Forgotten Ally
China's eight-year war against Japan — fourteen million dead, and a story the West wrote out of the war.
The Verdict
The standard modern history of the war's least-known major theatre, and a key to understanding China today. Rana Mitter tells the story of China's eight-year war against Japan — a struggle that cost perhaps fourteen million lives, tied down a million Japanese troops, and was all but written out of the Western account of the war. He restores it with clarity and balance, navigating the fraught politics of Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalists, Mao's Communists, and a population caught between. Indispensable for seeing the war whole.
Who Should Read It
Read it if you want
- The Chinese theatre of WWII in full
- The war's missing front
- Context for modern China's national memory
- Balanced political and military history
Look elsewhere if you want
- A Pacific-island or naval focus
- A short overview
- The war without the politics
Why We Rated It 4.5
Historical Context
Forgotten Ally covers China's war against Japan from 1937 to 1945, including the immense civilian toll and the rivalry between Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalists and Mao's Communists. Published in 2013 (in the UK as China's War with Japan), it is among the standard modern English-language accounts of the theatre.
Events Covered
Editions & Reading Notes
Read It Alongside
Collector's Corner
Where to Buy
ISBN: 978-0544334502
Read This Against
The same events seen from a different vantage point. The fullest understanding often lives in the space between accounts that don't agree.
Other Books About the Same Events
Frequently Asked Questions
- Why is China called the 'forgotten ally'?
- Because its enormous, costly war against Japan was largely written out of the Western narrative of WWII, despite tying down huge Japanese forces.
- Is it the same book as China's War with Japan?
- Yes — that is the UK title for the same work.