China rewrites the Second World War

Stalin was annoyed that Germany surrendered to the Western Allies on May 8, 1945, so he dragged the ad hoc German government to Moscow the following day so they could surrender all over again. Ever since, Moscow has celebrated "V-E Day" on May 9. Now Xi Jingping is at it, proclaiming that Japan surrendered on September 3 thanks to Russia's help. (The Japanese emperor surrendered in his first-ever broadcast to the people on August 15, which has ever since been regarded as "V-J Day," though it wasn't until September 2 that the document was signed aboard the battleship Missouri in Tokyo harbor.)

The South China News, which like every newspaper in the People's Republic is a mouthpiece for the Communist Party and its chairman-for-life Xi Jinping, announced the Wednesday celebration under the headline: Why some Chinese academics say it’s time to rethink WWII history – starting with 1939. Which is reasonable enough, I suppose. Indeed, "some academics" argue that the two world wars were a single conflict with a bit of a cease fire from 1917 to 1939.

As the newspaper story expands, it broadens to a rather comical complaint about a "Western-centric" conspiracy to downplay China's role in defeating the Japanese, a role that mostly involved the Kuomindong (Nationalist) forces under General Chiang Kai-shek. The Red Army under Mao Zedong seldom met the Japanese army in combat, and Japan's final surrender came on September 15, 1945, when it signed over the island of Taiwan to Generalissim Chiang himself. That's a factoid that won't be much mentioned at Mr Xi's grand military parade on Wednesday.