2P - The end of the Japanese war: the breakdown of Nationalist/Communist cooperation and outbreak of Civil War | AQA A-Level History

Japan's surrender removed the enemy that had kept the GMD and CCP formally allied. Learn why negotiations failed to resolve their rivalry, and assess the political and military strengths each side possessed as full-scale civil war resumed in 1946.

Surrender and the struggle for territory

Japan's surrender in August 1945 did not immediately establish one government in every formerly occupied part of China. Japanese troops, collaborationist administrations, local forces and rival Chinese armies were distributed across a huge territory. Accepting surrender was politically important: the authority that recovered a city, railway or arsenal could claim to have restored national rule and obtain resources for the next conflict.

Jiang directed Japanese forces to surrender to Nationalist authorities rather than to nearby Communist units. The United States helped transport Nationalist forces into important areas and cities. Because some Nationalist armies were far away, the surrender process could temporarily leave defeated Japanese forces maintaining order until they arrived. The CCP regarded exclusion from the fruits of victory as a threat to its wartime gains and moved to extend its own control.

Manchuria was especially important. It possessed industrial assets, railway networks and Japanese military stores, as well as space in which rival armies could expand. Soviet forces entered the region in August 1945 and withdrew in stages during 1946. Their presence, removal of industrial equipment and handling of territory and weapons affected the contest. Communist forces gained opportunities to establish themselves and obtain arms, but Soviet policy was not a simple commitment to give China to Mao. The USSR had also concluded a treaty with Jiang's recognised government in August 1945.

The dispute was therefore about more than the distribution of military trophies. Territorial control determined who could tax, recruit, supply armies and administer people. If either side surrendered its independent forces before a trustworthy political settlement, it risked losing the means to defend its position. This security problem made promises of national unity hard to translate into action.

Negotiation and the breakdown of cooperation

Negotiations offered a possible alternative to renewed all-out war. Mao travelled to Chongqing in August 1945 for talks with Jiang. The Double Tenth Agreement of 10 October endorsed the pursuit of peaceful reconstruction and political change, but fundamental disagreements about military control and Communist-held territory remained unresolved. A shared public statement did not establish an enforceable monopoly of power.

American General George Marshall arrived late in 1945 to mediate. A ceasefire in January 1946 and discussions about constitutional government and army reorganisation suggested that compromise might be possible. The United States wanted a stable China and feared renewed conflict. Yet mediation depended on the Chinese parties accepting arrangements that neither side could safely enforce on the other.

The GMD expected the CCP to accept the authority of the recognised national government. The CCP sought safeguards for its political role and forces rather than disarmament under an opponent it distrusted. Both had reasons to suspect that negotiations allowed the other to strengthen its position. Fighting in Manchuria was especially difficult to separate from negotiations elsewhere, since control of the northeast could alter the entire balance.

By the summer of 1946, major Nationalist offensives and expanding Communist resistance marked the return to full-scale civil war. This was a resumption of a longer conflict that had begun in 1927, rather than the sudden creation of hostility in 1946. Marshall's mediation ultimately failed; he left China in January 1947. His own report and related records are preserved in the Truman Library's Marshall Mission collection.

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2P - The end of the Japanese war: the breakdown of Nationalist/Communist cooperation and outbreak of Civil War

Surrender and the struggle for territory

Negotiation and the breakdown of cooperation

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