An accessible, analytical survey of the rise and fall of Imperial Japan in the context of its grand strategy to transform itself into a great power.

In 1937, Japan blundered into a debilitating war with China, beginning with a minor incident near Peking (now Beijing) that quickly escalated. The Japanese won significant battles and captured the capital, Nanking, after a horrific massacre of its citizens. Chiang Kai-shek, China's acknowledged leader, would not surrender--each side believed it could win a war of attrition. The U.S. sided with China, primarily because of President Roosevelt's personal bias in their favor. Drawing on a wealth of sources including interviews with key players, from soldiers to diplomats, this history traces America's unexpected and unpopular involvement in an Asian conflict, and the growing recognition of Japan's threat to world peace and the inevitability of war.

In Rana Mitter's tense, moving and hugely important book, the war between China and Japan - one of the most important struggles of the Second World War - at last gets the masterly history it deserves.

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"China's Bitter Victory" is a comprehensive analysis of China's epochal war with Japan. Striving for a holistic understanding of China's wartime experience, the contributors examine developments in the Nationalist, communist, and Japanese-occupied areas of the country. More than just a history of battles and conferences, the book portrays the significant impact of the war on every dimension of Chinese life, including politics, the economy, culture, legal affairs, and science. For within the overriding struggle for national survival, the competition for political goals continued. China ultimately triumphed, but at a price of between 15 and 20 million lives and vast destruction of property and resources. And China's bitter victory brought new trials for the Chinese people in the form of civil war and revolution. This book tells the story of China during a crucial period pregnant with consequences not only for China but also for Asia and the world as well. Addressed to students, scholars, and general readers, the book aims to fill a gap in the existing literature on modern Chinese history and on World War II.