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

by Rana Mitter

Although Roosevelt had disappointed Chiang, it was the other ally, the British, who bore the brunt of his criticism. “The British don’t take us seriously,” Chiang wrote, adding, “The next generation should understand the difficulty of building the country up from its past shame.” It was not just Japan that he considered to be the source of China’s troubles, and he had no intention of forgetting Britain’s long record of imperialism in China. On December 15, just a week after Pearl Harbor, Chiang noted: I can’t describe how humble the attitude of the British ambassador [Sir Archibald Clark Kerr] and his military attaché was . . . But their greed, and their search for a small profit while avoiding the big questions is the same as ever. This is the real character of the British; I wouldn’t have imagined this in normal times of this bold Saxon race.11 Two days later, he added, with honest ambiguity: “I despise them, but I also respect them.”