From: lix@BUCRSB.BU.EDU
Newsgroups: soc.culture.china
Subject: Forward for Mr. Anonymous, #2
Date: 9 Apr 92 22:19:49 GMT

Again, please note this is not article of mine.
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   Footnote on Sino-Japanese War and Related Issues -- No.2

Let us continue with our comments on Mr. Joe Huang's expertly opinions
about WWII.

In his creative belief that the Japanese chose to surrender to
Chungking rather than to China, Mr. Huang argued "theoretically" that 
Chungking only referred to the Armed Forces command. What exactly
does that name mean?  Would he care to give us its Chinese name as well?

There is no doubt that in Mr. Huang's mind Chungking then was rather like 
Riyadh or Dhahran during the Desert Storm where some American and British 
generals were calling the shots.  Along this line, could our learned expert 
answer or explain the following:

(1) How could Chiang Kai-shek fire the top American general in China,
namely the old Joe Stilwell, after the latter had just won a great and
somewhat personalized victory (using exclusively Chinese* troops) in the 
Second Burma Campaign?  Would it not be akin to King Fahd firing General 
Norman Schwarzkopf just before the final days of the Desert Storm, and
just as preposterous?

           *) A leading Korean professor of history asserts that Chiang 
           also sent in a body of Korean troops to help, no doubt to boost
           the international standing of the provisional Korean Government
           (in Chongqing) who had remained a close and loyal friend to
           China through thick and thin.  One thing was beyond dispute:
           all of Stilwell's troops involved in the campaign wore Chinese
           insignia, American liaison officers being no exception.

(2) How could CKS, ignoring strong British protests and obstruction, visit 
India and Mahatma Gandhi, and openly support the Congress Party's struggle 
for Indian independence, and do so during the darkest days of WWII, when
British defeatism led to the Allies' near-collapse, in 1942?   And,
incidentally, what  did Mahatma Gandhi present to CKS as a gift to all
Chinese people?   How could the British on Mr. Huang's mysterious
Zhongqing[sic] "Armed Forces command" (whatever that was) possibly swallow
this effrontery and undisguised effort by China to deprive Britain of her
most precious "Jewel of the Crown" in Asia without at least walking out of
the Alliance, the dispirited and desperate British soldiers to be or having 
been rescued by Chinese troops in Burma notwithstanding?  Why did the 
British fail to do a "Sikorski" on CKS en route to or from India?   Even 
better, what did the story of Sikorski tell us?

(3) Side questions: where and how did His Holiness the (teenager) Dalai
Lama, his various pre-incarnations, and their regents stand on the crucial
issue of India's independence from Britain, which was of course the Kashag
government's most prominent and possibly sole patron?  If CKS were under
the thumbs of the Americans and the British in that "Armed Forces command",
why were Chinese Government troops ready to march into what is now the
Tibet Autonomous Region in 1942?  Why was the prospect of "Chinese
invasion" so real that the British had to tell the Dalai Lama's serfs-
holding friends in 1942 that they would be on their own if they continued
to obstruct the Chinese Government's war efforts?  If the mysterious
"Armed Forces command" had held sway in Chungking as Mr. Huang would have
us believe, why was the British rebuffed by the U.S. when they tried to
get American recognition of the Dalai Lama's claims in May 1943?

(4) Let's now turn to 1944, the year when the Japanese were alleged by our
East Asia expert to have beaten or nearly beaten China.  Could our expert
explain why in the last peace feeler made to "Zhongqing" Japan said it
would accept a (separate) settlement with China involving complete
withdrawal of Japanese troops and the return of all stolen Chinese
territories including "Manchuria" AND "Formosa"?  In fact, could our East 
Asia expert tell us why the Japanese launched their offensive in 1944 in
the first place? 

(5) A recent book says that for some time after 1945 Chinese citizens in
Japan could not be arrested by Japanese police.  Could our East Asia expert 
tell us why?  If Japan did not see itself defeated by China, why was it
possible that Chinese citizens in Japan, mostly "Formosans", received 
such exemption?  Can Mr. Huang explain how the Japanese police used local
gangsters to attack Chinese citizens living in Japan?

(6) Did Chen Gong-bo, a pro-Japanese traitor (and a founding father of the 
CCP), flee to Japan after August 15, 1945?  If yes, was he allowed to
stay?  Who took him back to stand trial in Suzhou?  What finally happened
to Chen?  What happened to his fellow traitor Chen Bi-jun?  By contrast,
why was the leading Indian collaborator allowed to go scot-free despite his
"seditious acts" against the "Emperor of India" and King of England?  Could
our East Asia expert tell us his name?  Could he explain why the mysterious
Zhongqing[sic] "Armed Forces command" failed to catch him?  What happened
to this man? Who accompanied him in his flight?

(7) Why did General Honjo Shigeru die?  When? Why?  Which country was
demanding his arrest? 

(8) An individual regarded by almost all Chinese as a psychopathetic liar
once wrote:

" The mainland Chinese normally revealed a dread of any confrontation with
the Japanese or with forces efficiently trained by the Japanese."
                +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++   (author's
original emphasis)

Any comments that Mr. Huang, who undoubtedly regards the author as
a worthy hero, the much-resented "Foreign-Moon" syndrome notwithstanding,
care to make?   

Netters may again see what an East Asian expert we have, just as we
did during the Sonam Gyatso letter episode and its aftermath.

Next time we shall start discussing some specifics, particularly
about the Ichigo Offensive (was it considered a Nipponese victory as
suggested by our expert, as a start?).
Newsgroups: soc.culture.china