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

by Rana Mitter

The powerful status of Yan’an as a beacon of radical resistance attracted large numbers of migrants, some 100,000 between 1937 and 1940.52 These numbers were dwarfed by the millions who fled to Chongqing, but the types of people who came to Yan’an were disproportionately well educated: perhaps some 50,000 were middle-class, educated types such as students, journalists, and teachers. Many of them came in search of a new future for China, feeling that the Nationalists were already hopelessly compromised by the brutality of their government’s behavior before 1937. For many, however, the reality of Yan’an did not measure up to the dream. The small city was in an economically deprived and backward area that made Chongqing look like a sophisticated metropolis. The surrounding areas of Shaanxi province were desperately poor—one reason the Communist message had resonated there—and still almost entirely agricultural. The total population of the region that the party ruled from Yan’an was only 1.4 million. The region was prone to natural disasters (earthquakes and drought) along with human-made ones (banditry and famine).53 The harsh yellow loess soil had formed into cliffs into which cave houses were carved.