My Dad the U.S. China Marine

My Dad the U.S. China Marine

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Honolulu Star Bulletin Letter to the Editor: US Forces in North China, Nov. 1945

The following is a letter published in Honolulu’s Star Bulletin, dated November 14, 1945, page 6:

Editor The Star Bulletin:

In recent weeks, the internal situation in China has become extremely explosive.

The presence of United States armed forces in north China, however, is not a deliberate attempt by the U.S. government to side with the Chungking government against the Communists. U.S. armed personnel are in China merely to aid the Chungking government to disarm and demobilize 4,000,000 Japanese troops and nationals in north China. It must be borne in mind that the Chungking government is the legal government of China and is considered as such by the major powers of the world. A New York Times editorial says in part:

“The Chinese Communists are trying to repeat the coup which Marshall Tito so successfully accomplished in Yugoslavia in which the Lubin regime repeated in Poland.

“And there is no doubt that the behavior of the big powers in these two cases is now raising new trouble for them elsewhere. The matter is, of course, primarily one for settlement by the Chinese themselves, and President Chiang Kai-shek has invited the head of the Communist regime to come to Chungking to discuss the problem as a Chinese internal affair.

“Judging from their past performances the Communists will refuse. They will not seek participation; they want domination. They are not a political party; they are a conspiracy to seize the Chinese government. And they consider the victory of the United Nations, in which they played a microscopic part, as their great opportunity.

“But the matter is obviously also one for the attention of the four among the Big Five. With China itself a member of the Big Five, it is impossible for them to deal with any factions within China behind the back of the Chinese government without inviting similar action within their own domain and thereby destroying all faith in the United Nations.”

George Y. Chan,
Ensign, USNR, 902 Spencer St.

No comments: