During the Sino-Japanese War, the Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang) conducted guerrilla warfare in areas occupied by the Imperial Japanese Army. The Kuomintang aimed to continue the fight against Japan while maintaining their own governing authority in those regions by mobilizing the local population under Japanese occupation for guerrilla warfare. They carried out operations to disrupt logistics and transportation networks controlled by the Japanese forces.

Prior studies have evaluated the KMT’s wartime mobilization system as a “total war” system premised on the penetration of ruling power into society. However, according to some empirical studies on the wartime mobilization system in enemy-occupied areas, spontaneously organized self-defense groups and bandit groups were mobilized for guerrilla warfare, and the conscription system that had been established before the war did not function. Considering this point, it is necessary to conduct a comprehensive reexamination of the KMT’s wartime mobilization system, including the actual condition of their guerrilla warfare.

This paper turns its attention to “Jiangnan” region in southern Jiangsu Province, where Nanjing and Shanghai, which were important political and economic bases for the KMT, were located, and which became the front line after the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War. The paper then examines the extent to which the KMT was able to build a modern military based on a compulsory military service system in the “Jiangnan” region. Then, this paper will shift its attention to the Loyal Patriotic Army, a paramilitary organization of the Kuomintang that played a leading role in guerrilla warfare against the Japanese in “Jiangnan”, and clarified the actual situation of unit management, including the acquisition of soldiers, using primary historical documents. Through this work, this paper reexamines the KMT’s wartime mobilization system at the front-line areas and in the Japanese-occupied areas, which had not been sufficiently examined in previous studies.

This paper reveals that the Loyal Patriotic Army’s main source of soldiers was the various armed forces that emerged because of the weakening of the KMT’s rule. These armed forces could have been the immediate military power of the Loyal Patriotic Army, but their behavior was based on their own survival strategy rather than anti-Japanese consciousness, and it was difficult to control them. Therefore, while relying on these armed forces for wartime mobilization, the KMT continued to face the challenge of “domestic pacification,” which is a process of centralized control of the violent apparatus.

In conclusion, this paper points out that the KMT’s wartime mobilization in “Jiangnan” during the Sino-Japanese War was not based on a total war system but was dependent on local voluntary armed forces that became active partly because of the retreat of the party’s governing power. The KMT was able to mobilize such armed forces because the interests of both sides coincided in securing the war effort and guaranteeing survival, but this symbiotic relationship was very fragile.

  Manchurians established the Qing empire, which contained various ethnic groups such as Mongolians, Han Chinese, Tibetans, and Turkic Muslims, in the 17th century. In the late 19th century, modern Western thoughts were extensively introduced into the Qing empire. The idea of nationalism spread among the Han Chinese, the majority in the population, who overthrew the Qing and established the Republic of China.

  The Chinese Nationalist Party came to power in the late 1920s. It was based on Sun Yatsen’s Three Principles of the People, aiming to build a homogeneous nation and implement a constitutional government. However, in 1949, the Nationalists were defeated by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and fled to Taiwan.

  The CCP initially had a negative attitude toward nationalism. However, when Mao Zedong took over leadership in 1930s, he began to advocate for the Sinicization of Marxism and affirm patriotism. The People’s Republic of China, established by the CCP, officially recognized “ethnic minorities” within the country and implemented a regional ethnic autonomy system. However, the scope of such autonomy was extremely limited. Furthermore, liberalism and “ethnic minority” cultures were thoroughly destroyed during the Cultural Revolution.

  In modern China, nationalism and liberalism have often been in conflict. Furthermore, the Han Chinese, including liberalists, with their overwhelming population and cultural pride, have been generally less concerned about the problems of non-Han ethnic groups. However, the extent to which these factors are unique to China requires further studies and comparison with cases in other regions.