The events of December, 1937 in Nanjing are long-standing causes of contention rooted in political differences of opinion between China and Japan. The Chinese view is unified, expressed in the "300,000 victims" engraved on the memorial walls in Nanjing, which bluntly refers to the Chinese opinion and entity of the "Great Massacre School." Views in Japan range from complete denial to agreement with the Chinese. The Japanese government's position of denial fuels the diplomatic clash. The Politics of Nanjing takes a centrist position in order to reconstruct historiographically the days leading up to and following the Japanese invasion of the capital and the political aftermath in China-Japan relations.

The Reluctant Combatant offers proof that Japanese political leaders were reluctant to engage China in a full-scale conflict during the Second Sino-Japanese War. This book identifies several key aspects of the political context surrounding the Second Sino-Japanese War, including the extreme fragility of the national united front against Japan, the view of Soviet Russia as Japan's principal potential adversary, and the potential threat to Japanese national defense a protracted war with China would pose. This book reveals that the Communists, the National Government, local gentry, peasants, and bandits occasionally collaborated with the enemy-Japanese troops-to expand their spheres of influence.