20世纪30年代日本帝国主义的入侵，在给中国人民带来沉重的灾难、深刻的民族危机的同时，也最大限度地唤醒了中国人民的民族意识，民族主义空前高涨。在这种民族主义力量的感召和动员下，中国人民不分阶级、阶层、政治立场和利益为了中华民族存亡的命运而联合起来，组成了最广泛的抗日民族统一战线从而使抗日战争演变为全民族的抗战，最终打败了日本侵略者，取得了中国近代史上第一次民族解放斗争的彻底胜利。 抗日战争时期，中国的民众在“不愿做亡国奴”的思想意识下，自发地组织救亡抵抗运动，他们当中的文化精英通过鼓动、宣传和引导，进一步激发了这种民族主义情绪，从而逐渐成为民众民族主义运动中最活跃的领袖。民众民族主义运动的发展对中国社会的政治形式所产生的影响使得不同的政治势力都不得不调整各自的民族主义策略和路线并从中吸取力量，尤其是国共两党，国民党需要它重树统治权威，共产党需要它赢得政治的合法性和发展的空间。但是由于他们各自所代表的阶级利益和政治倾向的不同，国民党代表的是大地主大资产阶级的利益，维护的是 “一个主义、一个政党、一个领袖”的独裁政治体制，执行了一条“安内攘外”的极权民族主义路线，从而使得它未能充分吸收和利用这种民族主义的力量而最终失去了统治的社会基础。中国共产党所代表的是广大人民群众的利益，维护的是包括各阶级、各阶层在内的民主政权，因而它将民族革命和民主革命紧密结合起来，广泛动员民众的力量并给予充分的民主权利，从而获得了社会各界的支持，最终成为这场民族主义运动最坚实的领导者。 民族主义在抗日战争时期，对中华民族的政治、经济、文化所产生的积极建构作用是任何其他力量所无法替代的，它不仅动员了几乎全部的力量赢得了战争的胜利，而且也推动了中国现代化的进程。但是由于中国的民族主义它是一种应激型的民族主义，在抗日战争时期复杂的社会矛盾中，不免带有一些局限。鉴于此，抗日战争时期的民族主义对今天民族主义的发展将起到很多积极的借鉴意义。

In the 1930s, the invasion of the Japanese imperialists had brought extreme disasters to the Chinese people and had plunged China into a deep national crisis. Meanwhile, the Japanese invasion of China had waked up the national consciousness of the Chinese people to the maximum. And nationalism rose unprecedentedly high at that time. Moved and mobilized by the forces of this nationalism, the Chinese people, regardless of social classes, social hierarchies, political positions and interests, united to form a wide-ranged anti-Japanese national united front for the survival of the nation. Therefore, the Anti-Japanese War had developed into a national war of resistance. Finally, the Chinese people had defeated the Japanese invaders, and achieved for the first time a complete victory in the struggle for national liberation in modern history of China. During the Anti-Japanese War, unwilling to be slaves of Japan, the Chinese people voluntarily organized resistance movements for national salvation. Among them the cultural elite encouraged, propagated and guided these resistance movements, which further stimulated the nationalist sentiment. And those cultural elites had thus become the most active leaders in nationalist resistance movements. These nationalist resistance movements had exerted such powerful influences on the political situation of Chinese society that all the different political powers had had to draw strength from these nationalist resistance movements. The Kuomintang had thrust itself into these nationalist resistance movements to establish its rulership, while the Communist Party to win its political legitimacy and its support. The two parties had then adjusted their own strategies in order to take advantage of this ever rising nationalist sentiment. However, the two parties had represented different class interests and had had their own political preferences. KMT had represented the interests of big landlords and the big bourgeoisie, had maintained the dictatorial political system of “one doctrine, one political party, one leader”, and had implemented the totalitarian nationalist lines of a “preserving peace at home and repelling foreign invasion”. In this way, KMT had not fully made use of the power of this nationalism and had eventually lost the social basis of its rulership. However, the Communist Party of China had represented the interests of the masses of people, and had a democratic regime including all classes and all strata of society. The CCP had closely integrated the nationalist revolution with the democratic revolution, had widely mobilized people and had given full democratic rights to people. Therefore, the CCP had won the support of all sectors of society and become the strongest leader in this nationalist movement. During the Anti-Japanese War, nationalism had exercised such a positive and constructive influence on the Chinese nation’s politics, economy and culture that any other forces could not compare. Nationalism had not only mobilized almost all the powers to win the Anti-Japanese War, but also pushed forward the modernization process of China. However, because Chinese nationalism was a stress-based and because there existed complex social conflicts during Anti-Japanese War, it would naturally have some limitations. In view of this, Chinese nationalism during the Anti-Japanese War is of great significance to the development of modern nationalism.