From: jwb@capek.rdt.monash.edu.au (Jim Breen)
Subject: History of Japan's Military Excursions in China
Organization: Monash University, Melb., Australia.
Date: Thu, 27 Aug 1992 23:29:52 GMT


[Eye-catching subject, ne?]

Well, as asked by Dave McLane, I have been delving into my history books.

Needless to say, nothing I have scanned provides any support for the theory
that Japanese troops were invited into China by the communists. (Of course, they
don't say that they *weren't*, but then it doesn't say they weren't invited by
the Russians, the Argentinians, the Martians, .....)

Take for example the late Richard Storry's "A History of Modern Japan." He has a chapter
on the period called "The Dark Valley" (kurai tanima) which provides an good overview 
of the period.

He describes the whole sorry mess is a fairly dispassionate way, treading
cautiously around the unproven assertion that the Japanese Kwantung Army carried 
out the assassination of Chang Tso-Lin, etc. What does emerge is:

(a) the activities of the Army were inextricably linked with domestic politics in
Japan, and in particular the moves by the Army and its associates to take
control of the government from the despised "politicians".

(b) the takeover of Manchuria in 1931 in the aftermath of the "Mudken Incident" was a
straightforward piece of land-grabbing. (pace Irak & Kuwait?) [This had a lot
of support in Japan, as domestic opinion was that Manchuria "belonged" to Japan.]
There was no sign of communist involvement, or invitation.

(c) the major escalations of 1937, both in the Peking/Tientsin area and in
Shanghai and the Yangtse valley, also show no signs of communist invitation. I
will quote from Storry here:

"Thus the clash nere Peking was allowed to widen into what became in fact an invasion 
of China. Undoubtedly this accorded with the plans of the Tosei-ha ["control school"
faction]. While there is no convincing evidence, as in the case of the Mudken coup,
that hostilities in north China in July 1937 originated in an incident planned by
Japanese officers on the spot, there is reason to believe that at General Staff 
Headquarters in Tokyo there was a feeling, especially among the colonels and below,
that the time had come to settle accounts with Chiang Kai-shek. For it was realised
that China's national unity in the face of Japanese pressure had been greatly
strengthened by the understanding that had been reached some months earlier between
Chiang and the Chinese Communists."

The last sentence here is very important, because it was in 1937 that the communists
and Kuomintang agreed that defeating the common Japanese enemy was the major task.
Up until then Chiang had spent considerable effort rooting out the communist bases, 
ultimately to the famed `Long March'. The Chinese civil was was, in effect, put on
hold for 8 years.

I could delve further, but the time really has come now for those asserting that
the JIA was invited in by the Chinese communists to produce some evidence.
-- 
Jim Breen                           JIS:$B%8%`!!%V%j!<%s(J
Department of Robotics & Digital Technology. Monash University. 
PO Box 197 Caulfield East VIC 3145 Australia (ph) +61 3 573 2552 
(fax) +61 3 573 2345  AARNet/Internet:jwb@capek.rdt.monash.edu.au  
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan