Letter

In response to The ABC is inventing China's war history

The Japanese in China

I was pleased to read Paul Malone’s criticism of Sarah Ferguson/the ABC regarding her glib statement that it was the Nationlist’s Kuomintang, not the Chinese Communist Party forces, that defeated the Japanese.

It is a long time (67 years) since I studied a bit of Chinese history as part of my Chinese language study at Sydney University, but my memory is still strong that it was the CCP forces that were most influential. The only “text” that I recall using is that by John K. Fairbank, The United States and China, first published in 1948.

Unfortunately, I have no copy and am distant from good libraries so cannot check on this well-known and respected Harvard scholar’s views. It would be good to see some other support of Malone’s views (I imagine Jocelyn Chey has a well considered view).

— Jan Cooper from Terrigal