Nanyanghuizhan: Zhongguo dui Ri zuihouyizhan by Qin Jun and Li Xuefeng (review)

Chinese scholars have typically regarded the Zhijiang Campaign, fought in Hunan Province from April 9 to June 7, 1945, as China's last battle against Japan during World War Two (WWII). However, the publication of Qin Jun and Li Xuefeng's book completely revises this traditional view. The authors argue that, in fact, the Nanyang Campaign fought in Henan Province from March 22 to August 19, 1945 was the last battle. Using voluminous sources from Mainland China, Taiwan, and Japan, the authors have traced the Nanyang Campaign from its beginning to its end and offered detailed information about the two sides' military strategies, operations, and fierce battles in the Nanyang region. The reader not only gains a deep understanding of this particular campaign but also acquires an unblemished picture of the last stage of the wartime history. As historians, the two authors have collected available historical sources, visited battle sites, conducted interviews with veterans, and written this informative book after years of meticulous research and diligent labor.

The war in Nanyang is not unknown to scholars, as it was a part of the West Henan and North Hubei Campaign (豫西鄂北会战), one of the twenty-two major campaigns during the Second Sino-Japanese War. Because this campaign was mainly fought in Nanyang, Qin and Li refer to the battles inside Henan separately as the Nanyang Campaign (南阳会战). According to Qin and Li's research, Japan sent about 50,000 soldiers to Nanyang, while China dispatched about 100,000 troops to the same region (p. 1). Of course, both sides also sent troops to North Hubei; however, the majority of Chinese troops and most Japanese soldiers during the West Henan and North Hubei Campaign fought in the Nanyang region. Thus, it is legitimate for Qin and Li to coin this new term for the Nanyang Campaign, which was one of the longest and most violent campaigns during the war years. In Nanyang, the Chinese made great sacrifices but inflicted upon the Japanese imperial army heavy casualties of 15,000 men, or about thirty percent of the troops Japan had committed in that area. The Japanese soldiers in Nanyang, due to the lack of communication, did not get the news about Japan's surrender on August 14, 1945 and continued to engage in combat until August 19, 1945, when they finally surrendered to the Chinese Nationalist Army.

The four-day gap between Japan's national surrender in Tokyo and the Japanese military surrender in Nanyang verifies the fact that the campaign was indeed the last battle of WWII in China. Nevertheless, this campaign has not been well studied. Because many of the Nationalist troops who fought in Nanyang surrendered to the Communist forces during the upcoming civil war, the Taiwan side did not value it very much. Because many local leaders who had resisted Japan were labeled the enemy of the Communist state after 1949, the Nanyang Campaign was also neglected in Mainland China for a long time. Only during the recent decades have the Taiwan side as well as Mainland historians started to publish relevant primary sources. Consequently, the Nanyang Campaign now is seen as an important wartime campaign. Adding to the existing literature, Qin and Li have offered a timely contribution to academic research through their special scholarly exploration into this much ignored topic.

According to Qin and Li, the five-month long Nanyang Campaign was fought throughout the entire Nanyang region, which is geographically a basin in West Henan containing ten counties. At first, the Japanese troops achieved their goal of occupying many county seats and seizing major cities. Yet, they soon bogged down and were stalled inside the Nanyang Basin, virtually blockaded from invading China's western region. Although there were numerous skirmishes and clashes between the two sides, four major battles were highlighted by Qin and Li: the Chongyangdian Battle (April...