Immediate post-war clashes (1945–1946)
From left to right: US diplomat Patrick J. Hurley, Chiang Ching-kuo, Chiang Kai-shek Chiang Kai-shek (31 October 1887 – 5 April 1975) was a political and military leader of 20th century China. He was an influential member of the Kuomintang (KMT) and Sun Yat-sen's close ally. He became the commandant of Kuomintang's Whampoa Military Academy and took Sun's place in the party when the latter died in 1925. In 1928, Chiang led the, Chang Ch'ün, Wang Shi Jie (王世杰), Mao Zedong Mao Zedong pronunciation (help·info) (26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976) was a Chinese Communist leader. Mao led the Communist Party of China (CPC) to victory against the Kuomintang (KMT) in the Chinese Civil War, and was the leader of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) from its establishment in 1949 until his death in 1976. Chairman MaoAtomic bombs were dropped The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were nuclear attacks near the end of World War II against the Empire of Japan by the United States at the executive order of U.S. President Harry S. Truman on August 6 and August 9, 1945, respectively. After six months of intense fire-bombing of 67 other Japanese cities, followed by an ultimatum which on Hiroshima The Japanese city of Hiroshima ( listen (help·info)) is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture, and the largest city in the Chūgoku region of western Honshū, the largest island of Japan. It became the first city in history subjected to nuclear warfare when the United States of America dropped a nuclear bomb on it on August 6, 1945 during World War and Nagasaki Nagasaki ( listen (help·info)) is the capital and the largest city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyūshū in Japan. Nagasaki was founded by the Portuguese in the 16th century. It was formerly part of Nishisonogi District. It was a center of Portuguese and European influence in the 16th through 19th centuries. Nagasaki became a major in 1945.[30] Under the terms of the Japanese unconditional surrender Unconditional surrender is a surrender without conditions, except for those provided by international law. Announcing that only unconditional surrender is acceptable puts psychological pressure on a weaker adversary. The most notable uses of the term have been by the Confederate States of America to the United States in the American Civil War and dictated by the United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its 48 contiguous states and Washington, D.C., the capital district, lie between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, bordered by Canada to the north and Mexico to the south, Japanese troops were ordered to surrender to KMT troops and not to the CPC present in some of the occupied areas.[31] In Manchuria Manchuria is a historical name given to a vast geographic region in northeast Asia. Depending on the definition of its extent, Manchuria either falls entirely within China, or is divided between China and Russia. The region is commonly referred to as Northeast China , and historically referred as Guandong (Chinese: 關東; pinyin: guāndōng), the Japanese surrendered to the Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , occasionally called the United Soviet Socialist Republic, was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the Russian: Союз Советских Социалистических Республик (help·info), tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh. However the KMT had no forces in Manchuria. Chiang Kai-Shek ordered the Japanese troops to remain at their post to receive the Kuomintang and not surrender their arms to the communists.[31]
The first post-war peace negotiation was attended by both Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Zedong in Chongqing The municipal abbreviation, 渝 , was approved by the State Council on 18 April 1997. Chongqing was also a municipality of the old Republic of China. Its abbreviated name is derived from the old name of a part of the Jialing River that runs through Chongqing and feeds the Yangtze River from August 28, 1945 to Oct 10, 1945.[32] Both sides stressed the importance of a peaceful reconstruction, but the conference did not produce any concrete result.[32] Battles between the two sides continued even as the peace negotiation was in progress, until the agreement was reached in January 1946. However, large campaigns and full scale confrontations between the CPC and Chiang's own troops were temporarily avoided.
In the last month of World War II World War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all of the great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. The war involved the mobilization of over 100 million military personnel, making it the most widespread war in history in East Asia East Asia or Eastern Asia is a subregion of Asia that can be defined in either geographical or cultural terms. Geographically and geopolitically, it covers about 12,000,000 km2 (4,600,000 sq mi), or about 28 percent of the Asian continent, about 15 percent bigger than the area of Europe, though some categorize Tibet, Xinjiang, and Mongolia as, Soviet forces launched the mammoth Manchurian Strategic Offensive Operation to attack the Japanese in Manchuria and along the Chinese-Mongolian border.[33] This operation destroyed the fighting capability of the Kwantung Army The Kwantung Army , also known as the Guandong Army (simplified Chinese: 关东军; traditional Chinese: 關東軍; pinyin: Guāndōngjūn; Wade-Giles: Kwan-tung chün; Korean: 관동군), was an army group of the Imperial Japanese Army in the early twentieth century. It became the largest and most prestigious command in the IJA. Many of its and left the USSR in occupation of all of Manchuria by the end of the war. Consequently, the 700,000 Japanese troops stationed in the region surrendered. Later in the year, Chiang Kai-shek realized that he lacked the resources to prevent a CPC takeover of Manchuria following the scheduled Soviet departure. He therefore made a deal with the Russians to delay their withdrawal until he had moved enough of his best-trained men and modern material into the region. KMT troops were then airlifted Airlifting consists of two distinct types, strategic and tactical airlifting. Typically, strategic airlifting involves moving materiel long distances , whereas a tactical airlift focuses on deploying resources and material into a specific location with high precision by the United States to occupy key cities in North China It is defined by the Chinese government to include the municipalities of Beijing and Tianjin, the provinces of Hebei and Shanxi, and Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, while the countryside was already dominated by the CPC. The Soviets spent the extra time systematically dismantling the extensive Manchurian industrial base (worth up to 2 billion dollars) and shipping it back to their war-ravaged country.[34]
The truce fell apart in June 1946, when full scale war between CPC and KMT broke out on June 26. China then entered a state of civil war A civil war is a war between organized groups within a single nation state, or, less commonly, between two nations created from a formerly-united nation state. The aim of one side may be to take control of the nation or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies. It is high-intensity conflict, often involving that lasted more than three years.[35]
<<Table of Contents The Chinese Civil War was fought between the Kuomintang (KMT or Chinese Nationalist Party) and the Communist Party of China (CPC). The war began in April 1927, amidst the Northern Expedition,. The war represented an ideological split between the Western-supported Nationalist KMT and the Soviet-supported Communist CPC. In communist historiography | Next>> | Show All>>
