?What do you mean?Japan was defeated and troops surrendered to China in China,Burma and Vietnam.
Is that what they teach you in your history books now days?
We can believe that such brainwashing does occur.
Technically speaking, the kid is correct...Technically speaking...That is.
So here is the truth...
In a war,
WHEN you commit the act of surrender, two conditions must be met before said commitment:
- That
YOU are a duly appointed representative of your side of the war, authorized to speak on the country's behalf.
- That the recipient of said act of surrender
MUST equally be a duly appointed representative of his side of the war, authorized to speak on his country's behalf.
Is it possible that a general of the losing side officially surrender to a sergeant of the other side? Not really. The general can only commit his soldiers, parcel or all of his army, to cease fighting, and the sergeant of the other side is obligated to accept the truce. This is assuming the general has spoken the order to cease combat to all that he can reach. When the other side received news of the commitment of cessation of hostility, they will send someone of equal stature, civilian or military, to finally accept a formal surrender on his country's behalf. Of course, in an emergency, if the only available representative is that sergeant, then his side can make him their official representative to speak on their behalf and accept said surrender. No matter what, both sides must have representatives who can negotiate with minimal inputs from their respective remote governments and who can officially sign their governments' credibility and integrity into documents.
Now here is where the Chinese brainwashing and distortions of history and facts comes into play...
AFTER the official surrender has been noted and that both sides have transmitted the order of cessation of hostility to their respective armies, but usually such order have transmitted before the official surrender ceremony, all units from the losing side's army must give up their weapons to the winner's army, regardless of remaining combat capability and ranks. In other words, at this point, a general from the losing side must take orders from the sergeant of the winning side if they were to meet. The general's army can be numerically superior and all the sergeant has is his squad and that still would not matter. The general's army is in effect the 'subordinate'. The losing side's army is in effect the 'subordinate'
EVERYWHERE and
ANY WHERE if there is a unit of the winning side's army to assume authority.
So what happened at the end of WW II was that since China was part of the Allies, any Chinese military unit, Nationalists or Communists, were authorized to assume authority over any Imperial Japanese military unit of any size at any location. In fact, in Indochina, which include Viet Nam, Laos, and Cambodia, Imperial Japanese soldiers were authorized
BY THE ALLIES to retain their weapons, to keep authority, and to keep civil order until an appointed representative of the Allies arrive to take over authority. In such a situation, that representative can be civilian or military of
ANY rank, but what happened was that Nationalist Chinese troops arrived and assume authority.
What this mean is that the Chinese education system can be technically correct in saying that Imperial Japan, not Imperial Japanese Army units, surrendered to China with none of the students any wiser to the truth.