IGNOU HISTORY NOTES : History Of China and Japan (1840-1949) - CCP and the War with Japan

IGNOU HISTORY Study Notes for IAS, UPSC Exams

History Of China and Japan (1840-1949)

CCP and the War with Japan

Structure

34.0 Objectives
34.1 introduction
34.2 The Background: The Long March
34.3 The Yenan Strategy
34.3 Japanese Aggression
34.3.2 International Situation
34.3.3 'Economic Factors
34.3.4 Social and Political Resistance to Japan
34.4 The United Front in Practjce
34.5 The Yenan Base: A Form of Resistance
34.6 The Red Bases: A New Type of Society
34.7 The Final Phase
34.8 Let Us Sum Up
34.9 Key Words
34.10 Answers to Check Your Progress Exercises

34.0 OBJECTIVES

After reading this Unit you 'will be ible to: '

know about the incidents related with the Long March of the Communists,
understand the resistance offered by the Communists to Japanese aggression.
know about various tactics adopted by the Communists in forming the second United front; and
learn how the Communists governed the arps under their control.

34.1 INTRODUCTION

The period of the war with Japan was also the period of the Second United Front.
As was the case with the first one, it was shaped by international circumstances as r well as due to the dynamics of political experiences in China. You will wonder, that
if the First United Front had failed, then why this Second United Front in the war
against Japan'? We have been seeing that the social and political programmes of the b CCP and the KMT were different and opposed to each other. Therefore, there had
to be some special circumstances that should have made the CCP consider the fight
with Japan as its first priority and to even make another United Front with the
KMT for this purpose.
Such special circumstances were there in the international as well as the national
situation. In this Unit. we will mention them and at the same time try to understand
the role of the CCP in the war against Japan. This Unit also takes into account the
nature of this war against Japan. What this meant for the relationship of the CCP
with the KMT as well as with the workers and peasants of China is also discussed.
The Second United Front was successful from the point of view of the Communists
in China. This was because it created the ground for a successful revolution,
-unification and independence of China. There emerged a correlationship of social
and political forces in which the working class and the peasantry became the leading
actors, and Communists the dominant political force in the Chinese revolutionary
movement. All these aspects have been discussed in the Unit alongiwith the
international scenario. The latter was an integral portion of the rela%onship between
the and the KMT and their war against Japan. This was because the decision
to form broad popular fronts in order to isolate the most reactionary imperialist
forces was not a strategy specific to China. It was adopted in all countries seeking