Good book on the war in China

[cstaylor]

Just finished reading "Stilwell and the American Experience in China 1911-1945" by Barbara Tuchman. Learned a lot about how religion played a large role in the U.S. defense of China.

[Taro Toporific]

Just finished reading "Stilwell and the American Experience in China 1911-1945" by Barbara Tuchman. Learned a lot about how religion played a large role in the U.S. defense of China.

I can just imagine how religion played a large role with China. American misionaries had growing "market share" until Japan moved in. Several of my emertis professors would regale me for hours with their "China Days." Their stories were very similiar to Barbara Tuchman first book, "Bible and Sword." It's a forgotten history yet strangely compeling to an FG living in Japan.

[cstaylor]

It was critical to the continued supply of Chiang Kai-Shek's incompetent leadership in Chungking. Painted as a good Christian by the China lobby in the U.S., FDR couldn't just yank supplies from him (even though CKS only used them against the Communists).

As for the Japanese "moving in", well, they used every single German trick in the book: "for our own defense", "we have their (forced) signature on a paper right here", "what? You don't like us? Boys, raze the town!".

Suppressing dissent through force didn't work for the Germans in Belgium, and it certainly didn't work for the Japanese in China.

[ramchop]

Suppressing dissent through force didn't work for the Germans in Belgium, and it certainly didn't work for the Japanese in China.

Do the Jews, Polish, Belgians of today still hate the Germans? Or is it just that the German politicians of today don't make stupid comments about the past and don't visit shrines dedicated to the war criminals.

[Taro Toporific]

Suppressing dissent through force didn't work for the Germans in Belgium, and it certainly didn't work for the Japanese in China.

How about the SDF suppressing dissent in Iraq? You you think they will ever leave their hotel rooms? What HAVE they been doing for the past week?

[cstaylor]

Unlike the Japanese, the Germans had their fascist leaders removed from power. The Japanese, due to their hasty destruction of all war-related documentation, provided very little help in pointing out who was responsible for the war crimes.

[cstaylor]

Suppressing dissent through force didn't work for the Germans in Belgium, and it certainly didn't work for the Japanese in China.

How about the SDF suppressing dissent in Iraq? You you think they will ever leave their hotel rooms? What HAVE they been doing for the past week?

It's going to be political suicide for Koizumi after the first SDF soldier takes a hit from a sniper.

[ramchop]

Unlike the Japanese, the Germans had their fascist leaders removed from power. The Japanese, due to their hasty destruction of all war-related documentation, provided very little help in pointing out who was responsible for the war crimes.

So in one or two more decades when no Japanese politicians were even alive yet during the war, will relations improve?

[cstaylor]

No, because both sides pass their twisted views of "history" onto the next generation. The Japanese views are especially twisted, but there is a subtle racism to the Chinese claims about deaths... one of the themes that comes up often in the Stilwell book is that "the one resource China was willing to expend in large quantities was human lives". The leadership would hoard weapons and send untrained troops without artillery support into battle... the Japanese (as a first-rate fighting force at the time) were slaughtering them... only the Communists up in the North had a better time since they used guerrilla tactics (just like some Belgians did during the first World War).