What is it about?
New 38th Division of the Chinese Expeditionary Force under General Sun Li-jen rescued British 1st Burma Division of the Burma Corps under General William Slim from a Japanese encirclement in Yenangyaung, Burma, in mid-April 1942. However, Slim fabricates an event in his memoirs in order to deny the historical truth. This article explains how and why.
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Why is it important?
Key aspects of the historical truth about the Yenangyaung battle are twisted in the official British military history and other histories on the subject as well as Slim’s memoirs. This article sets the record straight and explains how and why Slim’s flawed account of the battle with fabrications in his memoirs gets perpetuated for over half a century.
Perspectives
China is the only one of the four Allied powers to undergo a change in the regime after World War II. History of its own War against Japan has been written from the opposite perspectives of the two political rivals for decades. Without a single and strong unanimous voice about its contribution in the Allied victory in the WWII in general or in Burma in particular before the international community, China has been and will inevitably remain an ally either forgotten, or, even worse, written about untruthfully and unjustifiably in history. As it is said, a nation reveals itself not only by the men it produces, but also by the men it honours and remembers. For the Chinese, nevertheless, to honour and remember those men worthy of the name regardless of any consideration other than their true contribution in history, military or otherwise, will be a challenge for many generations to come.
Z. George Wang
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: The Rescue of British by Chinese at Yenangyaung and Slim’s Flawed Account of the Battle, Journal of Chinese Military History, May 2018, Brill,
DOI: 10.1163/22127453-12341324.
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