Forgotten Ally: China's World War II, 1937-1945 (29 page)

Retreating Chinese troops set fires in Nanjing, December 1937. The Chinese capital would soon be the scene of a horrific massacre

General Matsui Iwane at his headquarters, Shanghai, 1938. Just a few months earlier, Matsui had allowed his troops to kill and rape at will in occupied Nanjing.

Dai Li, the Nationalist security chief, working with special police forces. Dai Li intended his agency to be Chiang Kai-shek’s “eyes and ears.”

Kang Sheng, security chief and mastermind of terror in Mao’s Communist base area in northwest China.

Zhou Fohai. The senior Nationalist minister was intimately involved with Wang Jingwei’s defection and collaboration with the Japanese in 1938.

Li Shiqun, Wang Jingwei’s vicious security chief, whose reign of terror operated from Shanghai’s “Badlands.”

The Battle of Taierzhuang, April 1938. This rare Chinese victory boosted spirits in the face of the Japanese assault.

Japanese troops using a boat during the Yellow River floods, July 1938. Chiang’s decision to break the river dikes temporarily stopped the Japanese but took numerous lives.

Mao Zedong speaks at the Lu Xun Arts Institute in Yan’an, May 1938. During the early war years, the Communists sought to widen their sources of support.

Civilians in Guangzhou (Canton) take flight, June 1938. Air raids were a constant danger in Nationalist China in the early war years.

Chiang Kai-shek at a Supreme War Council meeting in Wuhan, July 1938. Chiang was faced with an immensely difficult decision on whether to abandon the city to the Japanese.

Wang Jingwei (
right
) with colleague Chu Minyi in Nanjing before Wang’s inauguration, 1940. Wang set up a rival Nationalist government in collaboration with the Japanese.

Homeless people in the aftermath of air raids, Chongqing, 1939. On May 3 and 4 the city suffered a wave of devastating attacks by Japanese bombers, highlighting its vulnerability.