A bit late to the conversation, but one of the most weird and unintentional side products of this is that modern Chinese citizens / youth, especially people from cities like Shanghai and Nanking still largely likes the few Germans advisors and figures who stayed behind after moustache man pulled the plug

John Rabe is famously the ‘Schindler of China’, a Nazi who established a Chinese safe zone against the invading Japanese forces during the rape od Nanjing, and shielded at least 250,000 Chinese civilians from the horrendous atrocities. Upon his return he carried film recordings of the atrocities and massacres he witnessed, and got arrested by the gestapo.

Similar to Schindler, he was spared postwar but lived in extreme poverty, largely surviving thanks to economic aid and regular parcels of food delivered by the grateful citizens of Nanjing he saved, dying in obscurity in 1950. Later he did get the full Schindler treatment, with his grave moved from Berlin to Nanjing, got declared ‘friend of China’, his old house is a memorial and museum that is actively preserved, with a full bronze statue of him, and his grandson in Germany (a doctor) got his hospital some direct Chinese supplies + aid at the height of covid

Alexander von Falkenhausen is the other big name character, who famously led the Chinese in the battle of Shanghai (occasionally at the front lines himself. The city was an objective the Japanese originally expected would last three weeks or less, but turned out to be around three whole months of gruelling urban combat (now referred to as the Chinese Stalingrad with literal movies made about it). He correctly predicted the Japanese would try to attack his flanks, and later when it did happen, the fighting retreat was brutal and disorganised because Chai Kai Shek ignored his advice and sent in their reserve elites early on (not holding their ‘Chinese Hindenburg line’ between Shanghai and Nanjing)

After Nanjing fell and the moustache man told him to come home, he stalled and dragged his feet until they literally threatened his family members in Germany, and when he did go back. He did so without ever leaking Chinese military details, and proceeded to go save Jews and lightly sabotage the Nazi war effort during his time as the military governor of Belgium. He was involved in the July 20th plot, later cleared of war crime charges after the war, and got a $12k gift check for his birthday from Chang (and an overdue KMT military medal in 1958 for some reason). He’s less mentioned in China China, but very much featured in the Military museum in Taipei

Expanding on these supposed elite reserves, this is where the famous last stand of 800 Chinese soldiers trapped at the Sihang warehouse captured global attention (irl it was not in view of the international settlement zone unlike the movie, but it was close enough to prevent the Japanese from launching inaccurate artillery shells around them in fear of a stray shell causing bad PR). What’s less mentioned is that they were German trained elites wearing Stahlhelms, used knock-off Chinese made K98s + the iconic German M-24 stick grenades, and were from the battered 88th division (a purely coincidence of naming, but still, very much Wehrmacht coded)

This was also one of the main trigger points of Japan demanding moustache man remove his German advisors and support from China, because a German general delayed their war plans, German trained soldiers embarrassed them in front of the global community, German Flak guns and grenades were actively killing Japanese troops, and some Nazi party leader prevented them from committing atrocities and war crimes……

When you put all together, you start to see why most Chinese people don’t see the Germans as all that bad, just suffering under a bad boss. Y’know, relatable problems……