With the surrender documents finally signed aboard the deck of the American battleship USS Missouri on September 2, 1945, the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War were eventually brought to an end.

　　A mourner makes a bow to the Nanjing Memorial for Aviation Martyrs in the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression on September 3, which marked the 69th anniversary of the end of World War Ⅱ.

As September 3 marked the 69th anniversary of the victory, Chinese scholars unanimously agreed that China’s contributions to ending the World Anti-Fascist War are “indelible and worth remembering forever.”

In global historical studies, it is universally accepted that before the World War II (WWII), all motives for war had nothing to do with justice. It was not until the victory of the World War against Fascism was the concept and ideal of “justice and peace” brought to the spotlight.

Zhou Yongsheng, a professor at the Institute of International Relations at China Foreign Affairs University, claimed that the justness of the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and World Anti-Fascist War is determined by China’s motive for joining the battles.

“In the Cairo Declaration of 1943, state leaders and representatives of allied forces of China, the US and Great Britain had made it clear: ‘The Three Great Allies are fighting this war to restrain and punish the aggression of Japan. They covet no gain for themselves and have no thought of territorial expansion,’” quoted Zhou.

Hu Dekun, a senior professor of humanities and social sciences at Wuhan University and president of the Chinese Research Association of WWII History, noted that China made huge sacrifices in the war based on its estimated 35 million casualties.

“Of [China’s] innumerable wars of resistance against foreign invasion, the battle against the Japanese was the first to end in complete victory. China fought not only for itself, but also for the world,” said Hu.

From Hu’s standpoint, by resisting Japan, China made remarkable contributions to the world in many ways.

First, it opened the first anti-fascist front in the world and later became the most sustained main battlefield for anti-fascism in the East. Owing to the close cooperation between the frontline battlefield under the command of the Kuomintang government and the battlefield behind enemy lines created by the Communist Party of China, the Japanese were so stuck in the prolonged war with China that they had no alternative but to surrender at last.

Second, it boycotted the appeasement policy proposed by Western countries and mobilized various countries and peoples to take part in the anti-Fascist war.

Third, it contained Japan’s strategies against the Soviet Union, Great Britain and the US, and strongly supported the forces of the three countries.

Fourth, it obstructed the collaboration between Japan and Germany and reduced the Germany-Italy-Japan fascist allies to a skeleton, fueling the collapse of fascism.

Fifth, it contributed significantly to the rebuilding of the post-war international order.

Hu stressed that China had been regarded as part of the anti-fascist alliance in the WWII. However, due to the subsequent Cold War in which China was the main target of the West against the East and the Sino-Soviet relationship breakdown, many Western and Soviet Union historians tended to understate, deliberately avoid, or purposely downplay the role of China in the war.

“This is not the truth of history,” argued Hu. “If to truthfully reflect China’s contributions to the WWII, Chinese historians must delve deep into the status and role of the country’s resistance against Japan in the World Anti-Fascist War and get relevant research outcomes out into the world to make the efforts of wartime China known to the international community,” he added.

Hu has earnestly strived to have China’s efforts recognized. With his academic team, he conducted all-round research into the Chinese contribution to the WWII and published several books on the history of the war, including Study of China and the World during the Anti-Fascist War Period and The Historical Role of China’s War of Resistance against Japan in the World Anti-Fascist War.

To his delight, there have been studies in the West into China’s role during WWII. Rana Mitter, a professor of the history and politics of modern China at the University of Oxford, is the first to do so.

Mitter’s book Forgotten Ally: China’s War with Japan, 1937-45 was recently published in Chinese. In his book, Mitter noted that China waged arduous struggles in WWII for its own dignity and its allies, but it was regrettably left to oblivion by the West afterwards.

“I believe in future there will be more foreign scholars paying attention to and studying China and its role during WWII,” Hu said.

The Chinese version appeared in Chinese Social Sciences Today, No. 642, Sep 3, 2014.

The Chinese link: http://sscp.cssn.cn/xkpd/xszx/gn/201409/t20140903_1314461.html 

　　Translated by Chen Mirong

　　Revised by Tom Fearon