Where was Chairman Mao during all this????

Mao was the enemy of the Nationalist government at that time(the government shown in the film) he probably went into hiding.

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[deleted]

I thought it was common knowledge that the US stayed the hell out of World War II, because they were profiting from it

Funny, it seemed like Chamberlain was trying to do the same thing at that time...

I AM right remembering it was him that said "Peace in our time"???

I AM right remembering that the UK's and France's promises to defend Poland were little more than vacant posturing at the time of the fall of Poland, right? (Causing the "Phony War.")

I AM right remembering that Great Britain was pushed off the European Continent in about six weeks, correct? (The same amount of time as the Rape of Nanking...)

The United States has never sought colonies in foreign lands. Hong Kong was a British Colony. The UK had major interests in Shanghai. Where the hell was Britain - the most powerful empire in the world at the time - when the Japanese were taking all their Asian colonies from them?

You want to compare our ideologies of US isolationism again the European policy of laying down and spreading their legs for the Nazis and The Empire of Japan, I'm willing to go toe-to-toe with you any time.

..Joe

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I'm surprised this hasn't been noted. Anyone remember the Flying Tigers? The US was covertly fighting in China with pilots under the flag of the Nationalist China government. The Flying Tigers was a huge success and a chance for Americans to get some real wartime experience (just as they did in England, flying under British or Canadian colours [I'll even use the british spelling;) ]).

It appears they didn't fly combat missions until a few days after Dec 7, 1941, but it shows that there was more going on than trade.

One must also remember that territorial boundaries are not as they were in 1941, nor were the general feelings between our countries. The US held the Philippines as a territory (my grandfather was in Manila on Dec 7 when Japan started bombing). There was also a growing disdain as each government played off each other's refusal to give in during trade and 'peace' talks (the US demanded japan's pull back from offensive moves and reduce armemants while threatening to cut off oil and resources such as steel. Japan's move to south-asia was to gain some of these).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_tigers

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[deleted]

the generic assessment of this era in my modern history class, was that Maos communists avoided any real heavy lifting of fighting the invading Japanese, leaving it overwhelmingly to the Nationalists, while carefully arranging their propaganda to exaggerate their role and claim significant battles and victories out of very small ones.
You can see the angle there, the Nationalists knock themselves out against the Japanese, the Red Chinese preserve their strength for overwhelming Chiang after the war with (hopefully) the Japanese threat and occupation defeated by someone else (as it was).

LOL, thanks for providing the Nationalists' propaganda side of the story, namely:

1) the Nationalists' being distracted from destroying communists by the invading Japanese;

OR

2) the Nationalists' being distracted from repelling the Japanese by the rebelling communists;

So that everyone knows, either which way, it was the communists "fault" that the Nationalists "gave away" North-eastern China, was thoroughly unprepared for the invasion of Shanghai/Nanking, etc..

The simple reason why the communists didn't have to do any "heavy lifting" during the Japanese invasion was because they were not the "de facto" government of China-- the communist "regime" was recognized by no one but themselves, except maybe Comintern.

The Japanese needed to shock and awe China into surrender-- because they NEVER planned or had the resources to physically conquer every inch of China-- and so naturally concentrated their energies on Nanking (the Nationalists' Capital) and then Chunking (the Nationalists' Reserve/Back-up Capital).

But the Japanese also spent the entirety of their campaign trying and failing to bomb the communists out of Northern China... so I can assure you that the communists "reputation" amongst the people in the parts of Northern China-- which they held against the Japanese-- needed little "propagandizing".

Well, now you have both sides of the story-- all you need now to complete the picture is to have some right-wing Japanese to tell you why China NEEDED to be invaded by Japan (e.g. bringing peace and progress to China/Asia by imposing "pax Giapponese") or how they LEGALLY ruled/represented China (e.g. through "Manchuria", or the surrendered "Nanking regime/government", etc.).... LOL



"Because bad movies deserve to be hurt back!"-- Spoony

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