ABSTRACT
For fifty-three long months, beginning in July 1937, China stood alone, single-handedly fighting an undeclared war against Japan. On December 9, 1941, after Japan’s surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, China finally declared war against Japan. What had been for so long a war between these two countries now became part of a much wider Pacific conflict. The expansion of the conflict changed the complexion of the Sino-Japanese War in two significant ways. First, China gained several Western allies and elevated the earlier coordination with these countries into a formal alliance. This dramatically brightened China’s prospects of receiving increased military assistance and boosted its combat spirits considerably in the short run. Second, military engagements in China became integrated into the broader global strategies worked out within the highest Allied military councils. The conflict in China became truly internationalized as important moves made by the major antagonists within China were usually prompted by consideration of their implications for the broader conflict.
