World War II Database

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseJiang Dingwen was born to a farmer in Zhuji, Zhejiang Province, China during the Qing Dynasty. In Oct 1911, as he heard of the Chinese revolution, he quit school to join the revolutionary military in Hangzhou, China. In 1912, he was enrolled in a military academy in Zhejiang. Upon graduation in 1914, he served as a platoon then a company commander in Zhejiang. In 1915, he was transferred to the regional military headquarters in Guangdong Province. In 1921, he served as Dr. Sun Yatsen's deputy chief of staff with the rank of colonel. He participated in the various campaigns by the Nationalist military against regional warlords in the 1920s rising to regimental command with a training unit in Oct 1924. In Jan 1927, he was promoted to the rank of major general. In Oct 1927, he was named the commanding officer of the Chinese 1st Division; two months later, he took on a concurrent role as the deputy commanding officer of the 1st Corps. In Jul 1928, he was reassigned to the 9th Division as its commander. In the early 1930s, he participated in the campaigns against Chinese communists in Jiangxi Province and in Shanghai. He was promoted to the rank of general second class in Apr 1935, and in Nov of the same year he was named a member of the Chinese Nationalist Party Central Executive Committee. In Jul of the following year, he was named a member of the defense committee. In Dec 1936, he returned to military command to assault communist forces in Shaanxi Province. He was briefly interned alongside of Chiang Kaishek during the Xi'an Incident of 1936, and was chosen as Chiang's messenger to deliver the news of Chiang's captivity to the Nationalist Party leadership; Jiang would return to Xi'an as a member of the negotiation party.

ww2dbaseIn Oct 1937, after the Second Sino-Japanese War broke out, Jiang was named the commanding officer of the 4th Army and was placed in charge of Fujian Province. In Jun 1938, he was named the chairman of Shaanxi Province. In Nov 1938, he was given command of the 34th Army while still retaining his position at the head of Shaanxi Province. In Feb 1939, he was given command of the 10th War Area. In May 1941, he was named the director of the Xi'an office of the military committee. In Jan 1942, he was named the commander of the Chinese 1st War Area; he established his headquarters in Luoyang, China. He was relieved of his field command in Jul 1944 as the generals under his command were unable to halt Japanese advances during Operation Ichigo, losing the city of Luoyang and allowing a retreat to fall apart so much that one of his army group commanders, General Li Jiayu, was killed by Japanese small arms fire. In the temporary capital of Chongqing, he sat out the remainder of the war in the rear as a member of the military committee. In late 1945, he resigned from the military and became a businessman in Shanghai, China, opening a brick factory and a shipping company.

ww2dbaseAfter the war, Jiang visited Europe and the United States between Jan and Oct 1947, returning to Shanghai in Feb 1948. In 1948, he was elected into the National Assembly. In Aug 1948, he relocated to the island of Taiwan as the communists defeated the Nationalists in the Chinese Civil War. He passed away in Taipei, Taiwan in 1974.

Photographs

Jiang Dingwen Timeline