Social Sciences in China, 2026

Vol. 47, No. 1, 2026

Comprehensively Understanding the Multifaceted Nature of WWⅡ and the Chinese Theater’s Status as the Main Theater in the East from a Correct Historical View

(Abstract)

Wang Fusheng

World War Ⅱ was a global conflict of unprecedented scale that profoundly shaped the course of world history. The Chinese People’s War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression established the main theater in the East of the World Anti-Fascist War, making indelible contributions to national salvation, independence, people’s liberation, and the pursuit of world peace. For decades, however, research on World War Ⅱ history has been constrained by so-called “international mainstream” historical perspectives, which interpret the war primarily through a Western ideological lens. This narrative framework conceals the war’s origins and nature and overstates the role of the United States and some other Western countries, while deliberately downplaying the status of the Chinese theater as the main theater in the East. It further marginalizes, devalues, vilifies, or even denies the role of the socialist forces led by the Soviet Union. To study World War Ⅱ, it is essential to maintain a materialist historical perspective and historical dialectics, uphold the Marxist view of war, and grasp the comprehensive, practical, and evolutionary nature of historical development. Such an approach helps to profoundly reveal the war’s origins and clarify its imperialist nature and evolution, thus properly understanding the architecture of power, its trajectory in the World Anti-Fascist War, the war’s outcome, and its various influences on today’s world. Meanwhile, it is necessary to oppose all attempts to glorify aggression or distort history. Guided by a correct historical view of World War Ⅱ, criticism should be directed against the erroneous perspectives of historical nihilism, thus constructing a Chinese intellectual system in the history of the World Anti-Fascist War.

Keywords: historical materialism, Marxist view of war, World War Ⅱ, main theater in the East, Western centrism