Trautmann mediation

The Trautmann Mediation was an attempt by German Ambassador to China Oskar Trautmann to broker a peace between Japanese Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe and Chiang Kai-Shek of the Chinese Kuomintang Government shortly after the 2nd Sino-Japanese War began. The negotiations were placed under considerable strain as the Nanking Massacre took place as they were still ongoing. Because Chiang had decided to continue to pursue peace even after the massacre, he suffered a severe propaganda defeat when Konoe broke off the negotiations in January 1938. Communist propaganda played heavily upon Chiang's "submission" in the following year. The issue was highly emotive because of the large scale of the Japanese atrocities in Nanking, and it is probable that the failed mediation had a major impact upon the ongoing Chinese Civil War.

Sources

Tetsuya Kataoka, Resistance and Revolution in China: The Communists and the Second United Front