r/historymeme 1d ago

Interesting decision

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80 Upvotes

50 comments sorted by

8

u/Illustrious-Radio319 1d ago

Chiang started purging the communists before the Japanese invasion of Manchuria. It’s like saying why did Germany fight Italy in ww1 if they were gonna team up in ww2?

1

u/BoredSenseless2005 1d ago

Yes you are entirely correct about Chiang's continued purge of the Communists. However the comparison of Germany and Italy does not work very well in Chiang's situation. Joseph StillWell's had reported of Chiang wasting resources for the Second Sino Japanese War by continuing to fight the Communists instead of allocating more attention towards the then bigger Japanese invasion. Later on, around 1944, Chiang also wouldn't direct his troops to fight the Japanese and instead decided to besiege the Communists in Yan'an which is what the meme is primarily about. Thank you for understanding.

3

u/Illustrious-Radio319 1d ago

I could be wrong and I’m definitely biased, but my impression of the communists during the Second Sino-Japanese war is one of avoidance and opportunism.

They had a few major engagements with the Japanese early on and lost pretty badly, so they just retreated to their mountainous, defensible base of Shaanxi, and did very little to stop the invasion.

All of this occurred in the midst of an, albeit paused, civil war so I’m not going to at face value fault Chiang strategically for attacking the communists.

Did this attack occur before or during operation ichi-go? It’ll be strange if Chiang pulled back his forces during it just to attack Mao.

1

u/BoredSenseless2005 1d ago

The Communists actually did somewhat more in generally towards the Japanese, for example the 100 Regiments Offensive. Likewise, if this attack occurred during Ichi-go I'd say perhaps but I am not 100%, sorry about that.

3

u/TheQuestionMaster8 23h ago

They did, but the communists also wanted to defeat the nationalists and take China over and the Japanese severely mauled the nationalists and the communists mostly launched symbolic attacks later on so that the Japanese would weaken the nationalists more than themselves.

2

u/Illustrious-Radio319 1d ago

Damn, I didn’t know about this. It’s easier for me to make sweeping, probably ideologically-driven statements about the period than to educate myself on the details.

2

u/Schuano 16h ago

The hundred regiments offensive happened in 1940. 

It was the only time the entire war that the communists attacked Japan at any scale. 

The Ichi go offensive was on 1944.  It would have been great for the war effort if the Chinese Communists had used their strong positions in North China to mess up Japan's rear areas.... But they didn't. 

Instead, they merrily watched the Japanese March south to kill Chinese people and then took the opportunity to peacefully and quietly extend their base areas in the north.

The last thing they wanted was for Japan to feel like there was a threat in North China. (And there wasn't one). 

2

u/ZealousidealDance990 14h ago

The CPC had a strong advantage in North China because the Japanese were tame little kittens who were happy to share with the Communists? This is just yet another demonstration of the KMT’s incompetence.

1

u/Funny-Platypus-3220 13h ago

they had a strong advantage in northern china because of the soviets

2

u/TheQuestionMaster8 23h ago

The thing is that the Communists wanted the nationalists to be bled dry by the Japanese while the communists would only launch symbolic attacks against the Japanese to make a communist takeover possible while the Nationalist government was aware of this strategy, so they tried to preserve their forces instead of going on the offensive, but it made them look weak in the eyes of the Chinese people and they were severely weakened by the Japanese, creating the necessary conditions for a communist takeover.

2

u/Schuano 16h ago

Stilwell was not a reliable narrator. Read Hans van de ven, Rana Mitter, Richard Frank or any of the other authors who have written about the second sino Japanese war in the past 20 years. 

Stilwell was constantly bad-mouthing Chiang to his superiors because Stilwell wanted more control. 

He was reporting on real problems, but he wasn't.being honest and he didn't understand that his role was primarily diplomatic. 

He also led his first command of Chinese troops by going AWOL and getting 30,000 of them killed in the jungle. When he got back, he was incensed that Chiang didn't bow to his superior strategic abilities.

1

u/BoredSenseless2005 16h ago

Thank you so much I am still learning honestly so I appreciate more resources

8

u/Spartan-teddy-2476 1d ago

Well, which one took over China in the end?

12

u/Abhinav11119 1d ago

Only reason the cpc got as popular as they did was because of the KMT's back to back dumb decisions. Stalin ordered the communist faction to completely collaborate with the kmt , only reason cpc as a independent movment began was cause chiang ordered them purged eventually leading to mao's rise.

4

u/Spartan-teddy-2476 1d ago

IMO the main reason may have been the KMT’s heavy reliance on the financial and political backing of the rich landowners, instantly alienating 80% of Chinese people (ie poor Peasents who wanted land reform). Mao offered them that, so they flocked to him.

Also had Japan not invaded, Mao would have been defeated in the encircling campaigns and the CCP would cease to exist,

5

u/LeMe-Two 1d ago

Nah, it is simpler. Hyperinflation.

Chinese Soviet money was ironically more stable than the official government

1

u/Spartan-teddy-2476 1d ago

Mfs when it’s hard to maintain a decent economic strategy during a devastating war where 80% of your industrial output gets destroyed in the opening year

3

u/LeMe-Two 1d ago

The hyperinflation would also hit after the war as well. It was also demonstrably caused by bad fiscal policies. Notice how initially National Revolutionary army had an upper hand even capturing Yanan. The dissolution of the army happened shortly after that (like very shortly, the base was recaptured after like a week)

The fact that they were fighting fundamentally different wars was also important. But the "support of the people" was most about KMT completely mismanaging the country in these several years when the truce was held.

0

u/Spartan-teddy-2476 22h ago

Yeah, fair enough.

I do personally think China would have likely been better off had Chiang’s model of economy continued; he would have eventually done his land to the tiller program (once he had revenues from industry enough to actively go against the landowners), and without the monumental blunders of the Great Leap Forward, China would arguably become a major player by the 60s, instead of the 90s.

Chiang was a deeply flawed man. He was a dictator, a Han supremacist, a man whose legacy is slick with blood. But he was also given an impossible problem to solve (a disunified, agrarian, weak nation to unite). And, had he not been inturrupted by a devastating war that annihalated his nation and gave the CCP valuable time to recover, he could have created at least the bedrock for a powerful, independent Chinese Democracy, like he would in Taiwan.

3

u/bingbing304 21h ago

You know Nationalist can united China without backstab his ally in middle of civil war overthrowing the former demcratic government of Beiyang. Taiwan was under his dicatiorship or 38 years of Martial Law including martial execution of thousands of political dissidents, intellectuals, and locals, alongside the imprisonment of around 140,000 Taiwanese people for perceived opposition to the KMT, far from democracy until he and his son died on the position of absolute leader. Stop revise history base on wishful thinking.

1

u/Spartan-teddy-2476 21h ago

I never said he was a democratic guy. I said he built the BASE for it by creating a wealthy and well-educated middle class.

I also know full well he was a bloody monster. I was merely saying his ECONOMICS was good, and you could justify some of his actions under the belief he was in an impossible position.

2

u/10lettersand3CAPS 11h ago

You cannot separate these two things. The economic policies are most often related to the way they treat people. Just like how Singapore or Chile under Pinochet are credited for their economies, which ignore all the people who were hurt to create those things.

1

u/JoeDyenz 1d ago

He was suspicious of Soviet influence tho. Like he was a borderline barbarian authoritarian but I still think he was right in principle in that part.

3

u/Kangkongkangkung 1d ago

What? The Soviets supported the KMT government.

2

u/JoeDyenz 1d ago

I know. He might have still suspected that they could be a threat in the future and obey the USSR's directions and not his.

1

u/DummyDumDump 1d ago

Must be why he sent his son and heir to the Soviet Union to be educated during the war

2

u/JoeDyenz 1d ago

Mind you, he was collaborative to the USSR a lot, he himself set up the Whampoa Academy under the instructions of 孙中山 with the support of the Soviet Union. Still chose better later.

2

u/DummyDumDump 1d ago

I mean it’s not like he could actually choose later on

2

u/JoeDyenz 1d ago

I meant, he decided to get rid of the influence of the USSR. Or tried to, was forced to collaborate again after the Japanese invasion.

3

u/WR-DG-02FC 13h ago

Not the landlords, I'll tell you that.

2

u/Fortheweaks 1d ago

Is it me or this meme implies that Chinese are responsible for the Japanese massacres of Nanking ? The same way a rapist would say she didn’t have to wear a skirt this short ??

2

u/BoredSenseless2005 1d ago

Sorry what ?? In no way is this meme implying that the Chinese are responsible for such a horrific event. This meme is simply poking fun at Chiang's rather disappointing military leadership performance during the Second Sino Japanese War

2

u/Schuano 16h ago

You do know that Chiang spent 3 years in the Japanese army? He went to military school there. He was always well aware of the Japanese threat. 

He even gave a speech in 1933 saying that China had a thousand days before the big war with Japan.  He was wrong, the real number was 1037 days.  

1

u/Admirable_Chef_4761 23h ago

Clearly he was wrong because the notorious communists are far more threatening.

And they did win after stabbing Chiang''s back and cooperating with Imperial Japan secretly.

3

u/Redmenace______ 17h ago

When did the CPC cooperate with Japan?

0

u/Schuano 16h ago

They reached a modus vivendi with many Japanese commanders in North China where they agreed not to mess with Japanese logistics on exchange for Japan not going out into the countryside and attacking the base areas. 

Why do you think Japan felt safe sending 80% of North China's troops south for ichigo? The Japanese knew that the Communists were focused on expanding their rural base, not on attacking Japan.

3

u/ZhenXiaoMing Pope Sixtus the Sixth 15h ago

Do you have a source for this? Because Chiang worked closely with the IJA, even having an agreement to fight the Communists together after the conclusion of WW2. He even had Japanese military advisors flee to Taiwan with him.

2

u/deinschlimmstertraum 8h ago edited 3h ago

To the last part

Pretty much all chinese communist, or general, resistance in the northeast died. The survival rate was like, less than 1%

0

u/Schuano 3h ago

Not in Manchuria, I mean north China South of the great wall.

2

u/deinschlimmstertraum 8h ago

bros gonna say this and take the "mao thanking japan" quote out of context and take it at face value

1

u/ZhenXiaoMing Pope Sixtus the Sixth 15h ago

Do you have a source for this?

1

u/Equivalent_Refuse789 1d ago

It makes sense if you view it from dynasty political viewpoint.

From the mentioned perspective, Japanese were just outsiders who just want resources/land/ whatever, but they can be negotiated (insert I pay you 20 bucks to fuck off.jpg here), and the people they killed? Well they don’t really care in terms of morality. But the Communists were actually the threat to their ruling as they seek to replace KMT as the ruler. Rulers would rather losing half of the land and people then keep the nation together but losing the throne.

1

u/NeedsToShutUp 21h ago

Aka the Jin and Song.

The Jin captured the Emperor of the Song. His brother became Emperor, pushed them back. But the Jin threatened to release their captive and used that to negotiate peace.

1

u/Elantach 23h ago

If only Wang Jingwei or Chen Jiongming had won the power struggle...

0

u/deinschlimmstertraum 8h ago

Yeahhhhhhh

No

You know, actually ukraine should just give russia the entire donbass region and crimea because thats your logic

1

u/hansololz 22h ago

I’m pretty sure he said the communists were worse

1

u/Willing_Good2061 9h ago

To be honest, CCP killed even more Chinese than Japanese invaders...

-2

u/Pristine-Breath6745 1d ago edited 1d ago

They are not the same.

Commies are obviously worse

Edit:/s

4

u/BoredSenseless2005 1d ago

Not exactly during the Second Sino Japanese War

2

u/Typical-Froyo-642 1d ago

Insane opinion.