Review of The Battle of China

Lots of people, even ones that like to watch things about world war 2, tend to forget china was involved in it. Having seen all but one of Frank Capra's excellent "Why We Fight" films, there was little doubt in my mind that this one was going to be incredible once again. Up until this point, I have watched all the installments in the series (Battle of Russia, Battle of Britain, etc.) but I have been putting off Battle of China for quite a while. In a book I own on Capra's service in the military during the war, it says how this one was probably his least favorite, since it feels stereotypically asian and features an overabundance of gongs. After seeing it, I can say this isn't really true. The documentary is very well made for the most part, and even features some non-military history to put China's position in world politics at the time in perspective. In the film, the narrator says how China is one of the oldest civilizations on planet earth, at over 4000 years of age. By 1940, the USA had only existed for about 160 years. The documentary also (incorrectly) says how in all its centuries of existence, china has never waged a war of aggression against another country, which is just flat out wrong. To this end, it can probably be considered propaganda to make americans want to side with china rather than japan, with whom both nations were involved in a long and bloody war. It goes over how many centuries had gone by and china still couldn't seem to become one unified country, but the looming threat of japanese imperialism made everyone put aside their differences for once and come together to fight them. Japan attacked and destroyed many chinese cities, including Shanghai, china's largest city at the time and a hub for sea trade. The japanese even attacked an american ship that was there, even though world war 2 didn't start yet and american flags clearly adorned the vessel. Many americans were killed, but the japanese government later apologized. Chinese nationalist forces under Chiang Kai Shek later hit back at the japanese in Shanghai, which is where they least expected it. Once china's capital (Nanking) fell to japan, what followed was a bloodbath. The japanese committed some of the worst atrocities against civilians in recorded history, but this didn't break the chinese. Countless people took everything they could carry and set out of western china to establish a new capital at Chongqing. It was no easy task, but no matter how many times japanese planes attacked this new target, the chinese defenders refused to crack. The film also goes over how china is so much bigger than japan (over 20 times bigger), has a much higher population, and yet was able to be invaded by them because japan had a rigid and authoritarian style of military government. Not many people mention this, but the chinese also received american support before america was actually involved in world war 2. P-40 Warhawk fighter planes were shipped to china and flown by pilots from the US, but because america and japan weren't fighting at the time, they had to sign up as chinese pilots. These p-40s bore a distinctive shark's mouth painted on their noses, which led to this squadron of planes being nicknamed "The Flying Tigers." With their support, the outmoded chinese air force finally started to hit back at the japanese. This film has a lot of things in common with Capra's other works related to world war 2, such as the high quality combat footage, footage of china before fighting began, and good narration. There are some things to complain about, most of them not really detrimental. For one thing, Chiang Kai Shek was not well liked by later american presidents, but the film tends to glorify him because he held china together in the face of overwhelming japanese firepower. Further, a song that is often played in this documentary is the same song that would later be adopted as communist china's anthem once Mao Zedong defeated Chiang's army in 1949. It's just ironic how the film managed to predict what song Mao would choose for china's new anthem. In spite of some problems and historical inaccuracies, Battle of China is yet another excellent addition to Capra's Why We Fight series, and for me personally, it is worth seeing because events in china during world war 2 are often ignored. Most people in america think of the attack at Pearl Harbor as the start of japanese aggression, but this film shows how they were brutalizing other asian countries in the 1930s.