Clash of Empires in South China ：The Allied Nations' Proxy War with Japan, 1935-1941

Publication subTitle ：The Allied Nations' Proxy War with Japan, 1935-1941

Author： Macri > Franco David

Publisher： University Press of Kansas‎

Publication year： 2015

E-ISBN: 9780700621835

P-ISBN(Paperback): 9780700621088

Subject： K265 During the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression (1937 - 1945)

Keyword：亚洲史,中国史,世界军事

Language： ENG

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Description

Japan's invasion of China in 1937 saw most major campaigns north of the Yangtze River, where Chinese industry was concentrated. The southern theater proved a more difficult challenge for Japan because of its enormous size, diverse terrain, and poor infrastructure, but Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek made a formidable stand that produced a veritable quagmire for a superior opponent-a stalemate much desired by the Allied nations.

In the first book to cover this southern theater in detail, David Macri closely examines strategic decisions, campaigns, and operations and shows how they affected Allied grand strategy. Drawing on documents of U.S. and British officials, he reveals for the first time how the Sino-Japanese War served as a "proxy war" for the Allies: by keeping Japan's military resources focused on southern China, they hoped to keep the enemy bogged down in a war of attrition that would prevent them from breaching British and Soviet territory.

While the most immediate concern was preserving Siberia and its vast resources from invasion, Macri identifies Hong Kong as the keystone in that proxy war—vital in sustaining Chinese resistance against Japan as it provided the logistical interface between the outside world and battles in Hunan and Kwangtung provinces; a situation that emerged because of its vital rail connection to the city of Changsha. He describes the development of Anglo-Japanese low-intensity conflict at Hong Kong; he then explains the geopo