The Nationalist Hegira, Retreat and Mobilization Under Kuomintang Rule in China, 1937-1939.

摘要

Between 1937 and 1939, the Chinese Nationalist government and its people were fleeing before the Japanese invasion. A view commonly held by historians is that the Chinese people were unaware of or indifferent to the rule of the Nationalist government. It is the contention of this paper that the people mobilized in the Yangtze River Valley and southeastern provinces were both aware of and responsive to the Kuomintang and provincial governments' leadership during the crisis. The military was ordered to defend Shanghai while the key elements of the population necessary for the Chinese War effort were withdrawn. Industry, government agencies and universities were then evacuated from central and southern China westward away from the Japanese. As the military fought a delaying action, the Central government moved and reestablished its capital several times; evacuations were planned and priorities were established to determine which elements of the nation would receive transportation resources to enable them to move west. It was the National and provincial governments which organized people in central and southeastern China during the Japanese invasion.