Remembering China’s role in World War II

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception

Chinese recruits learn to use Zhongzheng rifles, also known as Chiang Kai-shek rifles, 1930s. © ww2db.org

This year China celebrated “Victory Day,” the 70th anniversary of the defeat of Japanese invaders in World War II. 

For decades China has downplayed the war because most of the troops who fought were Nationalists, led by Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, whom the Communists defeated in a civil war a few years later. China’s Cold War rivals, the US and Britain also had no reason to highlight its role in the war. And as China built economic ties with Japan, it ignored past conflicts. continue