The Orders and Medals Society of America THE VICTORY ORDER AND MEDALS OF THE REPUBLIC OF CHINA Paul L. T. Kua, OMSA#5121 1995 marked the 50th anniversary of V-J Day. It seems an appropriate time to revisit the subject of Chinese Victory Medals issued in celebration. At the end of World War II, when the Japanese Government surrendered to the allied forces on 2 September 1945, there were two Chinese forces contending for ultimate control of China. The Nationalists, under the leadership of Generalissimo Chiang Kai Shek, headed the government of the Republic of China, which was recognized as the legitimate government of China by most of the world. The Cgmmunists, under the leadership of Mao Ze Dong, had effective control of large, usually more remote areas of China and challenged the authority of the Nationalists. Both the Nationalists and the Communists had been involved in years of struggle with the Japanese invaders in various parts of China. Both of them had issued their own Victory Order and Medal(s) in commemoration of the struggle. This article focuses on the official Victory Order and Medals issued by the Nationalist Republic government at the end of World War II. 1 Historical Notes To most Chinese the Second World War was known by the more nationalistic and emotional name of Kang Ri Zhan Zheng, the War of Resistance Against the Japanese, or Ba Nian Kang Zhan, the Eight Year War of Resistance. Japanese imperialist designs on China went back many years. At the end of the First Sino-Japanese War (1894-95), Li Hung Chang, the plenipotentiary of the Qing Dynasty, was forced to sign the humiliating Treaty of Shimonoseki. In it, China agreed to cede Taiwan (Formosa) and to pay an indemnity of 230 million silver taels for a war started by the Japanese and fought solely in Korea and Northern China. This was followed by the attack on and attempted control of Shantung Province during World War I, the 1 For an introduction on WWII Victory Medals (strictly speaking, medals commem- orating the Victory over the Japanese in the Second World War) issued by the Communist Chinese see Three Early Orders of the People’s Republic of China, Paul L. T. Kua, JOMSA, Volume 46, Number 1/2, (January/February 1995), pp. 15-26. 16 The Medal Collector Volume 47, Number 5 attack on the three provinces in Manchuria in 1931-32 and the subsequent creation of the puppet state of Manchukuo, the attack on Shanghai in 1932, and the occupation of the province of Jehol in 1933.2 In spite of earlier aggression, the War of Resistance Against the Japanese officially began in 1937 and ended with the Japanese surrender in 1945. According to the Nationalist Chinese Board of Military Operations, this ~var could be broken down into three phases as follows:3 Phase Period Major Campaigns/Battles First 7/37-10/38 July 7 Incident, Shanghai, Nanjing, Sinkow, Hsuchow (Taierchwang), Wuchang-Hankow Second 11/38-11/41 Nanchang, Suihsien-Tsaoyang, Changsha I, Kwangsi, Tsaoyang-Ichang, Honan, Shangkao, Shansi, Changsha II Third 12/41-8/45 Changsha III, Burma, Chekiang-Kiangsi, Changteh, Honan, Hunan, Burma- Yunnan, Kwangsi-Kweichow On 7 July 1937, the Japanese Kwangtung Army massed near the Marco Polo (or Lu Kou) Bridge only 10 kilometers from the Chinese capital of Peking.4 On being refused passage of the bridge to search for a "missing" Japanese soldier, the Japanese fired on the Chinese defense force. Control of the bridge changed hands three times during that day amid fierce fighting, but remained with the Chinese. By the end of July the Japanese had accumulated large reinforcements and finally crossed the bridge, then eventually took over Peking and Tianjin, two key northern cities. This "Incident of July 7th" is 2 For more details on the First Sino-Japanese War and subsequent conflicts between the two countries see, for example, East Asia: The Modern Transformation, John K. Fairbanks et.al., pp. 261,382-384, 563-565. 3 See China Handbook 1937-1945, Macmillan, 1947, p. 301. 4 The Marco Polo Bridge, an ancient, elaborately constructed stone bridge, was so named because it ~vas described at length by Marco Polo when he traveled to and throughout China (1275-1295) during the Yuan Dynasty. Marco Polo called this "a very handsome bridge of stone, perhaps unequalled by any other in the world." See The Travels ofMarco Polo, Garden City Publishing, 1930, pp. 177-178, Ch 35, Of the Interior of Cathay, the River Named Pulisangan, and the Bridge Over it. 17 The Orders and Medals Society of America usually considered as the first battle of the Resistance War. At this point in time the Japanese War Minister, General Sugiyama, informed Emperor Hirohito that the Japanese would win the war in China within one month.~ Large scale fighting broke out in Shanghai in 1937. In this battle the Japanese mobilized a powerful striking force of 200,000 people, 130 ships and 400 planes. By November Shanghai was in Japanese hands. The loss of Shanghai basically left nearby Nanjing indefensible and the city fell the next month. This was followed by six weeks of mass and indiscriminate killing, raping, and looting by Japanese soldiers in the city. Current estimates put the total number of people killed in the Nanjing Massacre at around 300,000.6 The battles from July through December 1937, as outlined above, started the Eight Year War of Resistance. The first phase of this war ended with the fall of Hankow in October, 1938. The second phase ended with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and Hong Kong (and the consequent declaration of war against the Japanese by the United States and Great Britain) in December 1941. The third and final phase of the war ended with the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. This War of Resistance resulted in years of suffering and countless defeats for the Chinese. Both the Nationalist and Communist forces managed to cling onto various parts of China despite losing most of the large urban areas. They also managed to engage and bog down the bulk of the forces of the Imperial Japanese Army, making Japanese aggression elsewhere in Asia difficult to pursue. But, as F. F. Liu puts it: Members interested in reading more about the various campaigns of the War of Resistance Against the Japanese could consult A Military History of Modern China 1924-1949, Princeton University Press (1956), Chapter 17, The Sino- Japanese War 1937-1945, pp 197-225 or China Handbook 1937-1945, Macmillan, 1947, Chapter IX, Sino-Japanese Hostilities, pp. 299-322. Members who frequent cyberspace may be interested in visiting a number of Intemet sites on the Nanjing Massacre and the Sino-Japanese War in general. Simply search for "Nanjing Massacre" or "Sino-Japanese War" through common search tools such as those available through Netscape, Gopher, WorldWideWeb, etc. There is, surprisingly, a wealth of information on this subject through a number of linked sites. For example: http://www.cnd.org/NJMassacre http://www.arts.cuhk.hk/NanjingMassacre/NM.html http://www.cnd.org/NJMassacre/recent-news.html 18 .