On Sept. 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland. In the history textbooks of many Western countries, this date is recorded as the “official” starting point of WWII. However, as early as 1987, Richard Overy, a professor of history at the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom and a distinguished expert in WWII studies, proposed a perspective that diverges from the traditional Western framework: The true spark of WWII was ignited much earlier, in 1931, when the iron heels of the Japanese army shattered the tranquility of northeast China, launching the prelude to global war.

Redefining WWII’s timeline

“The decision to date my global history of the war from 1931 is consistent with the way I have viewed the origins of the world war for some years, going back to my small textbook The Origins of the Second World War, first published in 1987 and now in its fifth edition,” Overy told CSST in a recent interview.

Attributing his view of the world crisis to the development of imperial and global history over the past 20 years, he stressed that the war cannot be understood solely as a European phenomenon but must be seen as the outcome of a decade of empire-building in the 1930s: Japan in China, Italy in Africa, and Germany in Central and Eastern Europe.

“The new imperialism challenged the British and French global empires and finally prompted Britain and France to declare war on Germany as the most dangerous of the three new imperial states,” Overy observed. “But the first manifestation of that new imperialism was the Japanese invasion of northeast China on Sept. 18, 1931. This was the first time since 1919 that the geopolitical order had been challenged by violence and it proved to be a challenge to the League of Nations, dominated by Britain and France. The League failed, and Japan continued the course of territorial expansion in China. That is why 1931 is a significant date, a turning point that encouraged a growing sense of global crisis.”

He added that the failure of Britain and France to hold back Japan’s expansionist programme then emboldened Italy to invade Ethiopia, encouraged German expansion at the expense of Austria and Czechoslovakia, and ultimately set the stage for Germany’s invasion of Poland.

“By starting in 1931 rather than 1939, we can put the war into a new perspective that includes the crisis in eastern Asia alongside crisis in Africa/Middle East and in Europe,” Overy asserted. “This is a perspective that many Western historians have come to agree with, but there are also critics who still see the outbreak of WWII as a war inspired at the Treaty of Versailles, with no real global implications.”

“The more we come to know about the war in China, the more it will be possible to see the global geopolitical crisis as the starting point of a decade and a half of violence,” he said.

China’s major strategic contributions

Noting that many conventional histories downplay the significance of China’s war of resistance against Japanese aggression, Overy pointed out the lack of detailed English-language studies of the war’s battles as a major problem. “There are now several good books in English, so more is now known, but it would be useful to see the work of Chinese historians translated into English so that a dialogue can be set up with Western historians.”

“The Japanese side of the war in China is also closed off by the language barrier and few historians have used Japan’s official histories of the war,” Overy continued. “A further barrier is perhaps the sheer scale and length of time of the war, which requires a good knowledge of Chinese geography and the ability to distinguish turning points or key moments. The war in Europe is simpler to describe and explain.”

Overy also emphasized the failure of the Japanese army to achieve decisive victory over China’s regular forces and guerrilla fighters, which meant that resistance remained a constant obstacle to Japan’s plans for a new order in East and Southeast Asia. “This in itself was an important achievement. Japan’s war effort was bogged down in China at just the time when Japanese forces needed to concentrate their efforts on defeating the United States and the British Empire, in effect fighting a war on two fronts, as the Germans were forced to do in Europe.”

“Historical biases are notoriously difficult to dislodge,” Overy articulated. “Historians will certainly try to provide an objective or neutral assessment of the history, but popular views on the war are usually embedded in the standard national narrative. This may well change slowly, with more access to Chinese sources, and a better level of collaboration with Chinese scholars of the period, but that will require initiative from both sides.”

He expressed the hope that the important milestone of the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese People’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War will set an agenda for greater collaboration on this subject.