War of Resistance sculpture

Ironic that they have now become the biggest oppressor to their own people, and even their technology and ideology promotes almost complete dedication to the communist party.

On first seeing this I thought about how the US depict their statues and compared this to the Marine Corps War Memorial. This statue depicts Chinese attacking with guns and bayonets paused to kill. There is very little substance other than violence. Whereas the US statue shows marines upholding an ideology (their flag) without any guns or weapon aimed at an enemy. I know which one I prefer.

Another irony is that most of the soldiers fighting the Japanese were Kuomintang, not Communists. Thus, the soldiers depicted were almost certainly followers of the Nationalists. Mao mostly conserved his forces for the civil war that he planned to fight after the war against Japan was over.

@1glenn,

Not the case.

Most fighting and insurrection against the Japanese was done by Mao's followers. The Nationalist Kuomintang mostly conserved their forces for the civil war they planned after WWII.

General Joseph Stillwell described Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek's strategy in WWII:

"Chiang Kai-shek will not make an effort to fight seriously. He wants to finish the war coasting, with a big supply of material, so as to perpetuate his regime."

According to General John Magruder  (General Marshall's envoy in China) the Nationalists hoarded American aid "largely with the idea of post-war military action" and that Chiang's Nationalists regarded their armies as "static assets to be conserved for assistance in fighting against...fellow country-men..."

General Magruder called FDR's belief that Chiang fought the Japanese an "alluring fiction" from the world/of "make believe."

Furthermore, the majority of the Nationalist Kuomintang were ill trained and badly supplied, and they behaved in the Chinese tradition of locust armies, surviving by plundering civilian homes. A British writer visiting Chiang's front observed, "If anything is calculated to make the Chinese peasant turn spontaneously to Communism...it is having troops permanently billeted on him."

The Nationalists, portrayed by American WWII propaganda as beloved by the Chinese people, had to kidnap most of their soldiers. Fearing that their "recruits" would desert, Chiang Kai-shek's commanders often marched shanghaied men, all of them tied together with ropes around their necks, hundreds of miles from their homes. They were then stripped naked at night to keep them from running away.

Joseph Stilwell observed these dragooned "Nationalist soldiers": many were less than four and a half feet tall, under fourteen years of age, and barefoot. Stilwell wrote in his diary, "The wildest stretch of the imagination could not imagine the rabble in action except running away."

There you have it; directly from the eyewitness accounts of American military leaders and western media there at the time.

The resistance is still alive: when I visited the Memorial Museum of the Nanking Massacre many years ago the Japanese student who followed me in was charged twice the entrance fee I had paid.

I would never, ever lower myself to visit such a place full of commie propoganda and lies.

So another piece of propaganda artwork from China. What's new? Shoulda shown them running away or getting their butts kicked.

The decent soldiers who died fighting Japanese aggression should be honoured whether they were Chinese, Soviet etc.

Japan tried to conquer China militarily and were the aggressors. Therefore they are free to erect a statue displaying resistance. It isn't propoganda. A lot of posts don't even refer to this historical event and talk about the current Chinese government, personal anecdotes, the US, etc., and are all off-topic.

 a sculpture depicting Chinese soldiers 

I am always troubled with this simplistic view of history like a propaganda.

Chinese soldiers?

Did they mean communist Mao or Kuomintang(KMT) led by Chaing Kai Shek?

Chaing Kai Shek is the guy who got away from his crime, the yellow river flood because he was supported by the US.

[Yellow river flood in 1938]

Chaing ordered to bomb a river 9 month after Nanking battle to block Japanese troops killing 400000-1000000 Chinese civilians with drowning. KMT was still firing Japanese trying to save Chinese people, later KMT said Japan did the flood.

https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%BB%84%E6%B2%B3%E6%B1%BA%E5%A3%8A%E4%BA%8B%E4%BB%B6

History is more complicated .

There was no single independent country like China back then.

There were

1) Kuomintang(KMT) ,

2) Communist Mao,

3) Manchurianᡳᠯᠠᠨ ᠪᠣᡠ᠋ (Qing Dynasty),

4) Japanese.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchu_people

Japan has been investing Manchu cities before.

The problem is, Manchurians(last emperor) were defeated at Xinhai revolution by Han people. Japan used the last emperor Fugi to keep its interest building a country Manchuko and Fugi used Japan to stay in power.

But anyway,

Who should own Manchu?

Should Manchu be an independent country from the rest of China?

Do you think Communist China have it all?

Trust the communist nation to think of war and only blood, violence, etc. Is this what all Chinese visitors understand of Japan? Why do they come in droves? What do they find?

There are many authoritative histories of the war in China available. Every one of them that I have seen acknowledges that most of the fighting against the Japanese was done by the KMT. I will let the interested readers research the subject for themselves.

They will never forget nor should they.

My comment above was sarcastic. I know Chinese don’t think ill of Japan. I know the CCP is out to create chaos wherever possible.

@1glenn

Thus, the soldiers depicted were almost certainly followers of the Nationalists.

Which is not a problem with the CCP.

The 800 is screening in China right now and is the biggest blockbuster of the year.

https://variety.com/2020/film/asia/chinas-eight-hundred-bigger-box-office-than-tenet-1234754273/

China’s ‘The Eight Hundred’ Has Bigger Weekend Box Office Than ‘Tenet’

Are we sure the statue doesn't depict bloodthirsty followers of Mao getting ready to kill tens of millions of innocent people for the crime of being educated?

Japanese Aggression? What agression?

Japan simply fought against Bolshevism.