Forgotten Ally

For decades, a major piece of World War II history has gone virtually unwritten. China was the fourth great allypartner to the United States, the Soviet Union, and Great Britainyet its drama of invasion, resistance, slaughter, and political intrigue remains little known in the West. In this emotionally gripping book, made possible through access to newly unsealed Chinese archives, Rana Mitter unfurls the story of China's World War II as never before and rewrites the larger history of the war in the process. He focuses his narrative on three towering leadersChiang Kai-shek, Mao Zedong, and the lesser-known collaborator Wang Jingweiand extends the time line of the war back to 1937, when Japanese and Chinese troops began to clash, two years before Hitler invaded Poland. Unparalleled in its research and scope, Forgotten Allyis a sweeping, character-driven history that will be essential reading not only for anyone with an interest in World War II but also for those seeking to understand todays China, where, as Mitter reveals, the echoes of the war still reverberate.