evidence: China Handbook 1937–1943: A comprehensive survey of major developments in China in six years of war was published by the Republic of China in 1943 and stated its southernmost territory as "Triton Island of the Paracel Group".[116] China Handbook 1937–1945, a revised edition covering the entire Second Sino-Japanese War, claimed that the Spratly islands were contested among China, the Philippines, and Indochina.[117] The Paracels and Spratlys were handed over to Republic of China control from Japan after the 1945 surrender of Japan,[29] since the Allied powers assigned the Republic of China to receive Japanese surrenders in that area.[27]