Under the CPC’s unifying banner, the people were able to channel their collective strength after Kuomintang-led troops suffered major losses. (Photo : Google)
During the celebration in Beijing for the 70th anniversary of victory in World War II, the Communist Party of China (CPC) was given recognition for its significant role in the war.
According to Gao Tongzhong, a researcher with the Party History Research Center of the CPC Central Committee, the CPC's role was important in pushing back the invading Japanese.
Chinese historians' research indicate that soldiers led by the CPC pinned down 60 percent of invading Japanese army at the backstage battlefield, killing 527,000 Japanese troops.
Gao said that aside from the CPC, the Kuomintang also played an essential role in the war, but acknowledged that the former lit the spark of resistance against Japanese militarism in 1931.
Under the CPC's unifying banner, the people were able to channel their collective strength after Kuomintang-led troops suffered major losses.
Gao cited a 1938 treatise by Mao Zedong entitled "On Protracted War," which called on the people to engage in such a strategy to counter Japan's quick-win solution.
Newly declassified files in the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration as well as other military archives show the CPC's contribution in the Anti-Fascist War.
According to Chinese archives, for eight years starting 1937, Allied forces eliminated approximately 1.95 million Japanese soldiers.
About 70 percent of the casualties that were sustained in the period were on Chinese soil.
China also incurred massive losses, totalling to more than 35 million military and civilian casualties, which account for a third of total casualties of all countries in World War II.
For Qu Rui, deputy chief of the Operation Department of the PLA General Staff, the determination to safeguard national sovereignty 70 years ago has passed on to the new generations.
"Victory in the war was a result of the efforts of the whole nation and it can't be enjoyed alone by any single political force," said Gao.
