1937-1945, Forgotten Ally: China's World War II

Not just forgotten. In many ways unknown. I know more than most about American history but this book filled in many gaps. I genuinely learned a great deal. I wonder what American and Chinese relations might have been if....

This is a very insightful story of what happened during that period in China. If you don't have the opportunity to read Chiang Kai Shek's diary, then this book will give you a summary of what was written inside that diary. Combined with eyewitness stories from other sources, the result is a well-balanced and pretty comprehensive piece of history lesson.

More than forgotten, the history narrated in this well-researched and written book provides readers with probably the most significant part of human experience that shaped the world we live in today. A must read for me and my children, that much I know for sure. Thank you, Rana!

This is an excellent book which explains what was going on in China in the thirties and forties. It avoids the simple explanations of the China lobby and describes a situation that was as complex as the other parts of WWII.

I read this book to gain more understanding of China as I prepare for my second visit. I read this also to help me to better understand the Chinese college students I host. This book did not disappoint. It provides an objective view of a harrowing time. The attention to detail and character create a vivid picture of the mechanics of war.

American ignorance of the complexities of U.S. - China relations is so great that even today China and Taiwan are seen in simplistic terms as Communism v Capitalism. This book goes far to help one understand the recent origins of policy mis-understandings between our countries.

The book is well researched, balanced and readable. Many of the main actors of WWII come alive and the policy-personality nexus becomes all too vivid! Mitter has done all of us a really great service with this book.

I have not finished reading this book but extremely interesting. I have read other books on China and so a lot of it ties into this book. Looks as though we now have to read books on history around the world as they no longer teach it in school.

Anyone wanting to read up on the allied nation shold read this. Covers the history leading up to WW2 and the battle conducted by the japanese military against this nation. Many battles are covered and the japanese campaign to conqure this nation is very well detailed great read

The book is an excellent primer for anyone wishing learn about a, relatively, poorly covered front in WWII. It gives a good covering of the major players involved, when they were involved, and where they were. I would have preferred more information about Gen. Stillwall; as the author seems to blame him for 70 years of tension between the United States and China.

When the US thinks about WW2, they always think USSR, Germany, Japan, France, and UK.

They always forget China, unlike France didn't surrender, in fact they held back millions of troops that would other wise be else where. China is very much like the USSR but without all the support the west gave.

Highly useful for teaching undergrads! This is probably the first fair depiction of Wang Jingwei as one of the revolutionary trio (Jiang jieshi, Mao zedong, and Wang). The argument may not be watertight, but it forces you to rethink the definition of traitor, revolutionary, and patriotism.

I am American, and have lived in China intermittently since 1995. I never realized how poorly China was treated by the Allies before and during World War II. This book clarified much of the mystery for me about current Chinese attitudes toward foreign countries.

Mitter's book is revealing. We have neglected to pay attention to China's contemporary history. The book is well written, and highlights the personalities and relationships of principal characters, including the leaders of the allied countries. It is interesting to ponder what China would be like today, if after the last royal dynasty, it had been able to advance it's culture according to Sun Yat Sen's three guiding principles. But for Japanese expansionism, China might well have become a relevant democracy. Chiang was left no choice but to collaborate with the Communist movement to preserve China's independence.

Read this book on the Economist's recommendation, but wasnt super impressed with the gore I expect in a World War II history book. Looking for more on the cruelty of the Japanese and the privations suffered rather than the petty jealousies of the grandees involved.

I really appreciate the recent documentation released from the Chinese archives. The Author has tried to walk a good line on objectivity, presenting information on the characters of the era while dealing with the circumstances of the Japanese invasion/ occupation of the Chinese mainland. I am up to 1944 so far and he covers from colonial seizures of special extraterritorial rights through, I am assuming communist control of all of China. Very well written.

Must read to start understanding modern China. I fel it wa very balanced, yet i would hace liked a bit more information about the aftermath, the civil war.
Could also do with larger maps. Those you'll have to provide for yourself.
Still, vert good reading on a very obscure subject

Very we'll researched and written. With PRC opening records and allowing their publication, my eyes were opened to lots of facts for the first time. First honest assessment of Stillwell. I previously read the 1972 book on him, and facts much more satisfying than fiction.

Mitter rightly points out that China's struggle against Japan and its role in WWII help define the country in our time. We cannot understand contemporary China and international relations in East Asia without understanding the history of Anti-Japanese War. This book is a result of more than a decade of research, not only by the author but also a community of China historians in the West, China, and other parts of the world who dedicated themselves to conduct research on this less known theater in WWII where up to 20-30 million perished.

NOT “FORGOTTEN”- SLANDERED AND ABANDONED
Nineteen chapters of entertaining but relatively obscure background events of WW2 China lead up to a fictitious Epilogue. While Mitter headlines “Forgotten Ally”, he wants the shameful dissolution of that alliance “forgotten”. Claiming it a “sterile” issue, he evades and contradicts three years of U.S. State Department records, key papers of Mao Zedong and other defining documents in order to cover-up reality and complicity. He uses comments of fellow authors to support wildly inflated statistics on Communist strength and completely ignores the denial of promised U.S. aid to the faithful, devastated ally that fought the bulk of the Japanese Army throughout WW2. In the real world, State Department records contain Ambassador Stuart’s, 3/17/48 report from China; “America still delays the long promised aid on which survival of democratic institutions depends.” Two weeks later he reported “The Chinese people do not want to become communists, yet they see the tide of communism running irresistibly forward.” Mitter finds these assessments by America’s Official Representative in China easily ignored. He claims Red military superiority at end of WW2 made Red victory inevitable. Consider; In 1946, General Lucas, Commander of U.S. Military Advisory Group- China, reported that his MAG staff could build a first rate Chinese Army and defeat the Communists in two years if the U.S. provided arms and supplies equivalent to those required by ten American Divisions. Consider; Admiral Cooke head of U.S. Military in China testified to Congress “Several times in 1946 … when they had the Communists licked, a truce took place.” Consider; After two years of civil war, General Wedemeyer, former China commander, conducted a Special Presidential fact finding tour. On returning to the States, he urged immediate shipment of WW2 surplus arms to China and Korea. When Wedemeyer refused to revise his findings, his report was suppressed.
Mitter cites a fellow author as his source for claiming a 1941 Red Base Area population of 44 million, but Mao reported at his 1942 Conference of Senior Cadres that his Base Area population was 1.5 million. Mitter lists no source for his claim that, in early 1945, Mao commanded “900,000 regular troops supplemented by a similar number of militia”. Consider; Chiang blockaded Mao’s Base Area with 200,000 Government troops, (The Reds claimed 400,000), until Japan surrendered. Mitter doesn’t explain how 200,000 (or 400,000) could maintain a three year blockade while facing nearly two million Red troops. The quality of Mao’s troops is indicated by his many directives urging more crop production from his troops. Mao’s “Army” was in reality a militia of part time farmers. Its limitations are described in detail by Stalin’s liaison in Mao’s HQ. (See China’s Special Area- Petr Vladimirov).
Mundane details in the body of this book reveal a subtle bias. The author seems to raise Chiang Kai-shek, from his past status as victim of slanderous attacks, towards the level of respect he enjoyed with world leaders of his era. But, each mention of Chiang’s government is tagged with the adjective “corrupt”. This book’s Index lists 22 pages that describe (but do not document) corruption in Chiang’s government. (This, while history’s deadliest terrorist merits 3 listings under “Terrorism”.) Is the level of China corruption worthy of seven times more print than the horror inflicted Mao Zedong? Consider; China fought the bulk of the Japanese Army throughout WW2 on less than 2% of U.S. aid to WW2 allies. By keeping the Japanese Army out of India and Australia, China saved countless of thousands of American and British lives at virtually no cost to America or Great Britain. Why the incessant interest in China’s morality? Why the underplaying of Mao Zedong’s monstrous crimes against humanity? Crimes that began before and continued through the era covered in this book.
The mundane emerges again when Mitter’s map of “Areas of Communist control …” is examined. Applying the scale listed on this map to this map, the distance from Peking to Taiyuan measures approx.750 miles. Rand McNally has it approximately 250 miles. This map presents Communist Areas 300% larger than reality.
Mitter also has problems with major events and key characters and seems to lack insight regarding the U.S. wartime military situation. He presents General Marshall prioritizing war theaters and deciding what forces to commit. Roosevelt and Churchill decided war theater priorities. Marshall was U.S. Army Chief of Staff . He had no direct authority over other branches of the U.S military. In regard to U.S. efforts in Asia that produced a mountainous supply road, Mitter’s concept “… the road might have played a more significant role.” is wrong. The road was a precipitous mountain route, after more than a year of two lane construction it was bottlenecked to one lane. A road, that was predicted to fail, did fail. It provided a tenuous 1000 mile trip that required trucks to carry fuel for the 2000 mile round trip, (China had no fuel). One summer rain sent boulders weighing as much as six tons crashing down on the road and washed out 300 river crossings. The British in Burma christened it the “White Elephant Road”. Mitter misses again on China’s Manchuria concessions to USSR saying they were “unresolved” when Stalin left for Potsdam. Yalta records attest that, with Chiang absent, Churchill and Roosevelt awarded Stalin “preeminent rights” in Manchuria in a signed agreement at Yalta. The only China concession at Potsdam was a grant of port control of Dairen, Manchuria by Truman to Stalin based on Stalin’s pledge to maintain it as an “Open Port”. By year’s end, USSR closed Dairen to American ships and it remained closed until China succumbed.
On the conversion of China into the world’s deadliest regime, long evaded documents attest that China wasn’t “lost”. China didn’t “fall” into communism. China, with one fifth of world population, was targeted by Lenin, shortly after his takeover of Russia. Stalin’s first subversion was foiled by Chiang Kai-shek. His second succeeded with help from Washington insiders.
We now know that the one endlessly maligned as “Corrupt Despot” later founded a thriving democratic nation and the one hailed as “The Great Teacher” was really history’s deadliest dictator. How could they be so wrong? History’s deadliest betrayal needed history’s most pervasive cover-up. The list of cover up participants is long and depressing. That cover-up fiction is only now refuted by recently revealed documents that have been carefully avoided for decades.
FOR MORE OF THAT EVADED INFORMATION:
U.S. Dept. of State- Foreign Relations of the United States- The Far East and China-1946,1947&1948
U.S Senate- Committee on the Judiciary- Testimony of Adm. Cooke re; General Marshall Disarming China 10/51
U.S House Committee on Foreign Affairs- General Marshall Testimony on China, 2/20/48
U.S. CIA Docs. ORE 32-48, ORE 32-49
* Key excerpts from the above now appear in book form.
Also recommended:
Mao: The Unknown Story- Chang & Holliday
Galahad- Charles N Hunter
Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung- Vols. 1-5, Mao Tse-tung
China’s Special Area- Petr Vladimirov
Wedemeyer Reports- Albert C Wedemeyer

What a wonderful read. From first person stories to historical information, know detail was left out. Yes, I know the WHOLE story isn't completely in this book but for the most part, in a generalized whole aspect it is.

It is true that the complicated politics and fighting in China during the Second World War is often neglected, the wat until recently the Eastern Front in Europe was regularly overlooked. This book adds some weight to the historical balance.

If you're interested in the history of WWII, this is a very solid review of China's role and it's relationships with the other allies. It also helps to understand China's the rise of Communism there and it's current role and views towards the West and Japan.

Though estimates of WW II casualty figures vary widely, conservative estimates proclaim that more than 40 million people died in WW II, approximately 20 million deaths were suffered by the Soviet Union, while China came in second with approximately 10 million deaths, some estimates increase these numbers by a third or more, and yet many people are unaware of the immeasurable suffering borne by the Chinese. Numbers of this magnitude are hard to fathom even today, and though the United States has a rather long military history, it has never suffered a million deaths in any of its wars; its highest death toll was during its Civil War in which more than 600,000 Americans died, approximately a third more than it suffered in WW II.

Historians generally consider Germany's invasion of Poland on the 1st of September 1939 to mark the beginning of World War II, instead of Japan's invasion of China in 1937 or Japan's attack against the U.S. at Pearl Harbor in 1941. Yet China was the catalyst that drove Japan into war with the United States and into its alliance with Nazi Germany. Japanese intervention in China began even earlier when Japan took control of Manchuria in 1931. The Japanese seemed to feel that they were simply mimicking the western powers by their encroachments, as though this is what great imperial powers were expected to do - expand.

Oxford Professor Rana Mitter's book, Forgotten Ally: China's World War II, 1937-1945, provides the reader with a balanced and insightful history of China and Japan. The first eighty pages (three chapters) explore the symbiotic relationship that existed between China and Japan during the three hundred years leading up to WW II, which I found of particular interest as the author discusses China's cultural power and influence during the seventeenth century under the Qing Dynasty, continuing up to the founding of the Republic of China in 1912, as well as Japan's rise as an industrial and military power during the nineteenth century. The five large maps are informative and detailed, and the sixteen pages of photographs are of interest. Mitter writes in an easy to read flowing style, while enabling the reader to better understand how these two Asian powers came to engage in one of the world's most horrific conflicts which morphed into one of the major conflagrations of the Second World War, as well as the pressing desire of the United States to keep China in the war as an ally in order to tie down Japanese forces. Then there was the interplay and deadly rivalry between Chiang and Mao for the hearts and minds of the people while they were both battling the Japanese. And though Germany surrendered on 8 May 1945, it was only after Japan surrendered on 2 September 1945 that WW II formally came to an end. A tremendous amount of research went into this book, such that it is essential reading for those with an abiding interest in WW II.

Rana Mitter has contributed something that is basically unique, and that uniqueness is both astonishing and terrible. This is the first English language popular history of the Sino-Japanese War of 1932-1945 that actually tries to give the Chinese side. There are scholarly and political histories about the rise of the Chinese Communist Party, CCP, and monographs on aspects of Kuomintang rule, but general histories are genuinely lacking. Especially one that does not take Barbara Tuchman's "Stillwell and the American Experience in China" as its prime focus.

Mitter, does more than give the Chinese agency, he emphasizes the long and lonely war that the various Chinese factions fought against the Japanese, and how it was seen by both sides as part of the Anti-Imperialist struggle that dated back to the Opium Wars. In this struggle, Britain was as much an enemy as Japan, until the Japanese slowly but inexorably decided to take all of China for themselves in the name of anti Imperialism.

The events of the war are ably and unsensationally recounted, particularly after the creation of the United Front nd the outbreak of general hostilities in 1937. The Battle of Shanghai, the Sack of Nanking, the retreat into Sichuan, are all well told, and impressively a fair bit is made of the Nationalist success in keeping large areas of Central China free of the Japanese before 1941. Chiang is presented here, rightfully in my opinion, as a Chinese patriot who was fully committed to the war against Japan. Though the corruption of KMT rule is pointed out, it is presented in the context of its time. Mitter also does a creditable job with Yan'an and the rise of Mao to supreme command, though his account is considerably more sterile than the many specialist studies that are available in English on the topic. A conceit of the author is that the Reorganized National Government of the hapless and narcissistic Wang Jingwei, makes a third Chinese regime, but this thesis is so patently weak that he thankfully spends little time on it.

I do have quite a few complaints though. Mitter privileges diaries, many often edited long after the war. He has only a few sources for conditions in country during the period and they are almost all incredibly conventional accounts by high ranking individuals. The few lesser figures he recounts are what is found in standard modern Chinese histories, this gives the book its major narrative weakness in that whenever it leaves high politics and its very spare, and sketchlike, discussions of military policy it falls very flat. Hopefully for the reader unacquainted with the topic the fascinating nature of these anecdotes will probably compensate.

This is basically a history compiled from secondary sources combined with a political history based on the diaries of the great men. The problem is that these sources are treated with too little skepticism, and party line thinking, particularly the party line of the PRC occasionally becomes not just obvious but also grossly misleading. For example the death of the CCP commander Xiang Ying, it is pretty widely believed he was assassinated by one of his own men on Mao's orders. Even PRC sources often suggest he became detached from his men in the general rout of his army and was lost. Mitter actually dredges up the old party line that he was captured by the nationalists and murdered. He provides no foot note for this as he does for so many extraordinary claims, but a paragraph later he cites the chief English language work on this topic, which posits that Xiang was killed on orders of Mao in order to consolidate his position as head of the CCP, saying that this aided Mao's rise to power, without giving any of the context. This happens more than a fair amount and makes me queazy. At another point he states baldly that Chiang attempted to warn Stalin about Barbarossa and the Nazi invasion of Russia in 1941, but was ignored, this extraordinary statement is not footnoted at its first appearance, but late in the work it is cited to a paper by Mitter, that only hints at such a thing.

For the most part as someone who has read widely on the topic and studied modern Chinese history in University, I think Mitter is basically telling an accurate account here, but these details gave me a little pause.

Finally I will get to the topic that most English speakers are interested, his account of the relationship between Chiang and Stilwell and the Burma campaign. Mitter despises Stilwell, he sees him as a disastrous choice, and recognzes not jst his native arrogance but how his time in China caused it to rage out of control. I am myself a Stillwell hater, though I remember being entranced by him before I ever actually thought of the needs of the Nationalist party. While Mitter is very harsh on the British in India, going so far as to mention the Bengal Famine, Wavell and Mountbatten come off much better than they usually do in American accounts, even if they are committed to subjugating China as soon as the war is over.

So with those caveats, I strongly recommend this book, both for the WWII enthusiast, and also for any general collection of Mid Twentieth century history.

With the surrender of Japan on August 14, 1945, WW II came to an end, leaving the "Big Four" of the United States, Great Britain, the USSR and China as the powers that would play a permanent and central role in the formation of the United Nations. The war in Europe and in the Pacific has generated an enormous literature. The war between Japan and China, and its place in the global conflict, has received far less study. China suffered nearly 20,000,000 deaths during WW II, second only to the USSR. Rana Mitter's new book, "Forgotten Ally: China's World War II, 1937 -- 1945" helped fill many gaps in my understanding of both WW II and its aftermath. The book offers an acesssible and balanced account of China's WW II, centering on the Japanese invasion. Mitter is professor of modern Chinese history at the University of Oxford.

Mitter explains the purpose of his study in a brief Prologue:

"In the early twenty-first century China has taken a place on the global stage and seeks to convince the world that it is a 'responsible great power'. One way in which it has sought to prove its case is to remind people of a time past, but not long past, when China stood alongside the other progressive powers against fascism: the Second World War. If we wish to understand the role of China in today's global society, we would do well to remind ourselves of the tragic, titanic struggle which that country waged in the 1930s and 1940s not just for its own national dignity and survival, but for the victory of all the Allies, west and east, against some of the darkest forces that history has ever produced."

The book recounts a highly complex history which involves China's struggles to become a republic, the early pre-WW II war with Japan in the 1930's, the China-Japan war during the years before Pearl Harbor, the China-Japan war in the context of WW II after Pearl Harbor, and then the Civil War which resulted in the establishment of the People's Republic of China. Domestic affairs in China during the war years, and the conflict between Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Zedong receive substantial attention as well.

The first part of the book, "The Path to War" offers an overview of the relationship between China and Japan and of China's attempt to establish a Republic beginning in 1911. Both Chiang and Mao come into prominence during this early period. This part of the story culminates in 1931, with the Japanese invasion of Manchuria while the rest of the world took little action.

The second part of the story, "Disaster" covers the early years of the war, which began in 1937. Among other things, it focuses on the loss of Shangai, the atrocities of Nanjing, and Chaing's decision to breach the dikes on the Yellow River to slow Japan's advance into central China. This decision resulted in an astounding loss of civilian life. The book shows the wary attempts of Chiang and Mao to work together, although both leaders markedly distrusted one another. The Chinese nationalists under Chiang, for all their faults, frequently resisted the Japanese heroically and sometimes successfully during this period.

The third section of the book "Resisting Alone" reminded me of Britain's early resistance, as it shows China fighting a war without allies against Japan. During this period, a third prospective government, in addition to the Nationalists and the Communists arose in China which advocated collaboration with Japan in order to reach a peace. The collaborationist leaders were long regarded as traitors. Mitter offers a more nuanced view.

The final part of the book, "The Poisoned Alliance" describes how China's allies tried to marginalize the China-Japan war in favor of the European and Pacific theaters. It focuses on the poisonous relationship between Chiang and American General Joseph Sitwell who was sent to China as Chiang's Chief of Staff following Pearl Harbor. During this time, Chiang and the Nationalists frequently were perceived as a reluctant, corrupt ally which was unwilling to fight. Mitter describes a severe famine in China which took place during the war years in part due to the Nationalist's incompentence and corruption. He also describes the brutal police states that arose in the three rival Chinese governments, under Chiang, Mao, and the collaborationists. Again, Mitter offers a nuanced portrayal of Chiang, discussing both his many weaknesses as a civilian and military leader but also his strengths. He reminds the reader throughout of the resistance the Chinese offered against the Japanese invasion for many years against long odds. Mitter makes a convincing case that the Chinese resistance was integral to the result of the War as it allowed the Allies to concentrate their attention on the remaining theaters.

The Epilogue to the book briefly describes the Civil War following WW II which culminated in Chiang's flight to Taiwan in 1949. The book discusses how the Chinese have been portraying their war history, their internal history, and their relationship with Japan in the years following Mao's ascendancy.

This book has a great deal to teach about subjects that most Americans know only vaguely. I learned a great deal from it and perhaps see some things differently than I did before reading it. Teaching its readers is a worthy accomplishment for any book.

Robin Friedman

Rana Mitter's Forgotten Ally is a excellent book on the role of China during WWII and the Chinese leaders: Chiang Kai Shek, Mao Zedong, and Wang Jingwei (whom I did not really know much about).

Mitter's view is very fair and balanced to all sides. He breaks through the version we all have heard about China during WWII, Chiang Kai Shek was corrupt and that the Chinese Communists under Mao were the only ones who really fought the Japanese. Mitter helps set the record more straight. Yes, Chiang Kai Shek and the Nationalists were corrupt, he does not gloss over that, but they also had a much bigger role in the fight against Japan than the Communists like to say. At the same time, Mitter gives a much more realistic view of Mao and the communists that is way more complex and realistic than the version we often get which mirrors the Chinese Communist Party view. I was especially interested in Mitter's take on the Xian Incident, which the communists tell was Chiang Kai Shek, being forced to stop fighting the communists and start fighting the Japanese. We learn that is not what happened nor the reason for the kidnapping. I also liked Mitter's short take on the affects of the Marshall Mission at the very end of the War in attempting to stop the Civil War from starting again.

I liked that the author went beyond the simplistic and in a readable fashion gives a more in depth view of the importance of China during WWII to the overall Allied Victory, while setting the record straight with a more realistic view of what happened.

I recommend this book to people interested in Chinese History or WWII history.

In "Forgotten Ally" author Rana Mitter relates a part of history often neglected, that China, an ally of the United States, Britain, and the Soviet Union had its own internal struggle to cope with as the flames of war spread across the world. In World War II it can be said that two China's fought against Japan, not just one. The Chinese Nationalists, or Kuomintang (KMT), under the leadership of Chiang Kai-shek and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) symbolized by Mao Zedong were two parties allied in a united front against Japan. While the Kuomintang was the official government of China the Communist Party was in fact a state within a state, it controlled its own sections of China and had its own military organization.

Mitter begins with Manchuria where Japan believed in the late 1920's the answer to its poverty problem could be found. They viewed it as a wilderness that could be transformed into a civilized, flourishing colony which would provide an outlet for an underemployed and overpopulated homeland. Also, China could supply Japan with what she needed to remain a competing industrial state, namely raw materials and a market for finished goods. But they needed complete control of Manchuria.

We follow the chain of events as Mitter describes how the minor skirmish at the Marco Polo Bridge near Peking July 7, 1937 escalates and becomes the true beginning of World War II. This incident became the spark for increasing hostilities between Chiang and the Japanese. Although the Japanese built up their forces slowly and the Chinese fought hard, they were unable to hold the Japanese back.

In 1937 on the eve of war with Japan most of the 480 million (estimate) Chinese were peasants who lived in rural areas. Much of China was considered a backward nation. However, the coastal and river cities such as Shanghai, Peking, Nanking and Canton were areas where modern industrial nationhood was taking place. Also, it was in these areas where most of the foreigners, Americans, Europeans, and Japanese were concentrated. As war broke out the Japanese conquered and controlled the coastal area depriving China of its industrial base making China overly dependent on foreign aid to fight the war.

Mitter provides a detailed look at how the outbreak of war set off massive migrations and the enormous hardships and deaths that occurred in areas often quite far from where the Japanese Army was overrunning China. The fear and uncertainty of the civilians as they fled the Japanese Army affected millions of Chinese. A fear justified by the rape of Nanking.

Soon after Pearl Harbor both Mao and Chiang realized that Japan would be defeated by the Allies without them making any major contributions. As World War II progressed they both also knew a post war showdown was inevitable for control of China. Therefore, they both sought to use the war as a means of creating the best possible conditions for the confrontation they would have in the future.

By the end of the war Chiang's leadership had cost him the hearts and minds of the Chinese people. His abandonment of North China along with his disregard for the care of his own troops and civilians would virtually ensure he would lose the Civil War.

"Forgotten Ally" is thoroughly researched; the prose is clear and easy to read. This appears to be the best book to date on the China's participation in World War II. It is a great addition to any collection of books on World War II. I recommend "Forgotten Ally" and give it the well deserved 5 Stars.

The large number of reviews should tell you something. This is a very good book and one that changes the usual focus of history written about the Pacific War from US vs Japan, to China, where Japanese losses were on a much larger scale than in US-Japan battles. Mitter redefines Chiang, showing him to be a real leader, not the usual cartoon of corrupt generalissimo. Mitter's Chiang is smooth, wily, reflective, stubborn and ruthless,.

The burden of the book is that China fought alone from 1937 on until the Japanese push south brought in the British and Americans. Had the Chinese collapsed, it could have altered the war. The Japanese might have managed a much deadlier thrust into India. Mao's troops didn't fight the Japanese much, she points out, and American support wavered. Mitter says that between 14 and 20 million Chinese died, and 100 million more were refugees.

The section on further reading is very useful.

Forgotten Ally - China's World War II 1937-1945 by Rana Mitter

Individuals with an interest in World War II are well aware of the vast numbers of books being published on many diverse topics related to that terrible war. No matter how many books I've read on this conflict I always come away with new information or insights that cause me to reevaluated what I had previously believed to be true. This book was a case in point.

Rather that paraphrase I will quote from the author's prolog: "For decades, our understanding of the Second World War has failed to give a proper account of the role of China. If China was considered at all, it was as a minor player, a bit-part actor in a war where the U.S., U.S.S.R. and Britain played much more significant roles. Yet China was the first country to face the onslaught of the Axis Powers in 1937, two years before Britain and France and four years before the U. S." Later in the prolog he stated "In the West the legacy of China's wartime experience continues to be only poorly understood. Many do not realize that China played any sort of role in the Second World War at all."

The author attempts, rather successfully I may add, to summarize China's seven-year war with Japan. There were several issues that I was previously unaware of that peeked my interest:

- The 1919 Treaty of Versailles resulted in Germany giving up all its territories on Chinese soil. The Chinese assumed the lands would be restored as compensation for the 100,000 Chinese workers who had been sent to the Western Front to assist the allies - but the territories were awarded to Japan.

-In the mid 1930's Chaing Kai-Shek, leader of China's Nationalist party put significant efforts into trying to persuade Germany to chooses China over Japan as it's principal Asian, anti-Communist partner.

-During June 1938 Chaing Kai-Shek ordered the Nationalist army to breach the Yellow River dikes therefore flooding hundreds of square miles of central China and stopping a Japanese advance. In 1948 the Nationalist government suggesting that in the three affected provinces 840,000 people died and 4.8 million became refugees. Chaing wanted to buy some time to relocate his government from the Japanese onslaught.

-Madam Chaing - Song Meiling - Chaing's wife spoke fluent English with a pronounced Georgia accent, (she had resided in Georgia for several years prior to college) which endeared her to American audiences. A 1917 graduate of Wellesley (Wellesley, Massachusetts) with a major in English literature she spoke frequently in America raising money and lobbying support for her husband's government. She died in 2003, age 105 in New York City.

-US army general Joseph W. Stilwell, aka "Vinegar Joe" for his caustic personality became Chief of Staff to Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek. To put it mildly they did not see eye to eye and an outraged Stilwell began to call Chiang "the little dummy" or "Peanut" in his reports to Washington.

-One of the most curious and convoluted relationships discussed in this book in that between Chaing and Mao Zedong - leader of China's Communist Party. Apparent sworn allies against the Japanese they engaged in an bizarre fandango throughout the war.

If this subject interests you I believe you will find this an instructive and fascinating book.

"Forgotten Ally" tells the frightening, sad, and yet ultimately successful struggle as Chinese factions -- nationalists, communists, and other warlords -- used their country's sufferings in WWII as the entrance ticket to the table of great powers. Any review would be an understatement: European, American, and Japanese imperialist exploitation, unequal treaties, disunified territories. Japanese invasion of Manchuria and then of much of the rest of China. Chinese resistance, almost futile, wracked by infighting, and including flooding and starvation of their own population as they held onto parts of China in their WWII which started some years earlier than it did for Europe, and then for the U.S. Why understatement? Because behind each of those words are huge numbers: just to give one example, a failed defense by breaking their own dam and flooding territory so the Japanese would be temporarily delayed resulted in (by the most conservative estimates) 500,000 dead Chinese people!

Reading with Western eyes, it's impossible to ignore how China's struggle against what would become the Allies' implacable enemy in WWII -- Japan -- was relegated to the least of the Allies' war aims. That I still separate "the Allies" and "China" shows that, even now, I have not internalized that China *was* one of the Allies. Their contribution to the war effort was at least that they held the attention of Japanese forces in China, which otherwise would have been fighting the other Allies.

Of course the world has changed now, rebuilt Japan is a powerful and non-imperialist ally of the West, and Communist China is an economic, political, and military power on the world stage. Yet much of what exists in the world today is a result of countries' experience in WWII, but few understand the history outside their own country, even less about China. And the communist/non-communist struggle was much more complex, and recent, as it went on during WWII, so understanding it contributes to understanding today's interplay of political systems too. Thus "Forgotten Ally", in all its detail (though at the end -- post-war to present period -- I would have welcomed some comment about the change from recognizing Taiwan to recognizing mainland China), is an important read.

Rana Mitter’s “Forgotten Ally” is an important work that adds to our knowledge of an overlooked Second World War theater. Had it not been for Pearl Harbor, China might have remained locked in a Second Sino-Japanese War while the Allies, minus China, warred in North Africa, the Middle East, and Europe. That Mao had placed his forces within the Nationalist Chinese Army command structure was a surprise to me, as was the extent of Nationalist military operations against the Japanese. However, Mitter is careful to note that with the exception of the ‘Hundred Regiments Campaign’, the Communists spent their time organizing the population in their zone, implanting their infrastructure in the countryside, and engaging in hit and run guerrilla warfare, all while the Nationalist Army shouldered the burden of meeting the Japanese in open warfare. Particularly valuable were Professor Mitter’s insights into why casual and not so casual observers were impressed with the Communist zones, and why those and others were so often scathingly (and often unfairly) critical of Chiang Kai-shek’s government.

There are errors, as pointed out by far more qualified reviewers. At times, Mitter appears overly critical of U.S. treatment of China, as if the U.S. should have been doing more. However, liberating the Chinese from Japanese aggression was not America’s duty. It was China’s duty. Because it hadn’t been Neo-colonialism that rendered China weak, but rather China’s weaknesses that drew Neo-colonialism in. It would have been instructive to see those weaknesses enumerated, because the Taiping rebellion (mentioned) certainly exposed the outdated state of the Ching dynasty military system. Indeed, several Westerners (unmentioned, but Ward and Gordon) were prominent in training and commanding the new formations that helped defeat the Taiping. So the idea of Westerners commanding Chinese military formations was not alien to Chinese military history, and Chennault’s American Volunteer Group was a 20th Century take-off of Ward and Gordon’s “Ever Victorious Army”. Perhaps Stilwell was incapable of filling their shoes, or perhaps Chinese nationalism was incapable of allowing any Westerner to do so. It would have been nice to see that question addressed.

Other reviewers have raised cogent issues with some of Professor Mitter’s judgments. I limit myself to his characterization of the (Korean War) Incheon landing as helping “turn the war against the insurgent Communist forces” and that “MacArthur was a great deal more experienced... than Stilwell.” First, the North Korean Army was hardly an insurgent one. Though it did have its roots in both the Anti-Japanese United Army of the 1930s, and ethnic Korean Manchurian PLA units of the Chinese Civil War, in 1950 it was in fact the premier indigenous Army in East Asia, totally armed and equipped along Soviet lines, unlike either the Chinese Nationalist Army or the PLA. It had ceased being an insurgent force when, with Soviet doctrine, training, and equipment, it transitioned from a constabulary into an army. As for MacArthut being a great deal more experienced that Stilwell, that is debatable. MacArthur certainly had some months of major World War One combat command experience that Stilwell lacked, and Stilwell’s stateside command time was spent in garrison, training, and maneuver. But MacArthur’s handling of the 32nd Division in the Pacific, and Task Force Smith in Korea has received its share of just criticism, and Stilwell, no less than MacArthur when Chief of Staff of the 42nd Infantry Division or Commander of the 84th Brigade, was wont to get out on the ground and see conditions for himself, as he did with the Chinese in Burma, earning a Distinguished Service Cross.

In summary, my thanks to Professor Mitter for writing this book, and to the many reviewers, such as Matthew Reinert, Robin Friedman, and H. Schneider, who provided reasoned and well stated reviews.