Historiographical Essay: The China-Japanese War
Historiographical Essay: The China-Japan War, 1931-1945
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Historiographical Essay
The China-Japan War, 1931-1945
David M. Gordon
TW AR, Sun Tzu tells us, "is of vital importance to the state, being the
arena in which life or death is decided and the pathway to survival or ruination." The Japanese invasion on 7 July 1937 put the Chinese
Republic in mortal danger. In the end, the Republic prevailed. But China was devastated. The war also made possible a successful Communist revolution that destroyed traditional society. By 1945, Japan, too, was almost destroyed. …show more content…
This essay surveys much of the literature on that war, published since the 1970s, from its origins to its end.
The war began in 1937. However, the events leading to it started almost twenty years earlier. Marius Jansen describes how, until the end of the First World War in 1918, Japan had participated with other nations in the division of China into spheres of influence.1 Unfortunately, the
Japanese were unable to adjust to the postwar anti-imperialist policies of
1. Marius B. Jansen, "Japanese Imperialism: Late Meiji Perspectives," in The
Japanese Colonial Empire, ed. Ramon H. Myers and MarkR. Peattie (Princeton, N.J.:
Princeton University Press, 1984), 61-79.
David M. Gordon received his M.A. and Ph.D. from Brown University, and is the author of several books and articles about French and European economic and political history. He is currently working on a study of European and American investments in pre-1949 China, and the advantages the war gave to French and
American entrepreneurs. Having previously taught at Kaohsiung National Teachers University, Taiwan, and the Ecole des Hautes Etudes, Paris, as well as several
American universities, he is presently a member of the History Department
Society for Military History is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Journal of Military History.
http://www.jstor.org
Historiographical Essay
The China-Japan War, 1931-1945
David M. Gordon
TW AR, Sun Tzu tells us, "is of vital importance to the state, being the
arena in which life or death is decided and the pathway to survival or ruination." The Japanese invasion on 7 July 1937 put the Chinese
Republic in mortal danger. In the end, the Republic prevailed. But China was devastated. The war also made possible a successful Communist revolution that destroyed traditional society. By 1945, Japan, too, was almost destroyed. …show more content…
This essay surveys much of the literature on that war, published since the 1970s, from its origins to its end.
The war began in 1937. However, the events leading to it started almost twenty years earlier. Marius Jansen describes how, until the end of the First World War in 1918, Japan had participated with other nations in the division of China into spheres of influence.1 Unfortunately, the
Japanese were unable to adjust to the postwar anti-imperialist policies of
1. Marius B. Jansen, "Japanese Imperialism: Late Meiji Perspectives," in The
Japanese Colonial Empire, ed. Ramon H. Myers and MarkR. Peattie (Princeton, N.J.:
Princeton University Press, 1984), 61-79.
David M. Gordon received his M.A. and Ph.D. from Brown University, and is the author of several books and articles about French and European economic and political history. He is currently working on a study of European and American investments in pre-1949 China, and the advantages the war gave to French and
American entrepreneurs. Having previously taught at Kaohsiung National Teachers University, Taiwan, and the Ecole des Hautes Etudes, Paris, as well as several
American universities, he is presently a member of the History Department