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

by Rana Mitter

of China among the Nationalists in the south and center, the Communists in the north, and the Japanese in the east. The nature of the war changed from offensive to defensive. The dramatic battles of the first year of the war were fewer in number: instead, China’s fate became tied up with shifting alliances, diplomatic intrigues, and social change that would permanently alter the country’s course. Central to those changes were new ideas of social provision. Traditionally, the Chinese state had taken little responsibility for the direct day-to-day welfare of its inhabitants. Now, the circumstances of war forced the new regimes into competition with each other. Nationalists and Communists would strive to demonstrate that as the state demanded more of its people, so they should demand more of their government. Meanwhile, the regimes under Japanese occupation would show that the new masters would have to confront many of the same old problems.