The second section objectively views Germany in World War II

  Two days ago, I watched the news and saw that the citizens of Paris, France were holding a grand event to commemorate the anniversary of their victory in the anti-fascist war. As I looked at those solemn-looking Gauls (not Koreans) on TV, I couldn't help but feel an urge to mock them. After all, let's be real, these French people haven't really won any significant battles since their Corsican Emperor Napoleon, especially during World War II, when they basically surrendered without a fight, which is probably the greatest shame for this nation. And yet, they're still holding grand commemorations here, probably celebrating that it was absolutely right to have always been the lapdog of the British and Americans.

  The French commemorate Germany's defeat, and we commemorate Japan's defeat. This is very normal. But if we turn it around, we come to commemorate Germany's defeat, and France commemorates Japan's defeat, this is not quite normal. As a result, the French do not go to commemorate Japan's defeat, while we always have to bring up commemorating Germany's defeat.

  For a long time, our Chinese textbooks, news and various audio-visual materials have been trying to portray Germany as an extremely evil and terrifying country (such as "Red Cherry"), of course, it is true for the Jews, but for us it seems a bit far-fetched, at least the French will not try to portray the Japanese during World War II as a beastly nation, after all, they are far away from them.

  I'm not here to boast about Germany, saying how great they were during World War II, that's unrealistic and impractical, and after all, Germany was Japan's ally during the war. What I want to say is that when looking at history, we shouldn't view it from someone else's perspective, but rather from our own standpoint and angle, making an objective judgment. For example, taking a neutral look at Germany during World War II, I think Chinese textbooks don't necessarily need to portray Germany as a sworn enemy.

  Of course, many people (and a large number of them) will refute this by saying that Germany is Japan's ally and the sworn enemy of the US and the Soviet Union, and therefore also China's sworn enemy. How can you possibly defend Germany? This is simply the logic of a traitor! Some rational people think that even if Germany did not invade China, it was an allied country with Japan, and according to the "enemy of my friend is my enemy" theory, we should oppose Germany as well. So the question arises: how much help did Japan give to Germany during World War II?

  The importance of the German-Japanese alliance

  It is well known that during World War II, Germany, Italy and Japan formed the Axis Alliance, and these three countries were all labeled as "Fascist States". As a result, World War II was commonly referred to as the "World Anti-Fascist War".

  Let's start by briefly talking about Italy, which is probably the least important of the three. This country has been in a state of disunity since the fall of the Western Roman Empire, and it wasn't until the 1870s that it finally unified. However, even after unification, Italy did not become strong, and its military campaigns were all failures: it lost to Ethiopia, lost to Austria-Hungary in World War I, lost to Greece at the start of World War II, and lost to El Alamein.

  It took a huge effort for Italy to finally defeat Ethiopia, but soon after, it lost again, and eventually collapsed itself. As an ally of Germany, Italy's only contribution was to give Germany the label of "Fascist State". No wonder Hitler said that "with five divisions, I can occupy Italy; with ten divisions, I can defend it; but with twenty divisions, I have to help it".

  Italy as an ally really didn't contribute much to Germany.

  Compared to Italy, Japan is much stronger. This can be seen from the comparison of Italy's and Japan's performances against the US and UK. Hitler did indeed actively develop relations with Japan, hoping that the Japanese could help Germany contain the US and the Soviet Union. However, looking at historical facts, Japan was not much help to its ally Germany. Apart from exchanging young students, the two countries had hardly any other connections, and it can even be said that Japan was only a nominal ally of Germany.

  This is not nonsense, reading the history of World War II will do. After Hitler launched a war against the Soviet Union, he hoped that Japan would attack from the east to form a pincer movement. Of course, the Japanese did so, but the result was quite bad. The Battle of Nomonhan alone made the devils afraid, and they didn't dare take another step beyond the lake. At that time, the situation on the Soviet Western Front was critical, while the Eastern Front only had some border defense troops, which meant that Germany's iron ally did not fire another shot at the Soviet Union. Later, when the German army retreated, the Soviet Union launched a counterattack, and the Japanese became even more unhelpful. From this perspective, Japan was of little help to Germany.

  Some people opposed me, saying "Do you even understand history? You're spouting nonsense here. Didn't Japan help Germany at all? Isn't Japan fighting the US, isn't that helping Germany?"

  If that's the case, then it's a reversal of the order of events. It wasn't Japan helping Germany fight America, but rather Japan's sneak attack on Pearl Harbor gave America an excuse to enter the war, causing Germany to face enemies on two fronts. America's entry into the war was only a matter of time, but Japan's foolish actions accelerated America's entry into the war, hastening Germany's defeat. From this perspective, Japan as Germany's ally not only failed to provide any assistance (by not attacking the Soviet Union), but instead gave a strong push on the road to Germany's defeat (by dragging America into the war). With this analysis, Japan can't be considered a true ally of Germany, but rather just a nominal one.

  Two, which of the five great powers invaded China the deepest?

  The five major powers referred to here are the main powers other than Japan during World War II, including the United States, Britain, France, the Soviet Union, and Germany. Although four of them were China's nominal allies, it was precisely these four countries that invaded China the deepest.

  Undoubtedly, Japan is China's greatest enemy, but we cannot ignore the influence of other countries just because of Japan's existence. Our country's history textbooks have done a good job in this regard, explaining how during World War II, Japan's atrocities overshadowed the aggression against China by other nations, making people think that at that time, our nation was still relatively strong and that apart from Japan, no other country dared to provoke China, but what is the actual situation?

  Let's talk about the Soviet Union, this country that is touted in textbooks as a "hero" of anti-fascism during World War II, but is actually an even more evil and vicious country. Let's not mention its policies towards other countries for now, and just talk about its aggression towards China. After its founding, the Soviet Union continued to support the independence of Outer Mongolia and encroached on Tannu Uriankhai, swallowing up many islands in the Heilongjiang River that belonged to China. After Japan invaded China, the Soviet Union used the pretext of defending Outer Mongolia from Japanese occupation to station a large number of troops there, solidifying its independent status. On the basis of fighting Germany with one hand, it also sent military personnel to assist the Uyghur people in Xinjiang in launching a rebellion (the "Three Districts Rebellion" that many people are not aware of), and while the rebels were massacring local Han Chinese, the Soviet Union also sent its air force to help them attack the local Nationalist troops.

  And the most textbook-heralded Soviet liberation of Northeast China is also a deliberately misleading historical fact. At that time, Japan was on the verge of collapse and hoped that the Soviet Union would mediate, but Stalin took advantage of this opportunity to send troops. It can't be said that the Soviet army didn't fight in Northeast China, but as soon as the US atomic bomb fell, the Soviet Union directly accepted many Japanese Kwantung Army soldiers who surrendered without a fight. As a result, the Soviet Union became the big winner, not only occupying all of Japan's industry in Northeast China, but also stationing troops in Changchun and Dalian until the Korean War when China repelled the US, and the old Soviets knew to roll away.

  As for the UK and US, China's two main allies at that time were not good things either. After the War of Resistance against Japan entered a stalemate in 1938, the UK and US cut off China's supply lines to protect their interests in China from being damaged by the war, forcing China to negotiate with Japan, and made a fortune from the war by selling arms to both China and Japan, which made Chiang Kai-shek very angry. Later, because Japan declared war on these two countries, they formed an alliance with China. However, it seems that the UK and US did not forget their bullying of this ally. The US forced China to agree to the independence of Outer Mongolia (in fact, it was assigned to the Soviet Union), and stationed troops all over China, allowing their soldiers to do as they pleased in various places. The UK immediately ran back to grab Hong Kong after World War II, and also showed off its military power on the Yangtze River, but was eventually defeated by the People's Liberation Army and retreated with its tail between its legs.

  France, a country that surrendered at the beginning of World War II, became arrogant again after the end of World War II. In addition to establishing many concessions in China like Britain and the United States, France continued to colonize Zhanjiang until 1949. The heavy blood debt owed by these four Allied countries of China during World War II seems to have been forgotten by people, but it is indeed true.

  In comparison with these four countries, Germany seems to have done little in the way of aggression towards China. This is not to say that Germany was friendly towards China, but rather that Hitler's reach did not extend to China. Germany rose late and by the time it came to China, it found that China had already been carved up. However, Germany was unwilling to be left behind and became a major force in the Eight-Nation Alliance invading China, occupying Jiaozhou Bay and looting many cultural artifacts including the Peking Observatory. All of these were later returned to China after World War I.

  In fact, when we look through historical records, we can find that the relationship between China and Germany in the 1930s was still quite friendly. China imported a large amount of military equipment from Germany, and Chiang Kai-shek even hired a high-ranking Nazi German military advisory team during his attack on the Jiangxi Soviet. Moreover, Chiang's elite bodyguard unit was also modeled after the German Wehrmacht. Furthermore, throughout World War II, China did not engage in combat with Germany, mainly due to the vast geographical distance between them. Nonetheless, it is true that China and Germany do not have any deep-seated animosity towards each other.

  Of course, there are still people who oppose it. Some point out that "World War II was not only a just war of aggression and anti-aggression (the Anti-Japanese War), but also a historical progressive war in which democratic countries eliminated the fascist system. World War II allowed the German, Italian, and Japanese peoples to get rid of the suffering of autocratic fascist rule and live happy democratic lives." From this perspective, Germany's fascist system was a barbaric regression, and eliminating Nazi Germany was also for the consideration of the German people. But is that really true?

  Three, anti-fascism is just an excuse

  Nazi Germany has left a mixed impression on the world. On one hand, under Hitler's irrational policy of racial extermination, millions of Jews suffered, revealing its evil side. On the other hand, the Nazis helped Germany recover from the economic crisis of 1929 and strengthened its national power, enabling it to sustain such a long and large-scale war, demonstrating its strong capabilities. Hitler was a madman who could achieve victories that only a madman could attain, but also commit errors that only a madman would make. The foundation for all this was Germany's national power. If Germany was terrifying to the countries invaded by the Nazis, was it also so terrifying to the non-Jewish German people?

  From some books and audio-visual materials from Germany (the most recent one can be said to be "The Downfall of the Empire"), it can be seen that the German people indeed opposed this war and opposed Hitler, but they did not oppose their own country, and deeply loved their own country (this is a very superficial truth, which country's people do not love their country, except for a few Chinese traitors). However, what was the banner raised by the Allied forces during World War II? Anti-fascism. How can this be explained? Fascism is a kind of oppression against one's own people, that is to say, the core of the US and Soviet Union's attack on Germany was to liberate the German people who were suffering. So how did they "liberate" the German people? The Soviet army raped more than 2 million German women, took away tens of billions of dollars in war reparations, and cut off East Prussia and the territory east of the Oder River... The United States seems to be more merciful than the Soviet Union, but its troops are still stationed on German soil.

  No matter how the war went, after so many years of propaganda, in people's eyes today, the US and the Soviet Union fought against Germany to liberate the German people oppressed by fascism, and the German people also warmly welcomed the liberation by the US and Soviet troops. This is the power of ideology. When our Chinese public opinion also follows suit to boast that democracy has defeated fascism, should we not reflect on ourselves as well?

  The US and the Soviet Union fought against Germany, essentially to contend for world hegemony (the US contending for Western Europe, the Soviet Union for Eastern Europe, which was fully demonstrated during the Cold War), but nominally they still had to wave the banner of "anti-fascism". To give another example, this is just like today's Iraq War. The US used the excuse that Iraq had "weapons of mass destruction" and "Saddam's dictatorship", in order to maintain "world peace". This is something we Chinese understand most clearly: the true intention of the Americans was Iraq's oil. So very few people were deceived by the US, then why can't we look at the war between the US and the Soviet Union against Germany from a different angle?

  4. How to view Germany in World War II

  I am not a Nazi sympathizer, nor do I want to prove that Germany during WWII was just. I only want to say that from China's perspective, the relationship between Nazi Germany and China did not reach an irreconcilable state. In international politics, there is no friendship, only interests. This also explains why the US and USSR continued to invade China while forming an alliance with it (the climax being the part of the Yalta Agreement regarding Outer Mongolia's independence).

  However, in the public opinion and ideology of our country, there are two opposing views: one is that many post-60s who grew up under red education generally have a pro-Soviet stance, believing that without the Soviet Union, China would not have won the war of resistance against Japan; another group is some post-90s who lack the ability to discern right from wrong due to the influence of online trolls, and they believe that without the US sending troops, China would be 100% doomed to perish at the hands of the Japanese.

  These two views seem to be extreme, but surprisingly, there are many supporters of both. It can only be said that it is the responsibility of our historians. Of course, truth still exists. To continue, in fact, Nazi Germany's war with the US and the Soviet Union was essentially a war between major powers vying for dominance and interests. Although Germany was unjust, the US, the Soviet Union, Britain, and France did not appear to be just either: after World War II, the Soviet Union directly supported Outer Mongolia's independence, the United States intervened in the Korean War first, France launched the Algerian War and the Indochina War to maintain its colonial rule, and Britain prepared to use nuclear strikes against China to prevent it from recovering Hong Kong... In short, none of the US, the Soviet Union, Britain, or France were just.

  However, the US, USSR, UK and France are portrayed as liberators in our country's history books, while Germany can only continue to play the role of aggressor. Indeed, Germany is a thorough aggressor, but it is also a scapegoat for these four aggressors - the US, USSR, UK and France. We should look at this period of history objectively, either elevating Germany to the same level as the US, USSR, UK and France, or lowering the US, USSR, UK and France to the same level as Germany. That's what I wanted to say.