Second Sino-Japanese War PDF
Second Sino-Japanese War PDF
Second Sino-Japanese War PDF
Map showing the extent of Japanese control (red) in 1940. Date Minor fighting since September 18, 1931 Full scale war: July 7, 1937 September 9, 1945 (8 years,1 month,3 weeksand5 days) Mainland China, Burma
Location Result
Chinese victory as part of the Allied victory in the Pacific War Surrender of all Japanese forces in mainland China (excluding Manchuria), Formosa and French Indochina north of 16 north to the Republic of China China becomes a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council Resumption of Chinese Civil War
Territorial China recovers all territories lost to Japan since the Treaty of Shimonoseki. Korea divided between US and Soviet changes forces.
Belligerents
Republic of China [1] Empire of Japan with Collaborator support
Nanjing Government (194045) Manchukuo (193245) Mengjiang (193645) Provisional Government (193740) Reformed Government (193740) East Hebei (193738)
2
Hirohito Korechika Anami Yasuhiko Asaka Shunroku Hata Seishir Itagaki Kotohito Kan'in Iwane Matsui Toshiz Nishio Yasuji Okamura Hajime Sugiyama Hideki Tj Yoshijir Umezu Seizo Ishikawa Puyi Wang Jingwei
Chiang Kai-shek Chen Cheng Yan Xishan Li Zongren Xue Yue Bai Chongxi Wei Lihuang Du Yuming Fu Zuoyi Sun Liren Mao Zedong Zhu De Peng Dehuai Joseph Stilwell Claire Chennault Albert Wedemeyer
Strength
5,600,000 Chinese 3,600 Soviets (193740) [2] 900 US aircraft (194245) 4,100,000 Japanese [4] 900,000 Chinese collaborators
[3]
The Second Sino-Japanese War (July 7, 1937 September 9, 1945), called so after the First Sino-Japanese War of 189495, was a military conflict fought primarily between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan from 1937 to 1941. China fought Japan with some economic help from Germany (see Sino-German cooperation), the Soviet Union (see Soviet Volunteer Group) and the United States (see American Volunteer Group). After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, the war merged into the greater conflict of World War II as a major front of what is broadly known as the Pacific War. The Second Sino-Japanese War was the largest Asian war in the 20th century. It also made up more than 50% of the casualties in the Pacific War if the 19371941 period is taken into account.[citation needed] The war was the result of a decades-long Japanese imperialist policy aiming to dominate China politically and militarily and to secure its vast raw material reserves and other economic resources, particularly food and labour. Before 1937, China and Japan fought in small, localized engagements, so-called "incidents". In 1931, the Japanese invasion of Manchuria by Japan's Kwantung Army followed the Mukden Incident. The last of these incidents was the Marco Polo Bridge Incident of 1937, marking the beginning of total war between the two countries. Initially the Japanese scored major victories in Shanghai after heavy fighting, and by the end of 1937 captured the Chinese capital of Nanking. After failing to stop the Japanese in Wuhan, the Chinese central government was relocated to Chongqing in the Chinese interior. By 1939 the war had reached stalemate after Chinese victories in Changsha and Guangxi. The Japanese were also unable to defeat the Chinese communist forces in Shaanxi, which performed harassment and sabotage operations against the Japanese using guerrilla warfare tactics. On the 7th of December 1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, and the following day (8th December) the United States declared war on Japan. The United States began to aid China via airlift materiel over the Himalayas after the Allied
Second Sino-Japanese War defeat in Burma that closed the Burma Road. In 1944 Japan launched a massive invasion and conquered Henan and Changsha, but eventually surrendered on September 2, 1945 after atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and Soviet invasion of Japanese-held Manchuria.
Nomenclature
Name
In the Chinese language, the war is most commonly known as the War of Resistance Against Japan (simplified Chinese: ; traditional Chinese: ), and also known as the Eight Years' War of Resistance( / ), simply War of Resistance ( / ), or Second Sino-Japanese War ( / ). In Japan, nowadays, the name "JapanChina War" ( Nitch Sens) is most commonly used because of its perceived objectivity. In Japan today, it is written as in shinjitai. When the invasion of China proper began in earnest in July 1937 near Beijing, the government of Japan used "The North China Incident" ( / Hokushi Jihen/Kahoku Jihen), and with the outbreak of the Battle of Shanghai the following month, it was changed to "The China Incident" ( Shina Jihen). The word "incident" ( jihen) was used by Japan, as Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, Allied Commander-in-Chief neither country had made a formal declaration of war. in the China theatre from 1942 to 1945. Especially Japan wanted to avoid intervention by other countries, particularly the United Kingdom and the United States, which were its primary source of petroleum; the United States was also its biggest supplier of steel. If the fighting had been formally expressed that it had already escalated to "general war", US President Franklin D. Roosevelt would have been legally obliged to impose an embargo on Japan in observance of the US Neutrality Acts.
Other names
In Japanese propaganda, the invasion of China became a "holy war" ( seisen), the first step of the Hakk ichiu ( ?, eight corners of the world under one roof) . In 1940, Japanese Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe launched the Taisei Yokusankai. When both sides formally declared war in December 1941, the name was replaced by "Greater East Asia War" ( Daita Sens). Although the Japanese government still uses the term "China Incident" in formal documents[citation needed], the word Shina is considered derogatory by China and therefore the media in Japan often paraphrase with other expressions like "The JapanChina Incident" ( Nikka Jiken, Nisshi Jiken), which were used by media as early as the 1930s. The name "Second Sino-Japanese War" is not usually used in Japan, as the First Sino-Japanese War ( NisshinSens) between Japan and the Qing Dynasty in 1894 is not regarded as having obvious direct linkage to the second[citation needed], between Japan and the Republic of China.
Background
First Sino-Japanese War
The origin of the Second Sino-Japanese War can be traced to the First Sino-Japanese War of 189495, in which China, then under the Qing Dynasty, was defeated by Japan and was forced to cede Formosa, and to recognize the nominal independence (in fact, Japanese control) of Korea in the Treaty of Shimonoseki. The Qing Dynasty was on the brink of collapse from internal revolts and foreign imperialism, while Japan had emerged as a great power through its effective measures of modernization.[1]
Twenty-One Demands
In 1915, Japan issued the Twenty-One Demands to extort further political and commercial privilege from China.[3] Following World War I, Japan acquired the German Empire's sphere of influence in Shandong[4] (Shantung), leading to nationwide anti-Japanese protests and mass demonstrations in China, but China under the Beiyang government remained fragmented and unable to resist foreign incursions.[5] To unite China and eradicate regional warlords, the Kuomintang (KMT, or Chinese Nationalist Party) in Guangzhou launched the Northern Expedition of 192628 with the help of the Soviet Union.[6]
Jinan Incident
The Kuomintang's National Revolutionary Army (NRA) swept through China until it was checked in Shandong, where Beiyang warlord Zhang Zongchang, backed by the Japanese, attempted to stop the NRA's advance. This battle culminated in the Jinan Incident of 1928 in which the National Revolutionary Army and the Imperial Japanese Army were engaged in a short conflict that resulted in Kuomintang's withdrawal from Jinan.[7]
Japan increasingly exploited internal conflicts in China to reduce the strength of its fractious opponents. This was precipitated by the fact that even years after the Northern Expedition, the political power of the Nationalist government was limited to just the area of the Yangtze River Delta. Other sections of China were essentially in the hands of local Chinese warlords. Japan sought various Chinese collaborators and helped them establish governments friendly to Japan. This policy was called the Specialization of North China (Chinese: ; pinyin: habitshha), more commonly known as the North China Autonomous Movement. The northern provinces affected by this policy were Chahar, Suiyuan, Hebei, Shanxi, and Shandong. This Japanese policy was most effective in the area of what is now Inner Mongolia and Hebei. In 1935, under Japanese pressure, China signed the HeUmezu Agreement, which forbade the KMT from conducting party operations in Hebei. In the same year, the ChinDoihara Agreement was signed expelling the KMT from Chahar. Thus, by the end of 1935 the Chinese government had essentially abandoned northern China. In its place, the Japanese-backed East Hebei Autonomous Council and the HebeiChahar Political Council were established. There in the empty space of Chahar the Mongol Military Government ( ) was formed on May 12, 1936,
Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek announced the Kuomintang policy of resistance against Japan at Lushan on July 10, 1937, three days after the Marco Polo Bridge Incident.
Second Sino-Japanese War Japan providing all necessary military and economic aid. Afterwards Chinese volunteer forces continued to resist Japanese aggression in Manchuria, and Chahar and Suiyuan.
Casualties of a mass panic during a June 1941 Japanese bombing of Chongqing. More than 5000 civilians died during the first two days of air raids [10] in 1939
The Imperial General Headquarters (GHQ) in Tokyo were initially reluctant to escalate the conflict into full scale war, being content with the gains acquired in northern China following the Marco Polo Bridge Incident. The KMT, however, determined that the "breaking point" of Japanese aggression had been reached. Chiang Kai-shek quickly mobilized the central government's army and air force, placed them under his direct command, and attacked Japanese Marines in Shanghai on August 13, 1937, leading to the Battle of Shanghai. The Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) had to commit over 200,000 troops, along with numerous naval vessels and aircraft, to capture the city. After more than three months of intense fighting, their casualties far exceeded
initial expectations.[11] Building on the hard won victory in Shanghai, the IJA captured the KMT capital city of Nanjing (Nanking) and Northern Shanxi by the end of 1937. These campaigns involved approximately 350,000 Japanese soldiers, and considerably more Chinese. Historians estimate up to 300,000 Chinese (mostly civilians) were mass murdered and tortured in unspeakable methods and tens of thousands of women raped (themselves also slaughtered without mercy) during the notorious Nanking Massacre (also known as the "Rape of Nanking"), after the fall of Nanking from December 13, 1937 to late January 1938; some Japanese deny that the massacre occurred. At the start of 1938, the leadership in Tokyo still hoped to limit the scope of the conflict to occupy areas around Shanghai, Nanjing and most of northern China. They thought this would preserve strength for an anticipated showdown with the Soviet Union, but by now the Japanese government and GHQ had effectively lost control of the Japanese army in China. With many victories achieved, Japanese field generals escalated the war in Jiangsu in an
Second Sino-Japanese War attempt to wipe out Chinese resistance, but was defeated at the Battle of Taierzhuang. Afterwards the IJA changed its strategy and deploy almost all of its existing armies in China to attack the city of Wuhan, which by now was the political, economic and military center of China, in hopes of destroying the fighting strength of the National Revolutionary Army (NRA) and forcing the KMT government to negotiate for peace.[12] The Japanese captured Wuhan on October 27, 1938, forcing the KMT to retreat to Chongqing (Chungking), but Chiang Kai-shek still refused to negotiate, saying he would only consider talks if Japan agreed to withdraw to pre-1937 borders. With Japanese casualties and costs mounting, the Imperial General Headquarters attempted to break Chinese resistance by ordering the air branches of the navy and the army to launch the war's first massive air raids on civilian targets. Japanese raiders hit the Kuomintang's newly established provisional capital of Chongqing and most other major cities in unoccupied China, leaving millions dead, injured, and homeless. From the beginning of 1939 the war entered a new phase with the unprecedented defeat of the Japanese at Changsha and Guangxi. These outcomes encouraged the Chinese to launch their first large-scale counter-offensive against the IJA in early 1940; however, due to its low military-industrial capacity and limited experience in modern warfare, the NRA was defeated in this offensive. Afterwards Chiang could not risk any more all-out offensive campaigns given the poorly trained, under-equipped, and disorganized state of his armies and opposition to his leadership both within the Kuomintang and in China in general. He had lost a substantial portion of his best trained and equipped troops in the Battle of Shanghai and was at times at the mercy of his generals, who maintained a high degree of autonomy from the central KMT government. After 1940 the Japanese encountered tremendous difficulties in administering and garrisoning the seized territories, and tried to solve its occupation problems by implementing a strategy of creating friendly puppet governments favourable to Japanese interests in the territories conquered, the most prominent being the Nanjing Nationalist Government headed by former KMT premier Wang Jingwei. However, atrocities committed by the Japanese army, as well as Japanese refusal to delegate any real power, left them very unpopular and largely ineffective. The only success the Japanese had was the ability to recruit a large Collaborationist Chinese Army to maintain public security in the occupied areas. By 1941, Japan held most of the eastern coastal areas of China and Vietnam, but guerilla fighting continued in these occupied areas. Japan had suffered high casualties from unexpectedly stubborn Chinese resistance, and neither side could make any swift progress in a manner resembling the fall of France and Western Europe to Nazi Germany.
Even under these extremely unfavorable circumstances, Chiang realized that to win support from the United States and other foreign nations, China had to prove it was capable of fighting. Knowing a hasty retreat would discourage foreign aid, Chiang resolved to make a stand at Shanghai, using the best of his German-trained divisions to defend China's largest and most industrialized city from the Japanese. The battle lasted over three months, saw heavy casualties on both sides, and ended with a Chinese retreat towards Nanjing, but proved that China would not be easily defeated and showed its determination to the world. The battle became an enormous morale booster for the Chinese people, as it decisively refuted the Japanese boast that Japan could conquer Shanghai in three days and China in three months.
Afterwards China began to adopt the strategy of "trading space for time" ((Chinese): - ). The Chinese army would put up fights to delay the Japanese advance to northern and eastern cities, allowing the home front, with its professionals and key industries, to retreat west into Chongqing. As a result of Chinese troops' scorched earth strategies, in which dams and levees were intentionally sabotaged to create massive flooding, Japanese advances began to stall in late 1938. Second Period: 25 October 1938 (Fall of Wuhan) December 1941 (before the Allies' declaration of war on Japan). During this period, the main Chinese objective was to drag out the war for as long as possible, thereby exhausting Japanese resources while building up Chinese military capacity. American general Joseph Stilwell called this strategy "winning by outlasting". The National Revolutionary Army adopted the concept of "magnetic warfare" to attract advancing Japanese troops to definite points where they were subjected to ambush, flanking attacks, and encirclements in major engagements. The most prominent example of this tactic was the successful defense of Changsha in 1939 (and again in 1941), in which heavy casualties were inflicted on the IJA. Local Chinese resistance forces, organised separately by both the communists and KMT, continued their resistance in occupied areas to pester the enemy and make their administration over the vast land area of China difficult. In 1940 the Chinese Red Army launched a major offensive in north China, destroying railways and a major coal mine. These constant harassment and sabotage operations deeply frustrated the Japanese army and led them to employ the "Three Alls Policy" (kill all, loot all, burn all) ( , Hanyu Pinyin: Sngung Zhngc, Japanese On: Sank Seisaku). It was during this period that the bulk of Japanese war crimes were committed. By 1941 Japan had occupied much of north and coastal China, but the KMT central government and military had successfully retreated to the western interior to continue their resistance, while the Chinese communists remained in control of base areas in Shaanxi. In the occupied areas, Japanese control was mainly limited to railroads and major cities ("points and lines"). They did not have a major military or administrative presence in the vast Chinese countryside, where Chinese guerillas roamed freely. This stalemate situation made a decisive victory seem impossible to the Japanese.
Second Sino-Japanese War Adolf Hitler was forming an alliance with Japan against the Soviet Union. Soviet support After the signing of the Anti-Comintern Pact between Germany and Japan, the Soviet Union hoped to keep China in the war as a way of deterring the Japanese from invading Siberia, thus saving itself from the threat of a two-front war. In September 1937, the Soviet leadership signed the Sino-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact and approved Operation Zet, the formation of a Soviet volunteer air force. As part of this secret operation, Soviet technicians upgraded I-16 with Chinese insignia. I-16 was the main fighter and ran some of China's transportation systems. Bombers, fighters, plane used by the Chinese Air Force and Soviet supplies and advisors arrived, including Soviet general Vasily volunteers. Chuikov, the future victor of the Battle of Stalingrad. Prior to the entrance of the Western allies, the Russians provided the largest amount of foreign aid to China, totalling some $250 million in credits for munitions and other supplies. In April 1941, Soviet aid ended as a result of the SovietJapanese Neutrality Pact and the beginning of the Great Patriotic War. This pact enabled the Soviet Union to avoid fighting against Germany and Japan at the same time. In total, 3,665 Soviet advisors and pilots served in China,[15] and 227 of them died fighting there.[16] Japan lost a separate local confrontation with the Soviet Union at the Battles of Khalkhin Gol in May - September 1939. The defeat left the Japanese army reluctant to fight the Soviets again.[17] Allied support From December 1937 events such as the Japanese attack on the USS Panay and the Nanking Massacre swung public opinion in the West sharply against Japan and increased their fear of Japanese expansion, which prompted the United States, the United Kingdom, and France to provide loan assistance for war supply contracts to the Republic of China. Australia also prevented a Japanese government-owned company from taking over an iron mine in Australia, and banned iron ore exports in 1938. However in July 1939, negotiations between Japanese Foreign Minister Arita Khatira and the British Ambassador in Tokyo, Robert Craigie, led to an agreement by which Great Britain recognized Japanese conquests in China. At the same time, the U.S. government extended a trade agreement with Japan for six months, Flying Tigers Commander Claire Lee Chennault then fully restored it. Under the agreement, Japan purchased trucks for the Kwantung Army,[18] machine tools for aircraft factories, strategic materials (steel and scrap iron up to 16 October 1940, petrol and petroleum products up to 26 June 1941[19]), and various other much-needed supplies. Japan invaded and occupied the northern part of French Indochina (present-day Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia) in September 1940 to prevent China from receiving the 10,000 tons of materials delivered monthly by the Allies via the HaiphongYunnan Fou Railway line.
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On June 22, 1941, Germany attacked the Soviet Union. Notwithstanding non-aggression pacts or trade connections, Hitler's assault threw the world into a frenzy of re-aligning political outlooks and strategic prospects. On July 21 Japan occupied the southern part of French Indochina (Southern Vietnam and Cambodia), contravening a 1940 "Gentlemen's Agreement" not to move into southern French Indochina. From bases in Cambodia and Southern Vietnam, Japanese planes could attack Malaya, Singapore, and the Dutch East Indies. As the Japanese occupation of Northern French Indochina in 1940 had already cut off supplies from the West to China, the move into Southern French Indochina was viewed as a direct threat to British and Dutch colonies. Many principal figures in the Japanese government and military (particularly the navy) were against the move, as they foresaw that it would invite retaliation from the West.
A "blood chit" issued to AVG pilots requesting all On 24 July 1941 Roosevelt requested Japan withdraw all its forces Chinese to offer rescue and protection. from Indochina. Two days later the USA and the UK began an oil embargo; two days after that the Netherlands joined them. This was a decisive moment in the Second Sino-Japanese war. The loss of oil imports made it impossible for Japan to continue operations in China on a long term basis. It set the stage for Japan to launch a series of military attacks against the Allies, including the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.
In mid-1941, the United States government financed the creation of the American Volunteer Group (AVG), or Flying Tigers, to replace the withdrawn Soviet volunteers and aircraft. Contrary to popular perception, the Flying Tigers did not enter actual combat until after the United States had declared war on Japan. Led by Claire Lee Chennault, their early combat success of 300 kills against a loss of 12 of their shark painted P-40 fighters earned them wide recognition at a time when the Allies were suffering heavy losses, and soon afterwards their dogfighting tactics would be adopted by the United States Army Air Forces.
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routes to China and the YunnanVietnam Railway had been closed since 1940. Therefore, between the closing of the Burma Road in 1942 and its re-opening as the Ledo Road in 1945, foreign aid was largely limited to what could be flown in over "The Hump". Most of China's own industry had already been captured or destroyed by Japan, and the Soviet Union refused to allow the United States to supply China through Kazakhstan into Xinjiang as the Xinjiang warlord Sheng Shicai had turned anti-Soviet in 1942 with Chiang's approval. For these reasons, the Chinese government never had the supplies and equipment needed to mount major counter-offensives. Despite the severe shortage of materiel, in 1943, the Chinese were successful in repelling major Japanese offensives in Hubei and Changde.
Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek and his wife Madame Chiang with Lieutenant General Joseph Stilwell in 1942, Burma.
Chiang was named Allied commander-in-chief in the China theater in 1942. American general Joseph Stilwell served for a time as Chiang's chief of staff, while simultaneously commanding American forces in the China-Burma-India Theater. For many reasons, relations between Stilwell and Chiang soon broke down. Many historians (such as Barbara W. Tuchman) have suggested it was largely due to the corruption and inefficiency of the Kuomintang (KMT) government, while others (such as Ray Huang and Hans van de Ven) have depicted it as a more complicated situation. Stilwell had a strong desire to assume total control of Chinese troops and pursue an aggressive strategy, while Chiang preferred a patient and less expensive strategy of outwaiting the Japanese. Chiang continued to maintain a defensive posture despite Allied pleas to actively break the Japanese blockade, A U.S. poster advocating to help China fight on. because China had already suffered tens of millions of war casualties and believed that Japan would eventually capitulate in the face of America's overwhelming industrial output. For these reasons the other Allies gradually began to lose confidence in the Chinese ability to conduct offensive operations from the Asian mainland, and instead concentrated their efforts against the Japanese in the Pacific Ocean Areas and South West Pacific Area, employing an island hopping strategy.[20] Longstanding differences in national interest and political stance among China, the United States, and the United Kingdom remained in place. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill was reluctant to devote British troops, many of whom had been routed by the Japanese in earlier campaigns, to the reopening of the Burma Road; Stilwell, on the other hand, believed that reopening the road was vital, as all China's mainland ports were under Japanese control. The Allies' "Europe First" policy did not sit well with Chiang, while the later British insistence that China send more and more troops to Indochina for use in the Burma Campaign was seen by Chiang as an attempt to use Chinese manpower to defend British colonial holdings. Chiang also believed that China should divert its crack army divisions from Burma to eastern China to defend the airbases of the American bombers he hoped would defeat Japan through bombing, a strategy that American general Claire Lee Chennault supported but which Stilwell strongly opposed. In addition, Chiang voiced his support of Indian independence in a 1942 meeting with Mahatma Gandhi, which further soured the relationship between China and the United Kingdom.[21]
Second Sino-Japanese War American and Canadian-born Chinese were recruited to act as covert operatives in Japanese-occupied China (Canadian-born Chinese having not yet been granted citizenship were trained by the British army). Employing their racial background as a disguise, their mandate was to blend in with local citizens and wage a campaign of sabotage. Activities focused on destruction of Japanese transportation of supplies (signaling bomber destruction of railroads, bridges).[22] The United States saw the Chinese theater as a means to tie up a large number of Japanese troops, as well as being a location for American airbases from which to strike the Japanese home islands. In 1944, with the Japanese position in the Pacific deteriorating rapidly, the IJA mobilized over 400,000 men and launched Operation Ichi-Go, their largest offensive of World War II, to attack the American airbases in China and link up the railway between Manchuria and Vietnam. This brought major cities in Hunan, Henan and Guangxi under Japanese occupation. The failure of Chinese forces to defend these areas encouraged Stilwell to attempt to gain overall command of the Chinese army, and his subsequent showdown with Chiang led to his replacement by Major General Albert Coady Wedemeyer. By the end of 1944 Chinese troops under the command of Sun Li-jen attacking from India, and those under Wei Lihuang attacking from Yunnan, joined forces in Mong-Yu, successfully driving the Japanese out of North Burma and securing the Ledo Road, China's vital supply artery.[23] In Spring 1945 the Chinese launched offensives that retook Hunan and Guangxi. With the Chinese army progressing well in training and equipment, Wedemeyer planned to launch Operation Carbonado in summer 1945 to retake Guangdong, thus obtaining a coastal port, and from there drive northwards toward Shanghai. However, the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and Soviet invasion of Manchuria hastened Japanese surrender and these plans were not put into action.
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Second Sino-Japanese War threatened the French with war in response to manoeuvering by the French and Ho Chi Minh's forces against each other, forcing them to come to a peace agreement. In February, 1946 he also forced the French to surrender all of their concessions in China and to renounce their extraterritorial privileges in exchange for the Chinese withdrawing from northern Indochina and allowing French troops to reoccupy the region. Following France's agreement to these demands, the withdrawal of Chinese troops began in March 1946.
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Japanese Special Naval Landing Forces with gas masks and rubber gloves during a chemical attack[citation needed] near Chapei in the Battle of Shanghai.
According to historians Yoshiaki Yoshimi and Seiya Matsuno, the chemical weapons were authorized by specific orders given by Japanese Emperor Hirohito himself, transmitted by the Imperial General Headquarters. For example, the Emperor authorized the use of toxic gas on 375 separate occasions during the Battle of Wuhan from August to October 1938.[25] They were also used during the invasion of Changde. Those orders were transmitted either by Prince Kan'in Kotohito or General Hajime Sugiyama.[26] Bacteriological weapons provided by Shir Ishii's units were also Japanese troops stage a poison gas attack in China. profusely used. For example, in 1940, the Imperial Japanese Army Air Force bombed Ningbo with fleas carrying the bubonic plague.[27] During the Khabarovsk War Crime Trials the accused, such as Major General Kiyashi Kawashima, testified that, in 1941, some 40 members of Unit 731 air-dropped plague-contaminated fleas on Changde. These attacks caused epidemic plague outbreaks.[28]
Ethnic minorities
Japan attempted to reach out to ethnic minorities to rally to their side, but only succeeded with certain Manchu, Mongol, and Uyghur elements.
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The United States and the Soviet Union put an end to the Sino-Japanese War (and World War II) by attacking the Japanese with a new weapon (on America's part) and an incursion into Manchuria (on the Soviet Union's part). On August 6, an American B-29 bomber, the Enola Gay, dropped the first atomic bomb used in combat on Hiroshima, killing tens of thousands and leveling the city. On August 9, the Soviet Union renounced its non-aggression pact with Japan and attacked the Japanese in Manchuria, fulfilling its Yalta Conference pledge to attack the Japanese within three months after the end of the war in Europe. The attack was made by three Soviet army groups. On that same day, a second equally destructive atomic bomb was dropped by the United States on Nagasaki. In less than two weeks the Kwantung Army, which was the primary Japanese fighting force,[29][30] consisting of over a million men but lacking in adequate armor, artillery, or air support, had been destroyed by the Soviets. Japanese Emperor Hirohito officially capitulated to the Allies on August 15, 1945, and the official surrender was signed aboard the battleship USSMissouri on September 2.
After the Allied victory in the Pacific, General Douglas MacArthur ordered all Japanese forces within China (excluding Manchuria), Formosa and French Indochina north of 16 north latitude to surrender to Chiang Kai-shek, and the Japanese troops in China formally surrendered on September 9, 1945.
Commander-in-chief of the China Expeditionary Army Yasuji Okamura presenting the Japanese Instrument of Surrender to general He Yingqin at Nanjing on 9 September 1945
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the war strengthened the Communists both in popularity and as a viable fighting force. At Yan'an and elsewhere in the communist controlled areas, Mao Zedong was able to adapt MarxismLeninism to Chinese conditions. He taught party cadres to lead the masses by living and working with them, eating their food, and thinking their thoughts. The Chinese Red Army fostered an image of conducting guerrilla warfare in defense of the people. Communist troops adapted to changing wartime conditions and became a seasoned fighting force. With skillful organizational and propaganda, the Communists increased party membership from 100,000 in 1937 to 1.2 million by 1945.
Mao also began to execute his plan to establish a new China by rapidly moving his forces from Yan'an and elsewhere to Manchuria. This opportunity was available to the Communists because although Nationalist representatives were not invited to Yalta, they had been consulted and had agreed to the Soviet invasion of Manchuria in the belief that the Soviet Union would deal only with the Nationalist government after the war. However, the Soviet occupation of Manchuria was long enough to allow the Communist forces to move in en masse and arm themselves with the military hardware surrendered by the Japanese army, quickly establish control in the countryside and move into position to encircle the Nationalist government army in major cities of northeast China. The Chinese Civil War broke out between the Nationalists and Communists following that, which concluded with the Communist victory in mainland China and the retreat of the Nationalists to Taiwan in 1949.
In 1952, the Treaty of Taipei was signed separately between the ROC and Japan that basically followed the same guideline of the Treaty of San Francisco, not specifying which country has sovereignty over Taiwan. However, Article 10 of the treaty states that the Taiwanese people and the juridicial person should be the people and the juridicial person of the ROC. Both the PRC and ROC governments base their claims to Taiwan on the Japanese Instrument of Surrender which specifically accepted the Potsdam Declaration which refers to the Cairo Declaration. Disputes over the precise de jure sovereign of Taiwan persist to the present. On a de facto basis, sovereignty over Taiwan has been and continues to be exercised by the ROC. Japan's position has been to avoid commenting on Taiwan's status, maintaining that Japan renounced all claims to sovereignty over its former colonial possessions after World War II, including Taiwan.[33]
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Aftermath
The question as to which political group directed the Chinese war effort and exerted most of the effort to resist the Japanese remains a controversial issue. In the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japan Memorial near the Marco Polo Bridge and in mainland Chinese textbooks, the People's Republic of China (PRC) claims that the Nationalists mostly avoided fighting the Japanese to preserve their strength for a final showdown with the Communist Party of China (CCP or CPC), while the Communists were the main military force in the Chinese resistance efforts. Recently, however, with a China War of Resistance Against Japan Memorial change in the political climate, the CCP has admitted that certain Museum on the site where Marco Polo Bridge Incident took place. Nationalist generals made important contributions in resisting the Japanese. The official history in mainland China now states that the KMT fought a bloody, yet indecisive, frontal war against Japan, while the CCP engaged the Japanese forces in far greater numbers behind enemy lines. For the sake of Chinese reunification and appeasing the Republic of China (ROC) on Taiwan, the PRC has begun to "acknowledge" the Nationalists and the Communists as "equal" contributors, because the victory over Japan belonged to the Chinese people, rather than to any political party. Other scholars document quite a different view. Such studies find evidence that the Communists actually played a minuscule role in the war against the Japanese compared to the Nationalists, and preserved their strength for a final showdown with the Kuomintang (KMT).[34] This view point gives the KMT credit for the brunt of the fighting, which is confirmed by Communists leader Zhou Enlai's secret report to Joseph Stalin in January 1940. This report stated that out of more than one million Chinese soldiers killed or wounded since the war began in 1937, only 40,000 were from the Communists Eighth Route Army and New Fourth Army. In other words, by the CCP's own account, the Communists had suffered a mere three percent of total casualties half way into the war.[35] This is because the Communists were not the main participants in any of the 22 major battles between China and Japan (involving more than 100,000 troops on both sides) and usually avoided open warfare (the Hundred Regiments Offensive and the Battle of Pingxingguan are notable exceptions), preferring to fight in small squads to harass the Japanese supply lines. In comparison, right from the beginning of the war the Nationalists committed their best troops (including the 36th, 87th, 88th divisions, the crack divisions of Chiang's Central Army) to defend Shanghai from the Japanese, and continued to deploy most of their forces to fight the Japanese even as the Communists changed their strategy to engage mainly in a political offensive against the Japanese and declared that the CCP should "save and preserve our strength and wait for favorable timing" by the end of 1941.[36] Chinese/Japanese relations Today, the war is a major point of contention and resentment between China and Japan. The war remains a major roadblock for Sino-Japanese relations, and many people, particularly in China, harbor grudges over the war and related issues. Issues regarding the current historical outlook on the war exist. For example, the Japanese government has been accused of historical revisionism by allowing the approval of a few school textbooks omitting or glossing over Japan's militant past, although the most recent controversial book, the New History Textbook was used by only 0.039% of junior high schools in Japan[37] and despite the efforts of the Japanese nationalist textbook reformers, by the late 1990s the most common Japanese schoolbooks contained references to, for instance, the Nanking Massacre, Unit 731, and the comfort women of World War II, all historical issues which have faced challenges from ultranationalists in the past.[38] In response to criticism of Japanese textbook revisionism, the PRC government has been accused of using the war to stir up already growing anti-Japanese sentiments in order to spur nationalistic
Second Sino-Japanese War feelings. Aftermath in Taiwan Traditionally, the Republic of China government has held celebrations marking the Victory Day on September 9 (now known as Armed Forces Day) and Taiwan's Retrocession Day on October 25. However, after the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) won the presidential election in 2000, these national holidays commemorating the war has been cancelled as the pro-independent DPP does not see the relevancy of celebrating events that happened in mainland China. Meanwhile, many KMT supporters, particularly veterans who retreated with the government in 1949, still have an emotional interest in the war. For example, in celebrating the 60th anniversary of the end of war in 2005, the cultural bureau of KMT stronghold Taipei held a series of talks in the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall regarding the war and post-war developments, while the KMT held its own exhibit in the KMT headquarters. Whereas the KMT won the presidential election in 2008, the ROC government resumed commemorating the war.
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Casualties assessment
The conflict lasted for eight years, a month and three days (measured from 1937 to 1945).
Chinese casualties
Chinese sources list the total number of military and non-military casualties, both dead and wounded, at 35 million. Most Western historians believed that the total number of casualties was at least 20 million. The official PRC statistics for China's civilian and military casualties in the Second Sino-Japanese War from 1937 to 1945 are 20 million dead and 15 million wounded. The figures for total military casualties, killed and wounded are: Nationalist 3.2 million; Communist 500,000. The official account of the war published in Taiwan reported the Nationalist Chinese Army lost 3,238,000 men ( 1,797,000 WIA; 1,320,000 KIA and 120,000 MIA.) and 5,787,352 civilians casualties. The Nationalists fought in 22 major engagements, most of which involved more than 100,000 troops on both sides, 1,171 minor engagements most of which involved more than 50,000 troops on both sides, and 38,931 skirmishes.[39] An academic study published in the United States estimates military casualties: 1.5 million killed in battle, 750,000 missing in action, 1.5 million deaths due to disease and 3 million wounded; civilian casualties: due to military activity, killed 1,073,496 and 237,319 wounded; 335,934 killed and 426,249 wounded in Japanese air attacks [40] According to historian Mitsuyoshi Himeta, at least 2.7 million civilians died during the "kill all, loot all, burn all" operation (Three Alls Policy, or sanko sakusen) implemented in May 1942 in north China by general Yasuji Okamura and authorized on 3 December 1941 by Imperial Headquarter Order number 575. The property loss suffered by the Chinese was valued at 383 billion USdollars according to the currency exchange rate in July 1937, roughly 50 times the gross domestic product of Japan at that time (US$7.7 billion).[41] In addition, the war created 95 million refugees.
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Japanese casualties
Contemporary studies from the Beijing Central Compilation and Translation Press have revealed that the Japanese suffered a total of 2,227,200 casualties, including 1,055,000 dead and 1,172,000 injured. These numbers were largely based on Japanese statistics. The Japanese recorded around 1.1 to 1.9 million military casualties during all of World War II (which include killed, wounded and missing). The official death-toll of Japanese KIA in China, according to the Japan Defense Ministry, is 480,000 men. The combined Chinese forces claimed to have killed at most 1.77 million Japanese soldiers during the eight-year war. Another source from Hilary Conroy claim that a total of 447,000 Japanese soldiers died in China during the Second Sino-Japanese War. Of the 1,130,000 Imperial Japanese Army soldiers who died during World War II, 39 percent died in China. Then in "War Without Mercy", John Dower claim that a total of 396,000 Japanese soldiers died in China during the Second Sino-Japanese War. Of this number, the Imperial Japanese Army lost 388,605 soldiers and the Imperial Japanese Navy lost 8,000 soldiers. Another 54,000 soldiers also died after the war had ended, mostly from illness and starvation.[] Of the 1,740,955 Japanese soldiers who died during World War II, 22 percent died in China. Current Japanese statistics, however, lack complete estimates for the wounded. From 1937 to 1941, 185,647 Japanese soldiers were killed in China and 520,000 were wounded. Disease also incurred critical losses on Japanese forces. From 1937 to 1941, 393,000 were killed in China and 430,000 Japanese soldiers were recorded as being sick. In North China alone, 18,000 soldiers were evacuated back to Japan for illnesses in 1938, 23,000 in 1939, and 15,000 in 1940. Chinese forces also report that by May 1945, 22,293 Japanese soldiers were captured as prisoners. Many more Japanese soldiers surrendered when the war ended. Both Nationalist and Communist Chinese sources report that their respective forces were responsible for the deaths of over 1.7 million Japanese soldiers.[] The Communist claim, which almost equate total Japanese deaths in all of World War II, was ridiculed by Nationalist authorities as propaganda since the Communist People's Liberation Army was outnumbered by the Japanese Army by approximately 3 to 1. Nationalist War Minister He Yingqin himself contested the claim, finding it impossible for a force of "untrained, undisciplined, poorly equipped" guerrillas to have killed so many enemy soldiers.[42] The National Chinese authorities ridiculed Japanese estimates of Chinese casualties. In 1940, the National Herald stated that the Japanese exaggerated Chinese casualties, while deliberately concealing the true amount of Japanese casualties, releasing false figures that made them appear lower. The article reports on the casualty situation of the war up to 1940.
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With Chiang Kai-shek as the highest commander, the National Revolutionary Army (NRA) is recognized as the unified armed force of China during the war. Throughout its lifespan, it employed approximately 4,300,000 regulars, in 370 Standard Divisions (Chinese: ), 46 New Divisions (Chinese: ), 12 Cavalry Divisions (Chinese: ), eight New Cavalry Divisions (Chinese: ), 66 Temporary Divisions (Chinese: ), and 13 Reserve Divisions (Chinese: ), for a grand total of 515 divisions.
However, many divisions were formed from two or more other divisions, and many were not active at the same time. The number of active divisions, at the start of the war in 1937, was about 170 NRA divisions. The average NRA division had 4,0005,000 troops. A Chinese army was roughly the equivalent to a Japanese division in terms of manpower but the Chinese forces largely lacked artillery, heavy weapons, and motorized transport. The shortage of military hardware meant that three to four Chinese armies had the firepower of only one Japanese division. Because of these material constraints, available artillery and heavy weapons were usually assigned to specialist brigades rather than to the general division, which caused more problems as the Chinese command structure lacked precise coordination. The relative fighting strength of a Chinese division was even weaker when relative capacity in aspects of warfare, such as intelligence, logistics, communications, and medical services, are taken into account. Although Chiang Kai-shek is recognized as the highest commander in name, his power on NRA was in the effect limited. This was due to NRA was an alliance of powers such as warlords, regional militarists and communists. Before the alliance was formed under the pressure of Japanese invasion, these powers had their own land, struggled or allied with each other under their own interests and mutual conflicts were common. Because of this, NRA could be unofficially divided into 3 groups, Central Army, Regional Army and Communist forces. Loyal to Chiang Kai-shek, the Central Army(Chinese: ) was best equipped. Most of officers in Central Army were trained by the Whampoa Military Academy, where Chiang Kai-shek served as the first president. Before the war, the Central Army mainly controlled east China. The Regional Army(Chinese: ) consisted of various types of strengths from all the parts of China. Before the war, these strengths governed certain places and most of them admitted Chiang Kai-shek's leader position. However, they didn't really follow Chiang's command, nor receive Chiang's assist. They generally ran independently. The notable strengths under this category included Guangxi, Shanxi, Yunnan and Ma clique. After Xi'an Incident, Chiang paused his invasion to Chinese Red Army led by communists. Communists incorporated into NRA and formed Eighth Route Army and New Fourth Army of NRA. Although during the entire war communists fought under the name of NRA, their de facto commander was Mao Zedong. Communists also led a large number of militias during the war. The National Revolutionary Army expanded from about 1.2 million in 1937 to 5.7 million in August 1945, organized in 300 divisions.
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Japanese forces
Imperial Japanese Army The Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) had approximately 3,200,000 regulars. More Japanese troops were quartered in China than deployed elsewhere in the Pacific Theater during the war. Japanese divisions ranged from 20,000 men in its divisions numbered less than 100, to 10,000 men in divisions numbered greater than 100. At the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor, the IJA had 51 divisions, of which 35 were in China, and 39 independent brigades, of which all but one were in China. This represented roughly 80% of the IJA's manpower. By October 1944 the IJA in China was divided into three strategic groupings. The China Expeditionary Army was dislocated along the coast. Its primary component was the 13th Army with four divisions and two brigades. The North China Area Army occupied the north-eastern China. It included the Kwantung Army with two divisions and six brigades, the Mongolian Garrison Army with one division and one brigade, and the 1st Army with two divisions and six brigades. The Sixth Area Army occupying the inland zone south of the Yellow River included: the 12th Army with four divisions, including one armoured, and one infantry brigade; 34th Army with one division and four brigades along the Yangtze valley; 11th Army with ten divisions; 23rd Army with two divisions and five brigades. Collaborationist Chinese Army The Chinese armies allied to Japan had only 78,000 people in 1938, but had grown to around 649,640 men by 1943,[43] and reached a maximum strength of 900,000 troops before the end of the war. Almost all of them belonged to Manchukuo, Provisional Government of the Republic of China (Beijing), Reformed Government of the Republic of China (Nanjing) and the later Nanjing Nationalist Government (Wang Jingwei regime). These collaborator troops were mainly assigned to garrison and logistics duties in their own territories, and were rarely fielded in combat because of low morale and Japanese distrust. They fared very poorly in skirmishes against both Chinese NRA and Communist forces.
Military equipment
National Revolutionary Army
The Central Army possessed 80 Army infantry divisions with approximately 8,000 men each, nine independent brigades, nine cavalry divisions, two artillery brigades, 16 artillery regiments and three armored battalions. The Chinese Navy displaced only 59,000 tonnes and the Chinese Air Force comprised only about 700 obsolete aircraft. For regular provincial Chinese divisions their standard rifles were the Hanyang 88 (copy of Gewehr 88). Central army divisions were typically equipped with the Chiang Kai-Shek rifle (copy of Mauser Standard Model) and Czechoslovakian vz. 24. However, for most of the German-trained divisions, the standard firearms were German-made 7.92 mm Gewehr 98 and Karabiner 98k. The standard light machine gun was a local copy of the Czech 7.92 mm Brno ZB26. There were also Belgian and French light machine guns. Provincial units generally did not possess any machine guns. Central Army units had one LMG per platoon on average. German-trained divisions ideally had 1 LMG per squad. Surprisingly, the NRA did not purchase any Maschinengewehr 34s from Germany, but did produce their own copies of them. Heavy machine guns were mainly locally-made Type 24 water-cooled Maxim guns, which were the Chinese copies of the German MG08, and M1917 Browning machine guns chambered
Second Sino-Japanese War for the standard 8mm Mauser round. On average, every Central Army battalion would get one heavy machine gun (about a third to half of what actual German divisions got during World War II). The standard weapon for NCOs and officers was the 7.63 mm Mauser C96 semi-automatic pistol, or full-automatic Mauser M1932/M712 machine pistol. These full-automatic versions were used as substitutes for submachine guns (such as the MP18) and rifles that were in short supply within the Chinese army prior to the end of World War II. Throughout the Second Sino-Japanese War, particularly in the early years, the NRA also extensively used captured Japanese weapons and equipment as their own were in short supply. Some lite units also used Lend-Lease US equipment as the war progressed. Generally speaking, the regular provincial army divisions did not possess any artillery. However, some Central Army divisions were equipped with 37mm PaK 35/36 anti-tank guns, and/or mortars from Oerlikon, Madsen, and Solothurn. Each infantry division had 6 French Brandt 81mm mortars and 6 Solothurn 20mm autocannons. Some independent brigades and artillery regiments were equipped with Bofors 72 mm L/14, or Krupp 72mm L/29 mountain guns and there were 24 Rheinmetall 150mm L/32 sFH 18 howitzers (bought in 1934) and 24 Krupp 150mm L/30 sFH 18 howitzers (bought in 1936). At the start of the war, the NRA and the Tax Police Regiment had three tank battalions armed with German Panzer I light tanks and CV-33 tankettes. After defeat in the Battle of Shanghai the remaining tanks, together with several hundred T-26 and BT-5 tanks acquired from the Soviet Union were reorganised into the 200th Division. Infantry uniforms were basically redesigned Zhongshan suits. Puttees were standard for soldiers and officers alike since the primary mode of movement for NRA troops was by foot. Troops were also issued sewn field caps. The helmets were the most distinguishing characteristic of these divisions. From the moment German M35 helmets (standard issue for the Wehrmacht until late in the European theatre) rolled off the production lines in 1935, and until 1936, the NRA imported 315,000 of these helmets, each with the Blue Sky with a White Sun emblem of the ROC on the sides. These helmets were worn by both elite German-trained divisions and regular Central Army divisions. Other helmets include the Adrian helmet, Brodie helmet and later M1 helmet. Other equipment included straw shoes for soldiers (cloth shoes for Central Army), leather shoes for officers and leather boots for high-ranking officers. Every soldier was issued ammunition, ammunition pouches or harness, a water flask, combat knives, food bag, and a gas mask. On the other hand, warlord forces varied greatly in terms of equipment and training. Some warlord troops were notoriously under-equipped, such as Shanxi's Dadao ( , a one-edged sword type close combat weapon) Team and the Yunnan clique. Some, however, were highly professional forces with their own air force and navies. The quality of the New Guangxi clique was almost on par with the Central Army, as the Guangzhou region was wealthy and the local army could afford foreign instructors and arms. The Muslim Ma clique to the northwest was famed for its well-trained cavalry divisions.
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Major figures
Chinese Nationalists
Bai Chongxi ( ) Chen Cheng ( , ) Chiang Kai-Shek ( , ) Du Yuming ( ) Fang Xianjue ( , ) Feng Yuxiang ( , ) Fu Zuoyi ( , ) Gu Zhutong ( , ) He Yingqin ( , ) H. H. Kung ( ) Hu Kexian ( ) Hu Zongnan ( ) Li Zongren ( ) Long Yun ( , ) Ma Bufang ( ) Ma Buqing ( ) Ma Hongbin ( ) Ma Hongkui ( ) Ma Zhanshan ( , ) Song Zheyuan ( ) Soong May-ling ( , ) T. V. Soong ( ) Sun Lianzhong ( , ) Sun Liren ( , ) Tang Enbai ( , ) Tang Shengzhi ( ) Wei Lihuang ( , ) Xue Yue ( ) Yan Xishan ( , ) Xie Jinyuan ( , ) Zhang Fakui ( , ) Zhang Lingfu ( ! ", # ") Zhang Xueliang ( $ %, $ %) Zhang Zhizhong ( & , & ) Zhang Zizhong ( ' (, ' () Zhu Shaoliang () * %, ) + %)
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Chinese Communists
Chen Yi ( ,, ,) Deng Xiaoping (- . / / 0 . /) He Long (1 / 2 ) Lin Biao (3 4) Liu Bocheng (5 6 / 7 6) Liu Shaoqi (5 8 9 / 7 8 9) Luo Ronghuan (: ; < / = > <) Mao Zedong (? @ A / ? B ) Nie Rongzhen (C ; D / E > D) Peng Dehuai (F G H / F G I) Su Yu (J K) Xu Xiangqian (L M N) Ye Jianying (O P Q / R S Q) Ye Ting (O T / R T) Zhang Aiping ( U V / W V) Zhou Enlai (X Y / X Z)
Zhu De () G)
Second Sino-Japanese War Prince Higashikuni Naruhiko ( { | g } ~ r) Masaharu Honma (t ) Shiro Ishii ( w) Rensuke Isogai ( ) Seishir Itagaki ( w) Prince Kan'in Kotohito ( g r) Konoe Fumimaro (Kyjitai: , Shinjitai: ) Kanji Ishiwara ( l ) Kuniaki Koiso (. [,. [) Iwane Matsui ( ) Renya Mutaguchi ( ) Kesago Nakajima ( e ) Toshiz Nishio ( , ) Yasuji Okamura ( ) Takashi Sakai ( ) Hajime Sugiyama ( ) Prince Takeda Tsuneyoshi ( g r) Hisaichi Terauchi ( , ) Hideki Tojo (Kyjitai: Q -, Shinjitai: Q -) Yoshijir Umezu ( & w) Tamon Yamaguchi ( ) Tomoyuki Yamashita ( )
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Demchugdongrub East Hebei Autonomous Council Yin Ju-keng ( ) Provisional Government of the Republic of China Wang Kemin (r ) Reformed Government of the Republic of China Liang Hongzhi ( / ) Nanjing Nationalist Government Chen Gongbo ( p / p) Wang Jingwei ( / ) Zhou Fohai (X )
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Battle of Rehe February 1933 Actions in Inner Mongolia (19331936) Suiyuan Campaign October 1936 Battle of Lugou Bridge (Marco Polo Bridge Incident) July 1937 BeipingTianjin July 1937 Chahar August 1937 Battle of Shanghai August 1937
Defense of Sihang Warehouse October 26, 1937 BeipingHankou August 1937 TianjinPukou August 1937 Taiyuan September 1937 Battle of Pingxingguan September 1937 Battle of Xinkou September 1937 Battle of Nanjing December 1937 Battle of Xuzhou December 1937 Battle of Taierzhuang March 1938 Northern and Eastern Honan 1938 January 1938 Battle of Lanfeng May 1938 Xiamen May 1938 Battle of Wuhan June 1938 Battle of Wanjialing Guangdong October 1938 Hainan Island February 1939 Battle of Nanchang March 1939 Battle of Xiushui River March 1939 Battle of Suixian-Zaoyang May 1939 Shantou June 1939 Battle of Changsha (1939) September 1939 Battle of South Guangxi November 1939 Battle of Kunlun Pass December 1939 19391940 Winter Offensive November 1939
Second Sino-Japanese War Battle of West Suiyuan Jan Feb 1940 Battle of Wuyuan March 1940 Battle of Zaoyang-Yichang May 1940 Hundred Regiments Offensive August 1940 Central Hupei November 1940 Battle of South Henan January 1941 Western Hopei March 1941 Battle of Shanggao March 1941 Battle of South Shanxi May 1941 Battle of Changsha (1941) September 1941 Battle of Changsha (1942) January 1942 Battle of Yunnan-Burma Road March 1942
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Battle of Toungoo Battle of Yenangyaung Battle of Zhejiang-Jiangxi April 1942 Battle of West Hubei May 1943 Battle of Northern Burma and Western Yunnan October 1943 Battle of Changde November 1943 Operation Ichi-Go Operation Kogo Battle of Central Henan April 1944 Operation Togo 1 Battle of Changsha (1944) Operation Togo 2 and Operation Togo 3 Battle of GuilinLiuzhou August 1944 Battle of West HenanNorth Hubei March May, 1945 Battle of West Hunan April June, 1945 Second Guangxi Campaign April July, 1945
Aerial engagements
Aerial Engagements of the Second Sino-Japanese War
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Commemoration
Numerous monuments and memorials throughout China, including the Museum of the War of Chinese People's Resistance Against Japanese Aggression in Beijing's Wanping Fortress.
Notes
[1] Wilson, Dick, When Tigers Fight: The story of the Sino-Japanese War, 19371945, p.5 [2] Wilson, Dick, p.4 [3] Hoyt, Edwin P., Japan's War: The Great Pacific Conflict, p.45 [4] Palmer and Colton, A History of Modern World, p.725 [5] Taylor, Jay, p.33 [6] Taylor, Jay, p.57 [7] Taylor, Jay, p.79, p.82 [8] Boorman, Biographical Dictionary, vol.1, p.121 [9] Taylor, Jay, p.83 [10] Herbert Bix, Hirohito and the making of modern Japan, 2001, p.364 [11] Fu Jing-hui, An Introduction of Chinese and Foreign History of War, 2003, p.109111 [12] Ray Huang, Chiang Kai-shek Diary from a Macro History Perspective, 1994, p.168 [13] Ray Huang, 1994, p.259 [14] Michael Schaller, The U. S. Crusade in China, 1938 (1979) [15] Taylor, Jay, The Generalissimo, p.156. [16] http:/ / www. soldat. ru/ doc/ casualties/ book/ chapter4_4. html [17] Douglas Varner, To the Banks of the Halha: The Nomohan Incident and the Northern Limits of the Japanese Empire (2008) [18] US Congress. Investigation of Concentracion of Economic Power. Hearings before the Temporary National Economic Committee. 76th Congress, 2nd Session, Pt.21. Washington, 1940, p.11241 [19] . . . . 19351941. ., , 1990. .157 [20] Hans Van de Ven, "Stilwell in the Stocks: The Chinese Nationalists and the Allied Powers in the Second World War", Asian Affairs 34.3 (November 2003): 243259. [21] Ray Huang, 1994, p.299300. [22] Roy MacLaren, 1981, p.200220 [23] Ray Huang, 1994, p.420 [24] Marr (1995), p. 165. [25] Y. Yoshimi and S. Matsuno, Dokugasusen Kankei Shiry II (Materials on poison gas warfare), Kaisetsu, Hkan 2, Jugonen Sens Gokuhi Shiryshu, 1997, p.2729 [26] Yoshimi and Matsuno, idem, Herbert Bix, Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan, 2001, p.360364 [27] Japan triggered bubonic plague outbreak, doctor claims, (http:/ / www. independent. co. uk/ news/ world/ asia/ japan-triggered-bubonic-plague-outbreak-doctor-claims-704147. html), http:/ / www. scaruffi. com/ politics/ wwii. html, A time-line of World War II, Scaruffi Piero. Prince Tsuneyoshi Takeda and Prince Mikasa received a special screening by Shir Ishii of a film showing imperial planes loading germ bombs for bubonic dissemination over Ningbo in 1940. (Daniel Barenblatt, A Plague upon Humanity, 2004, p.32.) All these weapons were experimented with on humans before being used in the field. [28] Daniel Barenblatt, A Plague upon Humanity, 2004, pages 220221. [29] http:/ / www-cgsc. army. mil/ carl/ resources/ csi/ glantz3/ glantz3. asp [30] Robert A. Pape. Why Japan Surrendered. International Security, Vol. 18, No. 2 (Autumn, 1993), pp. 154201 [31] World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples Taiwan : Overview (http:/ / www. unhcr. org/ refworld/ country,,,,TWN,,4954ce6323,0. html) UNHCR [32] name="aao.sinica.edu.tw" (http:/ / aao. sinica. edu. tw/ download/ publication_e/ Year2007/ human12. pdf) Disputes over Taiwanese Sovereignty and the Sino-Japanese Peace Treaty Since World War II [33] (http:/ / home. kyodo. co. jp/ modules/ fstStory/ index. php?storyid=453676) FOCUS: TaiwanJapan ties back on shaky ground as Taipei snubs Tokyo envoy [34] Chang and Ming, July 12, 2005, pg. 8; and Chang and Halliday, pg. 233, 246, 286287 [35] Dallin and Firsov, Dimitrov and Stalin, pp.115, 120 [36] Yang Kuisong, "The Formation and Implementation of the Chinese Communists' Guerrilla Warfare Strategy in the Enemy's Rear during the Sino-Japanese War", paper presented at Harvard University Conference on Wartime China, Maui, January 2004, pp. 3236 [37] Sven Saaler: Politics, Memory and Public Opinion: The History Textbook Controversy and Japanese Society. Munich: 2005
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Second Sino-Japanese War China at war, Volume 1, Issue 3 (http://books.google.com/books?id=OKLiAAAAMAAJ). China Information Committee. 1938. p.66. Retrieved March 21, 2012.Issue 40 of [China, a collection of pamphlets Original from Pennsylvania State University Digitized Sep 15, 2009
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External links
"CBI Theater of Operations" IBIBLIO World War II: China Burma India (http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/ CBI/index.html) Links to selected documents, photos, maps, and books. s:Addresses to the House of Representatives and to the Senate by Soong Mai Ling World War II Newspaper Archives War in China, 19371945 (http://warmuseum.ca/cwm/newspapers/ operations/china_e.html) Annals of the Flying Tigers (http://www.warbirdforum.com/avg.htm) KangZhan.org Gallery and history of the Sino-Japanese war (http://www.kangzhan.org/) (Chinese)/(English) Japanese soldiers in the Sino-Japanese war, 19371938 (http://www.geocities.jp/torikai007/japanchina/1937. html) (Japanese) History and Commercial Atlas of China, Harvard University Press 1935, by Albert Herrmann, Ph.D. (http://map. huhai.net/) See bottom of the list for 1930s maps. Perry-Castaeda Library Map Collection (http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/ams/china/), China 1:250,000, Series L500, U.S. Army Map Service, 1954 . Topographic Maps of China during the Second World War. Perry-Castaeda Library Map Collection (http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/ams/manchuria/) Manchuria 1:250,000, Series L542, U.S. Army Map Service, 1950 . Topographic Maps of Manchuria during the Second World War. Joint Study of the Sino-Japanese War, Harvard University (http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~asiactr/ sino-japanese/index.htm). Multi-year project seeks to expand research by promoting cooperation among scholars and institutions in China, Japan, the United States, and other nations. Includes extensive bibliographies Photographs of the war from a Presbyterian mission near Canton (http://www.presbyterian.org.nz/archives/ photogallery11/page1.htm). (http://www.microworks.net/pacific/road_to_war/route_south.htm)
Internet video
1937 video-cast of Soong Mai-ling address to the world in English (http://www.youtube.com/v/ TRF2WTNwo0M&hl=zh_TW&fs=1) 1943 Soong Mai-ling address to the American Congress (http://www.youtube.com/v/TRF2WTNwo0M& hl=zh_TW&fs=1) The Battle of China OWI (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQTWtokeF5Q&feature=related) The Battle of China OWI Pt 2 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcjVWe3xgAo&NR=1) The Battle of China OWI Pt 3 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKTIylgLDHE&NR=1) The Battle of China OWI Pt 4 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6z-fZwpmME&NR=1) The Battle of China OWI Pt 5 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKHk6eepm0E&NR=1) The Battle of China OWI Pt 6 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_zntg-eFF0&NR=1) The Battle of China OWI Pt 7 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0hZiD5Uk5I&feature=related)
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License
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 //creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/