Resisting Japan: Mobilizing for War in Modern China, 1935-1945

UNIQUE AMONG THE FOREIGN WARS in modern Chinese history, the Sino-Japanese War stands out not only as the longest war fought on Chinese soil, but it also has the longest history of confrontation in the run-up to it. The process dates back to at least the conclusion of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905, when the Japanese firmly established a foothold on the Chinese mainland in the Northeast (Manchuria). With this land border with China, the Japanese could infiltrate, penetrate, and occupy regions of China far beyond what they could accomplish from their colony on Taiwan.

The War and its protracted prologue provoked at least as many forms of resistance as there were forms of Japanese aggression. If China's military resistance was less than vigorous overall, the Chinese did mobilize often scant resources to oppose or undermine Japanese aggression, sometimes with apparent success, other times less so.

This book examines, in turn, Chinese resistance to the Japanese-backed smuggling trade in north China on the eve of the War, the deployment of German military advisers, currency manipulations, the not-so-successful effort at organizing a military medical service, the mobilization of reformed Japanese prisoners of war, and the contest for the support of the local population among the Communists, the Nationalists, and the Japanese. Besides fresh perspectives on the War, these studies illuminate the background of the contest for power after the War.