128 book reviews

Chang Jui-te Shanhe Dong: Kangzhan Shiqi Guomin Zhengfu de Jundui Zhanli [Shaking Mountains and Rivers: The Combat Effectiveness of the Nationalist Government’s Army during the Resistance War]. Beijing: China Social Sciences Academic Press, 2015. pp. 326. RMB 48.00. ISBN 978-7-5097-7405-2.

Few books written by Taiwanese military historians on the Resistance War against Japan have been published in mainland China, because the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) still claims for itself almost the entire and sole efforts, contribution, and sacrifice during the war against Japanese invasion of China between 1937 and 1945. The military operations of the Chinese Nationalist Party, or Guomindang (GMD, or Kuomintang, KMT), and its government are all too commonly dismissed as a sterile phase of the wartime experience, or treat- ed only briefly by Chinese historians as an attachment to the CCP-GMD co- alition, or Mao Zedong’s leadership and mobilization, which have been given more detailed attention in the People’s Republic of China since 1949. In recent years, however, for some geo-political reasons, including the international is- sues over the islands disputed with Japan in East China Sea, Beijing is willing and able to accept some historical facts and share the World War II experience with the GMD on Taiwan. More than seventy years after Japan surrendered to the Allied Powers, the publication of Taiwanese Professor Chang Jui-te (or Zhang Ruide in Chinese Hanyu Pinyin)’s book in China is a positive move for Beijing to tear down the political barriers and introduce up-to-date Taiwanese scholarly accomplish- ments on the common war against the Japanese Imperial Army. Based on ex- tensive primary source research, Chang’s book (in Chinese) moves beyond the traditional “drum and trumpet” approach to explore the interface between war and society by focusing on the social background, recruitment, promo- tion, reward and punishment, and personnel system of the GMD Army during the Anti-Japanese War (2-4). With his fresh insights into the GMD government, military organization, political institutions, and intelligence service, the au- thor provides a better understanding of the GMD Army’s chain of command, officer corps, training, technology, civil-military relations, and relations with the U.S. military. The book should be read by Chinese military historians, spe- cialists and non-specialists who have an interest in the history of the Pacific War, and students in East Asian Studies. The first chapter is titled the “Organization of the Army.” It explores the qual- ifications, education, and relations between soldiers, low- and middle-ranking officers, and high-ranking officers in the army. The second chapter, “Personnel Administration of the Army,” examines the army officers’ appointment,

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ���7 | doi 10.1163/22127453-12341314 book reviews 129 replacement testing, deployment and assignment in the war, compensation and benefits, rewards and punishment, and retirement package. Chapter 3, “Training and Education in the Army,” focuses on the political education, tacti- cal training, and a mixed operation model reflecting German, Japanese, and American influences. The chapter also includes the information on the faculty and curriculum of the Army University during the war. “The Staff Members of the GMD Army” is the title of the fourth chapter, which includes the educa- tion background, training, planning and assessment, and daily operation of staff members in the army and division headquarters. With “The Hand-written Orders of Jiang Jieshi [Chiang Kai-shek]” as its title, the fifth chapter offers a rare but detailed examination of why and how Jiang wrote secret orders on a daily basis to his field generals, directly bypassing the chain of command of the GMD Army. Chapter 6, “Personnel Issues between the Central and Local Governments,” explores the differences and tensions in civil-military relations, office appointments, and logistics between the Jiang’s government and local leaders, including provincial governors, city mayors, local military command- ers, and warlords. The seventh chapter, “GMD Politics and Liaison Bureaucrats,” examines some unique features of Chinese political culture formed during the Republican Era (1927-1937) with an emphasis on the private communication channels between Jiang and warlords through various go-betweens. Chapter 8, “Herbert O. Yardley and China,” provides a detailed analysis on Yardley’s contri- bution to China’s cryptography warfare against Japan. The book also provides twenty-three charts, tables, and figures; twenty-four pages of bibliography both in Chinese and English; and a helpful index, which is not available for most books published in China. This book will be an important text for under- standing the Chinese military in World War II for the foreseeable future. The author offers a new approach to understanding Chinese Nationalist military modernization and the process of state-building through the war of 1937-1945. He puts individuals in the context of Chinese wartime politics and society and views them through their political orientation, education, and social environment. Some World War II historians have missed the com- plex nature of the tremendous changes in Chinese society and culture during the war. Chang argues that the Anti-Japanese War, which has conventionally been considered as a major setback of the state-building effort made by the GMD government, actually promoted and intensified the process of military modernization and state-building in China (106). While the GMD government was willing to establish a united front that included all political parties and social groups, Jiang gained a popular support that he never had before and strengthened the nationalist leadership in the country (225). As a result, a new nationalism emerged in the war; it was no longer to be a traditional, Eastern

Journal of Chinese Military History 6 (2017) 115-130