The Reluctant Combatant

“The Reluctant Combatant – Japan and the Second Sino-Japanese War” has been published in book form by University Press of America, Inc., 4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706. (ISBN:978-0-7618-6324-3)
Therefore, the main content has been removed from this site.
Afterword of the book is reproduced here for reference.
Also, Table of Contents are left for readers’ reference.
AFTERWORD
The Reluctant Combatant: Japan and the Second Sino-Japanese War has already been posted to the website of the Society for the Dissemination of Historical Fact, moderated by Mr. Moteki Hiromichi. For the past several years the Society has been uploading books to the Internet as part of its mission to shed light on the truth about modern Asian history. The Reluctant Combatant is one of nearly 20 books that appear, in English translation, on that website, located at https://www.sdh-fact.com/index.html.
The authors are delighted to have The Reluctant Combatant —the fruit of a collaboration between two scholars, one Japanese and the other Chinese — published by the University Press of America. This is an event of great significance to us. We extend our deepest appreciation to Mr. Moteki, who oversaw the preparation of the English edition. We are also grateful to Connie Prener for her lucid translation of a work that covers a broad spectrum of historical events.
We wrote The Reluctant Combatant with the intention of using it as a history textbook; the Japanese edition is already serving that purpose
at Ritsumeikan University. It is our earnest hope that the translation of our book into English, the global language, will convey the reality of the Second Sino-Japanese War to readers throughout the world.
CONTENTS
PREFACE …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
INTRODUCTION: INTERNATIONAL POLITICS AND WAR…………………………………………………………………
I. The Second Sino-Japanese War and world history ……………………………………………………………………………………….
Modernization and armament …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
The flowering of social Darwinism …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
War legitimized and regulated …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
II. Aggressive wars not considered crimes ………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
Perversion of international law ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
World War I and the Pact of Paris …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
Are wars of aggression war crimes? ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Central principle of international law: wars of aggression are not war crimes ………………………………………………….
Nazi Germany’s evil aggressive war declared war crime …………………………………………………………………………………………….
III. Japan: victim of circumstance ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Blanket application of new standard …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
Fabrication of the Nanjing “massacre” ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
CHAPTER 1: EVENTS LEADING UP TO THE SECOND SINO-JAPANESE WAR ………………………………
I. Japan and China join European-oriented international order …………………………………………………………………
First sign of discord between Japan and China …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
System reforms based on Japanese model: progress and reversals ……………………………………………………………………….
Further attempts at reform; eagerness to study in Japan …………………………………………………………………………………………….
The Xinhai Revolution and the collapse of the Qing dynasty ………………………………………………………………………………………
II. Russo-Japanese War spawns a new conflict ………………………………………………………………………………………………….
Japan attempts to stabilize Manchurian interests ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………
III. Tension between Japan and China heightens ………………………………………………………………………………………………
Emergence of ROC Nationalist government ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
The Mukden Incident …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
War between Nationalists and Communists begins and ends …………………………………………………………………………………..
CHAPTER 2: CHINA AND THE SECOND SINO-JAPANESE WAR ………………………………………………………..
I. Behind the groundswell of support for war against Japan ……………………………………………………………………..
The debate: make war or make peace? ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
Aftermath of the Mukden Incident: war or peace? ………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
Ebullience of the hawks ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
The doves’ anguish ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
The doves’ contribution ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Politically motivated hawks ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
The Xi’an Incident …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
II. From the Marco Polo Bridge Incident to full-blown war …………………………………………………………………………..
The Marco Polo Bridge Incident and Chiang Kai-shek’s distress ………………………………………………………………………………
Chiang falls into own trap …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
The arrogance of an NHK special broadcast ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
CHAPTER 3: JAPAN AND THE SECOND SINO-JAPANESE WAR ………………………………………………………..
I. Japan’s response to the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War ……………………………………………………..
Non-expansionist policy ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
Inconsistent war leadership ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
Total war begins ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
II. Initial peace overtures …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
German ambassador’s attempts ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
Peacemaking efforts fail ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Japan shifts into wartime mode ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
III. The war in the context of international politics ………………………………………………………………………………………….
The Nationalist defense plan and Nazi Germany ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
Shifts in Sino-German relations ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
Complex nexus involving USSR, China, Germany and Japan ………………………………………………………………………………………
CHAPTER 4: THE SECOND SINO-JAPANESE WAR AND CHINESE SOCIETY …………………………………
I. Who fought in the war? …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
Urban-rural unity never achieved ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
Obscurantism …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
Chinese soldiers targets of obscurantism ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
The sad truth about peasant-soldiers ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Chinese soldiers no match for Japanese……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
II. Recruitment of soldiers in China………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
Young men abducted to serve in the army …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Conscripts’ sad fate ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
Peasants’ vain sacrifice ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
CHAPTER 5: WAR DYNAMICS ALTER CHINESE SOCIETY …………………………………………………………………
I. The effect of Japanese occupation ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
Herculean Japanese efforts to feed civilians ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
CCP gains members and support from farmers ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
NRA’s exploitation of peasants …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Japanese protect urban residents at peasants’ expense ……………………………………………………………………………………………….
II. Establishment of pro-Japan governments ……………………………………………………………………………………………………..
Fragile governments …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
Formation of Wang Jingwei’s government …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Legitimacy and illegitimacy in China ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
The Second Sino-Japanese War and Nationalist-Communist civil strife ……………………………………………………………….
CHAPTER 6: FROM THE SECOND SINO-JAPANESE WAR TO THE PACIFIC WAR……………………….
I. Japanese government’s efforts to negotiate peace with Nationalist government ……………………………..
The new order in East Asia and Wang Jingwei’s government ……………………………………………………………………………………
Formation of Wang government fraught with problems …………………………………………………………………………………………….
The quagmire of protracted war……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
Army General Staff attempts to negotiate with Chiang …………………………………………………………………………………………………
Attempts by the Japanese government to make peace …………………………………………………………………………………………………
II. The road to the Pacific War ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
American neutrality ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
The New East Asian Order and the US ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
The US prepares for war in earnest ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
The Pacific War and the political situation in China ………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
CHAPTER 7: THE CHINESE PERCEPTION OF HISTORY …………………………………………………………………….
I. Chinese views about crimes and punishment ………………………………………………………………………………………………..
Are crimes finite? ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Crimes for all eternity …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
II. Confucian ethics encourage lying: the bihui syndrome ……………………………………………………………………………..
The bihui syndrome ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Bihui motivated by patriotism ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
Patriotic lies persist ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
Fabricated history ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
The Japanese and historical issues …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..