China

The China-Japan clashes made up the Chinese Theater of the Pacific Theater. By 1941, Japan held most of the eastern coastal areas of China and Vietnam, but guerrilla fighting continued in these occupied areas. Starting in 1940, open conflict between Nationalists and Communists became more frequent in the occupied areas outside of Japanese control. Japan had suffered high casualties from unexpectedly stubborn Chinese resistance and neither side could make any swift progress.

Following a lengthy period of assuming a defensive posture, Chinese troops under the command of Sun Li-jen, attacking from India, and those under Wei Lihuang, attacking from Yunnan, joined forces in Mong-Yu. There they successfully drove the Japanese out of North Burma and secured the Ledo Road, vital supply artery. During Spring 1945 the Chinese launched offensives that retook Hunan and Guangxi. The Chinese army was planning additional offensive thrusts, when the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and Soviet invasion of Manchuria hastened Japanese surrender.

Known as the Medal in Commemoration of Victory in the Resistance Against Aggression, the medal was authorized after the Second Sino-Japanese War (World War II) by the Republic of China government for servicemen who assisted the Chinese Government fighting against the Japanese. Members of the Fourteenth Air Force, the Flying Tigers, were also eligible for this medal. The medal was created in 1944 and first distributed in 1946 by the Chinese Nationalist government.


China War Memorial Medal


The obverse depicts the Marco Polo Bridge over the Yang-ding River, symbolizing the breakout of the war wit Japan on July 7, 1937. Two flags of the Republic of China and the Armed Forces frame a portrait of Chairman Chiang Kai-shek. On the reverse there is a blank bar for the engraving of the service member's name or serial number. A round metal Chinese sunburst emblem is placed in the center of the suspension and service ribbons.


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