What was chiang kai sheks role in ww2

Skip to main content. You are here Home » Biographies. Chiang Kai-shek. Birth Location:. Birth Date:. Chiang maintained, to any Americans who would listen, that if successful the Communists would impose a totalitarian dictatorship allied with the Soviet Union.

This took decades. Still, in recent years, the accepted opinion about Chiang has clearly shifted in a positive direction, starting with a recognition of his role resisting the Japanese invasion. Yang Tianshi, a member of the official Chinese Institute of Modern History, has been prominent on Chinese web portals and in television interviews, explicitly rejecting old Communist arguments that Chiang refused to fight the Japanese.

Paradoxically, while Beijing has expressed deeper respect for Chiang, his standing among the Taiwanese has steadily declined. Chiang, who ruled over the island from his arrival in to his death at the age of 87 in , exercised a regime of terrifying repression. Tens of thousands of people, including much of the Taiwanese educated elite, were executed in a White Terror that lasted until In the early s, it was the scene of major pro-democracy demonstrations — in recognition of which its name was changed to Liberty Square in The imposing, white-walled museum inside is still called the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall.

More important is Feb. It commemorates the massacre of between 18, and 28, Taiwanese by Kuomintang troops in Taipei, starting on that day in But a major museum, founded in and located in Peace Memorial Park, tells the full story of the massacre. Every year on the anniversary holiday, the president of the country rings a bell in honor of the victims and formally bows in apology to their family members. Imagine the rulers of Beijing bowing their heads in repentance to the family members of those killed in the suppression of the student-led demonstrations centered on Tiananmen Square.

There is a political meaning in this. In other words, the very reason his reputation has declined in Taiwan is the same reason Beijing has refurbished it. In , Japan invaded China and the war lasted a total of four years. By December, Nanjing had also fallen into the hands of the Japanese, and Chiang was not able to counter-attack.

Therefore, the largest slice of the Chinese population, i. Although he had survived a major heart attack and pneumonia a few months before his death, he nonetheless died from renal failure which was caused by his cardiac malfunction New World Encyclopaedia Chiang Kei-Shek had several relationships throughout his life.

His second wife was Yao Yecheng, which Chiang married in They also adopted a child named Wei-kuo. In December , Chen Jeiru became his wife and from their union was born their daughter Yaoguang. Chiang oversaw a modest programme of reform in China but the government's resources were focused on fighting internal opponents, including the Communists.

From , Chiang also had to contend with a Japanese invasion in Manchuria, in the north-east of China. In , Japan launched a full-scale invasion of China.

His wife, Soong Mei-ling, travelled with him and became famous in the west as Madame Chiang. In , civil war broke out between the KMT and the Communists. In , the Communists were victorious, establishing the People's Republic of China.