The Impact of War on Japanese and Chinese Society, Essay Example

The world wars of 20^th century mark one of the greatest mayhems of Chinese and Japanese history. It can be referred to as the time of sacrifice, courage, suffering, and loss. Most of the Chinese and Japanese major cities were occupied by the war. It affected almost all the families. Millions of people were displaced. The war claimed the lives of more than thirty million Japanese and Chinese civilians and soldiers.

In recognition of the changes, the war produced in Asia, European and America societies, The terms such as pre-war, ante bellum and post-war are used. War usually marks the end of old social order and the birth of a new one. An important point to note is that the change does not occur in organized manner. The hallmark of a war is chaos.

The pretext of the war is that Japanese attacked China in 1937; the attack was aimed at containing USSR communism and preventing Chinese export to USSR. However rather than attacking communist USSR Japan attacked anticommunist Guomindang that ruled China. At the end CCP (Chinese Communist party)

The war left the society devastated. The chaos of war broke down families. Many more families were forced to abandon their homes, property, and possession. Property was destroyed, and suddenly people were impoverished. The war brought the a universality of suffering to the society, mostly Chinese. All the regions in China and Japan felt the impact of the war. At the end of the war, the natural trust that had existed among the society before was lost.  The society cohesion that existed before the war was also lost. Politically, the damage of the war accelerated political mobilization. For instance in China, The war helped the CCP to rally Chinese people behind it. This mobilization was in the name of resistance to Japan. The mobilization turned socialism and nationalism to huge movements.

The resistance war was the start of patriotism war. As a result, patriotism transcended localism, regionalism, and familism. The Chinese saw the war as an attack on their race this in turn united them against a common enemy. Finally, due to the war, the campaign by intellectual to raise the level of nationalism bore fruit.

One of the most memorable outcomes of the war is perhaps the domination of CCP in China. In addition, the suffering that the war brought ingrained a tough and hand survival mentality among the people. The legacy of the war is still fresh in the memory of Chinese and Japanese people.