Inside China 1943 1945

Chronicles the story of the Chinese-American Composite Wing, which battled the Japanese from one end of occupied China to another during World War II

Brigadier General Claire L. Chennault commanded the Fourteenth Air Force from 1942 to 1945; its mission was to hold the line against further incursion by the Japanese into China, Burma and India. The Chinese American Composite Wing (CACW) was formed in 1943 under the Fourteenth. While it was a small group, it was recognized for its valor and cooperation: The airmen and crews came from China and the US, bound together to fight a common enemy. Their efforts-many of which are captured in this book-contributed to the end WWII and defeat of the Japanese Imperial Forces.

Offers a new interpretation of the Chinese nationalists, placing their war of resistance against Japan in the context of their efforts to establish control over their own country and providing a critical reassessment of regional Allied Warfare.

A history of the Chinese experience in WWII, named a Book of the Year by both the Economist and the Financial Times: “Superb” (The New York Times Book Review). In 1937, two years before Hitler invaded Poland, Chinese troops clashed with Japanese occupiers in the first battle of World War II. Joining with the United States, the Soviet Union, and Great Britain, China became the fourth great ally in a devastating struggle for its very survival. In this book, prize-winning historian Rana Mitter unfurls China’s drama of invasion, resistance, slaughter, and political intrigue as never before. Based on groundbreaking research, this gripping narrative focuses on a handful of unforgettable characters, including Chiang Kai-shek, Mao Zedong, and Chiang’s American chief of staff, “Vinegar Joe” Stilwell—and also recounts the sacrifice and resilience of everyday Chinese people through the horrors of bombings, famines, and the infamous Rape of Nanking. More than any other twentieth-century event, World War II was crucial in shaping China’s worldview, making Forgotten Ally both a definitive work of history and an indispensable guide to today’s China and its relationship with the West.

The China-Burma-India campaign of the Asian/Pacific war of World War II was the most complex, if not the most controversial, theater of the entire war. Guerrilla warfare, commando and special intelligence operations, and air tactics originated here. The literature is extensive and this book provides an evaluative survey of that vast literature. A comprehensive compilation of some 1,500 titles, the work includes a narrative historiographical overview and an annotated bibliography of the titles covered in the historiographical section. Following an introductory historical essay and a chronology, the historiographical narrative covers land, water, underwater, air, and combined operations, intelligence matters, diplomacy, and logistics and supply. It also examines the memoirs, diaries, autobiographies, and biographies of the personnel involved. Such cultural topics as journalism, fiction, film, and art are analyzed, and existing gaps in the literature are looked at. The bibliography provides both descriptive and evaluative annotations.

Many books have tried to analyze the reasons for the Chinese communist success in China's 1945-1949 civil war, but Suzanne Pepper's seminal work was the first and remains the only comprehensive analysis of how the ruling Nationalists lost that war--not just militarily, but by alienating the civilian population through corruption and incompetence. Now available in a new edition, this authoritative investigation of Kuomintang failure and communist success explores the new research and archival resources available for assessing this pivotal period in contemporary Chinese history.