Quick questions on The Japanese surrender and post-war China 1945: HSC Modern History National Study China

The Japanese Empire entered 1945 in industrial collapse. The B-29 firebombing of Tokyo (9-10 March 1945) killed around 100,000. By June, Japan had lost the Philippines, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa. The Potsdam Declaration (26 July 1945) demanded unconditional surrender.

Stalin had promised at Yalta (4-11 February 1945) to enter the Pacific war within three months of Germany's surrender. Operation August Storm launched on 9 August 1945 with around 1.5 million Soviet troops under Marshal Aleksandr Vasilevsky. The Kwantung Army (around 700,000 troops, equipped at 1941 levels) collapsed within two weeks. Soviet forces overran Manchuria, north Korea, and Karafuto.

Stalin's formal policy was pro-KMT. The Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship and Alliance (14 August 1945) recognised the KMT government, accepted KMT sovereignty over Xinjiang and Manchuria, and in return reasserted Soviet naval and railway rights in Manchuria (Port Arthur, Dairen, joint railway operation), as Yalta had promised.

Japanese forces in China proper numbered around 1.05 million, plus 900,000 collaborationist troops; with Manchurian Kwantung Army, the total was around 2.6 million surrendering Japanese. The question was who took the surrender.

Mao flew to Chongqing on 28 August 1945 under US escort (General Patrick Hurley personally accompanied him). The visit, his first to Chongqing, was a political risk balanced by enormous publicity value. Talks ran from 28 August to 10 October 1945.

President Truman dispatched General George C. Marshall as Special Envoy on 27 November 1945. Marshall's mandate was to broker a coalition government and avert civil war.

By summer 1946: - The KMT had around 4.3 million troops, the modern German and US-trained core, US Lend-Lease equipment, and nominal control of all major cities and railways. - The CCP had around 1.2 million regulars, 2.6 million militia, base areas covering around 100 million people, and the Japanese arsenal acquired in Manchuria. - The US had given up on a negotiated settlement; Soviet aid to the CCP was active but covert.

Odd Arne Westad (Decisive Encounters: The Chinese Civil War 1946-1950, 2003) is the standard military and political history.

It was both: pro-KMT diplomatically, pro-CCP on the ground in Manchuria.

Both Chinese parties chose to fight; Marshall could not impose what neither would accept.

Chongqing was August-October 1945, two-party. The PCC was January 1946, multi-party including minor parties under Marshall.