[United Kingdom] Rana Mitter / Author; Yang Xue / Translator: Constructing the Memory of China's War of Resistance within the Global History of War

The Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression remains, perhaps, the least understood aspect of World War II in the Western world, due to a variety of reasons. First, this war has not received the attention it deserves in Western nations. Second, the relevant primary sources are predominantly in Chinese or Japanese—two languages that remain less commonly studied in Europe and the Americas—and accessing these materials has proven quite difficult.

However, this situation has improved in recent years. Interest within Western academia regarding this period of wartime history is gradually increasing. Starting in the 1990s, prominent scholars such as Harvard University Professor Ezra Vogel encouraged collaboration between Chinese, Japanese, and Western scholars to jointly explore the history and impact of this war. Several other Western scholars, including Stephen MacKinnon, have also published significant works regarding China's wartime experience.

In 2013, I published Forgotten Ally: China’s World War II, 1937–1945, with the hope of presenting the political and social history of China during World War II to Western readers. I am deeply honored that the Chinese edition of this book has garnered significant attention and is regarded by many scholars as an important supplement to the field of War of Resistance studies.

Over the past decade, even more significant works focusing on the War of Resistance have emerged within Western academia. One major trend is the situating of the War of Resistance within the perspective of global history, emphasizing its position in the global landscape while drawing comparisons with the experiences of other nations. One of the most influential works of the past decade was produced by the British historian Hans van de Ven. I was once a doctoral student of Professor van de Ven and have benefited for many years from his highly innovative interpretations of the War of Resistance period.

It is our hope that research into the War of Resistance will continue to maintain its robust vitality and academic rigor in the future. Leading Chinese academic journals, such as The Journal of Studies of China's Resistance War Against Japanese Aggression (抗日战争研究), publish a wealth of in-depth research findings based on archival and library materials. However, for readers who do not understand Chinese, these studies remain difficult to access and comprehend. In the future, how to make these academic achievements more widely understood and utilized by the global academic community will become an urgent and essential task.

New research directions could also shift focus from the wartime period itself toward the post-war era. For years, research on post-war reconstruction in Europe has been prolific, with a large volume of important books and articles detailing the reconstruction processes in Eastern and Western Europe. In contrast, research on post-war Asia has been generally weaker. Studies on post-war Japan are relatively abundant, primarily benefiting from the opening of relevant data and the accessibility of archives since the 1950s.

Nevertheless, more signs of openness have appeared in recent years, and academia has begun to focus on several key issues that emerged after the Allies finally secured victory in Asia in 1945. For example, scholars have shown a growing interest in the international institutions established after World War II that profoundly influenced the fate of China, Asia, and indeed the world. One critical institution established at the end of the war was the United Nations. In U.S. President Roosevelt’s vision for the post-war world order, China played a key role. His "Four Policemen" ^[1] theory envisioned a body similar to a world council composed of the United States, Britain, the Soviet Union, and China, which would jointly maintain global peace. To this day, the United Nations remains at the core of the international order established in 1945. In recent years, understanding the historical origins of China's participation in the United Nations has become increasingly important.

Although China's history of the War of Resistance has not yet been fully integrated into the general Western perception of the global war, relevant research has increased significantly compared to a decade ago. Comparative social history is expected to become an important direction for future historiographical development. Understanding China's experience in the War of Resistance is not only of great significance to Chinese academia but should also be recognized globally. Therefore, relevant academic research should further explore the uniqueness of the Chinese experience while clarifying its commonalities with other regions of the world.

(The author is a British historian and Professor at the Harvard Kennedy School) Source: Chinese Social Sciences Net (中国社会科学网) – Chinese Social Sciences Today (中国社会科学报), July 7, 2025. Web Editor: Tongxin ^[2]