The Presidential Office yesterday expressed regret over comments made by a Chinese state-run newspaper that attributed China’s victory in the Second Sino-Japanese War to Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leadership, and accused the newspaper of distorting history.
Celebrating the 65th anniversary of the end of the Second Sino-Japanese War, the People’s Daily wrote in an editorial on Friday that the CCP’s leadership and effort through the conflict played a crucial role in China’s victory in the war, which lasted from 1937 to 1945. The editorial did not mention Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) nor the role of Chiang’s Nationalist Party and its military.
The editorial drew immediate concern from President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), who instructed Presidential Office Spokesman Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強) to clarify the issue yesterday.
Lo said that the eight-year war ended with Japan’s surrender in 1945 thanks to the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the then-Republic of China (ROC) government.
While acknowledging the CCP military also played a role in fighting the war, Lo said that soldiers from the ROC fought on the frontline and won major battles during the war in Shanghai and Nanking.
“We won the eight-year war under the leadership of the ROC government. That is a historical fact and the only truth,” he said.
The war was the largest Asian war in the 20th century, and was the result of a decade-long Japanese policy of seeking to dominate China. A civil war in China soon followed in 1945, and ended in 1949 with the KMT retreating to Taiwan.
Defending the KMT’s role in fighting the war, Lo said CCP Chairman Hu Jintao (胡錦濤), in a speech on the 60th anniversary of the end of the war in 2005, had acknowledged the KMT’s efforts to jointly fight against Japan alongside regiments led by the CCP.
The comments from Hu showed that the Chinese government has acknowledged the historical truth that the KMT-led military force played a major role in the victory of the war, he added.
The Ministry of National Defense yesterday also issued a statement saying the People’s Daily’s editorial was twisting history.
The ministry asserted that historic documents show that the ROC force engaged with the Japanese military in 22 major battles during the eight-year war, including Battle of Songhu, the Battle of Xuzhou and the Battle of Wuhan.
“The ROC military also fought against Japanese forces in 1,117 big battles and 38,931 small battles,” it said, adding that the “iron truth that the ROC government fought against the war was also cemented by the fact that the ROC took part in various international meetings during the war and was the one representing the country to receive Japan’s surrender.”
Additional reporting by Rich Chang
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