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China's Civil War

This version was saved 12 years, 12 months ago View current version     Page history
Saved by Bob Andrian
on March 24, 2011 at 12:51:30 pm
 

The Impact of China's Civil War: 1945-49

 

This map illustrates how the Civil War between the Nationalists and Communists played out in its final five years. Jung Chang's family in Wild Swans was living in Jinzhou in Manchuria at the time.

http://www.coldwarstudies.com/2010/05/12/war-in-korea/

 

Bitter enemies, Mao and Jiang enjoyed a momentary toast after the Japanese surrender ending World War II.

http://www.life.com/image/50499891

 

As Jung Chang describes in her memoir, Wild Swans, many Japanese struggled to accept their surrender, and many Chinese showed no mercy on their former colonialists:

 

     One morning a few days after the surrender [August, 1945], the Xia's [her family] Japanese neighbors

     were found dead. Some said they had poisoned themselves. All over Jinzhou Japanese were committing

     suicide or being lynched. Japanese homes were looted and my mother noticed that one of her poor neigh-

     bors suddenly had quite a lot of valuable items for sale. Schoolchildren revenged themselves on their

     Japanese teachers and beat them up ferociously. Some Japanese left their babies on the doorsteps of

     local families in the hope that they would be saved. A number of Japanese women were raped; many 

     shaved their heads to try to pass as men. (76)

 

Three more armies would make their way into Jinzhou in the ensuing months ostensibly as liberators of the Chinese. First came the Russians who regrettably ended up "liberating" key Chinese possessions and taking them for themselves (including oil refinery equipment):

 

Russian soldiers would walk into people's homes and simply take anything they fancied---watches and clothes

    in particular. Stories about Russians raping local women swept Jinzhou like wildfire. Many women went in to hiding

     for fear of their "liberators." Very soon the city seething with anger and anxiety.

 

The Chinese Communists followed the Russians a week later. They were a rather "rag-tag" appearing bunch. Despite American Soviet support of the Nationalists (quite a bit of support in the U.S. case), the Communists had the strongest bases in Manchuria (see map above).

 

     When [my mother] got [to the meeting] she saw a number of shabby Chinese men--and a few women--

     making speeches about how they had fought eight years to defeat the Japanese so that ordinary people

     could be the masters of a new China. ... These were Communists--Chinese Communists. ... The women

     Communists at the meeting wore shapeless clothes exactly like the men. My mother thought to herself:

     How could you claim to have defeated the Japanese? You haven't even got decent guns or clothes. To her,

     the Communists looked poorer and scruffier than beggars. (78)

 

 

 

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