ABSTRACT
Modern Chinese nationalism arose from a sense of shame, born of the humiliation that the West and Japan inflicted upon China in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Not content merely with defending China against further foreign aggression, patriotic Chinese wished to restore their country to a position of international prominence that they believed it deserved. This was the ultimate objective of China’s 1937–45 war against Japan, and, in particular, it was the goal of Nationalist China’s dominant leader, Chiang Kai-shek. Since the various powers in the 1930s saw Chiang Kai-shek as the ultimate authoritative representative of China, my analysis shall likewise focus on Chiang while making reference, as necessary, to others in the Nationalist hierarchy. 1
