10971801 yuan in Nanjing, 1.3525352 yuan in Shanghai, 7969414 yuan in Beijing, 6,572,103 yuan in Tianjin, 1.6464746 yuan in Qingdao [7].
Direct losses in the field of industry
The tabular calculation of direct losses in the industry during the war shows that in the Resistance War against the Japanese invaders, the loss in the industry of China was 4,813,099,585 yuan, among them 909,684,500 yuan in the food industry (40,462,000 yuan in the cereal industry, 391,552,000 yuan in the milling industry, 141,894,000 yuan in the sugar industry, 165,123,000 yuan in the tea industry, 57,078,000 yuan in the poultry industry, 103,964,000 million yuan in the production of eggs, 9,611,500 yuan in the water-steam industry, 1,148,859,170 yuan in the textile industry (984,181,600 yuan in the cotton industry, 43,913,000 yuan in the woolen industry, 95,964,700 yuan in the silk -weaving industry, 24,799,870 yuan in the cotton printing industry, 346,965,840 yuan in the metallurgical industry, 174,361,840 yuan in the area of acidic, alkaline and salt industry (75,850,440 yuan in the acid industry, 53,846,400 yuan in the alkaline industry, 44,665,000 yuan in the field of the salt industry), 2,644,000 yuan in the paint industry, 283,287,080 yuan in the oil and fat industry (139,064,080 yuan in the oil -pressing industry, 140,598,000 yuan in the soap industry, 3,625,000 yuan in the oil industry), 409,869,600 yuan in the paper industry (230,649,400 yuan in the machine-paper industry, 179,220,200 yuan in the field of handmade paper industry), 62,470,268 yuan in the leather industry (50,468,268 yuan in the leather industry, 12,002,000 yuan in the fur industry), 97,012,800 yuan in the match industry, 250,281,000 yuan in the machine industry (141,059,800 yuan in the machine industry, 96,952,600 yuan in the metal industry, 12,268,600 yuan in the foundry industry), 203,076,473 yuan in the printing industry, 171,312,620 yuan in the clothing industry, 271,194,694 yuan in the area of the clothing industry, 271,194,694 yuan in the mining industry (36,026,060 yuan in the ceramic industry, 38,460,200 yuan in the glass industry, 181,644,420 yuan in the cement industry, 15,064,014 yuan in the field of the enamel industry), 482,079,700 yuan in the tobacco industry [7].
Property loss in the field of education
The data on the loss of property of educational institutions and schools of all levels in China were compiled by the Chinese Ministry of Education in May 1946 and show that the amount of property losses of educational institutions and schools in the Resistance War against the Japanese invaders amounted to 114,200,304,572 yuan (i.e. 644,015,660 dollars), among them 9,846,312,526 yuan (32,856,365 dollars) among special educational institutions of individual institutes of state universities, 2,484,414,047 yuan (9,623,895 dollars) among special educational institutions of individual institutes of provincial universities, 2,188,758,407 yuan (35,534,300 dollars) among the special educational institutions of individual institutes of private universities, 394,338,843 yuan (133,994 dollars) among public secondary schools, 214,684,073 yuan (62,342,715 dollars) among the state institutions of social education, 262,515,654 yuan (3,428,148 dollars) among state scientific educational institutions, 98,809,281,022 yuan (498,890,263 dollars) among provincial school educational institutions [7].
The Second World War, also known as the World War II, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although conflicts reflecting the ideological clash between what would become the Allied and Axis blocs began earlier. The vast majority of the world's countries-including all of the great powers-eventually formed two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. It was the most global war in history; it directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. In this great anti-fascist war that changed the historical process, China is the main country that resisted the Japanese fascist aggression, and the Chinese field of resistance against the Japanese invaders represents the main field of the anti-fascist war of Asia and the Pacific, the field of the Second World War China made a huge contribution to the War of Resistance to the Japanese invaders, simultaneously with a huge sacrifice and suffered losses of property and loss in personnel. The War of Chinese People's Resistance against Japanese Aggression is very important for the world; its international contribution occupies an important place: first, China violated the plan of the German and Japanese fascists on the global strategy; secondly, the fearless Chinese people created the condition and prerequisite for correcting the situation of World War II.
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