Seeing the whole picture

Rana Mitter's book, Forgotten Ally: China's World War II 1937-1945, sheds new light on China's significant role in wartime.[Photo provided to China Daily]

British historian Rana Mitter's book reminds the world of China's sacrifices in WWII that are often ignored in Western narratives. Xing Yi reports.

To remember is a good way to commemorate.

As 2015 marks the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, a number of books on that period of history are either being published or reprinted in China.

Among them, Forgotten Ally: China's World War II 1937-1945 by British historian Rana Mitter deserves a fresh read. It examines the long-overlooked Eastern battlefield amid the Western-centered narratives of the war.

Mitter's book was first published in English in 2013 and has been available in Chinese hardcover since April.

The 45-year-old professor of history and politics at the Institute for Chinese Studies at Oxford University points out in the book that China was the first country to face the onslaught of the Axis powers in 1937 - two years before Britain and France, and four years before the United States. Yet, in the West, "many do not realize that China played any sort of role in the Second World War at all".

Mitter weaves together numerous historical materials, including declassified government files, personal correspondences and diaries, and news reports by both Chinese and foreign journalists.

He restores through his writing the images of the brutal war waged on the Chinese people by the Japanese military and the brave Chinese resistance in the face of invasion.

Five books give glimpses of war