Second Sino-Japanese War

Second Sino-Japanese War
Part of World War II and the Pacific War
Map showing the extent of Japanese control in 1940.
Date July 7, 1937 – September 9, 1945 (minor fighting since 1931) Location China Result Unconditional surrender of all Japanese forces in China to ROC with Chinese and Allied victory in World War II. Territorial changes Retrocession to China of Manchuria , Taiwan and Penghu according to Cairo Declaration , Potsdam Declaration and the Treaty of Taipei
Belligerents
China1 with foreign support	Japan with collaborator support
Commanders and leaders
Chiang Kai-shek Chen Cheng Yan Xishan Feng Yuxiang Li Zongren Xue Yue Lin Biao Bai Chongxi Peng Dehuai Zhu De Joseph Stilwell Claire Chennault Albert Wedemeyer	Hirohito (POW) Hideki Tojo Fumimaro Konoe Kotohito Kan'in Matsui Iwane (POW) Naruhiko Hajime Sugiyama Shunroku Hata (POW) Toshizo Nishio Yasuji Okamura (POW) Umezu Yoshijiro (POW)
Strength
5,600,000 3600 Soviets 900 US aircraft(1945)	4,100,000 Soldiers (including 3,200,000 Japanese and 900,000 Chinese collaborators
Casualties and losses
3,220,000 military (including wounded, killed and missing)2 17,530,000 civilians	Estimated at 2.1 million casualties including around 480,000 dead
1 Chiang Kai-shek led a Chinese united front that included Nationalists, Communists and regional warlords. 2Sources for total Chinese war dead range from 10 to 20 million. Certainly, it is reasonable to think in general terms of approximately 10 million Chinese war dead, a total surpassed only by the Soviet Union The official Chinese government statistics for China's civilian and military casualties in the Second Sino-Japanese War from 1937-1945 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 offical account of the war published in Taiwan reported the Nationalist cCinese Army lost 3,238,000 men ( 1.797,000 WIA; 1,320,000 KIA and 120,000 MIA.) and 5,787,352 civilians in casualties Template:Mn An academic study published in the United States estimates total war deaths of 15-20 million from all causes: 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 R. J. Rummel's estimate of total war dead from 1937-45 is 19,605,000. The details are as follows: Military Causualties: 3,220,000 (including 400,000 POW) Nationalist/Communist. Civilian war deaths: 3,808,000 killed in fighting and 3,549,000 victims of Japanese war crimes (not including an additional 400,000 POWs); Other deaths: Repression by Chinese Nationalist's 5,907,000 (3,081,000 military conscripts and 2,826,000 civilian deaths caused by Nationalist government, including the 1938 Yellow River flood.

The Second Sino-Japanese War (July 7, 1937 — September 9, 1945) was a military conflict fought between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. From 1937 to 1941, China fought alone with limited foreign help. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the war merged into the greater conflict of World War II as a major front in the Pacific Theatre. The Second Sino-Japanese War was the largest Asian war in the twentieth century.

Although the two countries had fought intermittently since 1931, full-scale war started in earnest in 1937 and ended only with the surrender of Japan in 1945. The war was the result of a decades-long Japanese imperialist policy aiming to dominate China politically and militarily to secure its vast raw material reserves and other resources. At the same time, the rising tide of Chinese nationalism and notions of self determination stoked the coals of war. Before 1937, China and Japan fought in small, localized engagements in so-called "incidents". Yet the two sides, for a variety of reasons, refrained from fighting a total war. The 1931 invasion of Manchuria by Imperial Japan's Kwantung Army is known as the "Mukden Incident". The last of these incidents was the Marco Polo Bridge Incident of 1937, marking the beginning of full scale war between the two countries.

Nomenclature

Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, Allied Commander-in-Chief in the China theater from 1942-1945.

In Chinese, the war is most commonly known as the War of Resistance Against Japan (simplified Chinese: 抗日战争; traditional Chinese: 抗日戰爭; pinyin: Kàng Rì Zhànzhēng), and also known as the Eight Years' War of Resistance (八年抗戰), simply War of Resistance (抗戰), or Second Sino-Japanese War (第二次中日戰爭).

In Japan, the name Japan-China War (日中戰爭, Nicchū Sensō) is most commonly used because of its neutrality. When the war began in July 1937 near Beijing, the government of Japan used North China Incident (華北事變, Kahoku Jihen), and with the outbreak of the Battle of Shanghai next month, it was changed to China Incident (支那事變, Shina Jihen).

The word incident (事變, jihen) was used by Japan as neither country had declared war on each other. Japan wanted to avoid intervention by other countries such as the United Kingdom and particularly the United States, which had been the biggest steel exporter to Japan. American President Franklin D. Roosevelt would have had to impose an embargo due to the Neutrality Acts had the fighting been named a war.

In Japanese propaganda however, the invasion of China became a "holy war" (seisen), the first step of the Hakko ichiu (eight corners of the world under one roof). In 1940, prime minister Konoe thus launched the League of Diet Members Believing the Objectives of the Holy War. When both sides formally declared war in December 1941, the name was replaced by Greater East Asia War (大東亞戰爭, Daitōa Sensō).

Although the Japanese government still uses "China Incident" in formal documents, because the word Shina is considered a derogatory word by China, media in Japan often paraphrase with other expressions like The Japan-China Incident (日華事變 [Nikka Jihen], 中日事變 [Nisshi Jihen], which were used by media even in the 1930s.

Also, the name Second Sino-Japanese War is not usually used in Japan, as the First Sino-Japanese War (日清戦争, Nisshin-Sensō), between Japan and the Qing Dynasty in 1894 is not regarded to have obvious direct linkage with the second, between Japan and the Republic of China.

Background

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Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek announced the Kuomintang policy of resistance against Japan at Lushan on July 10, 1937, three days after the Battle of Lugou Bridge.

Kwantung Army entering Shenyang during Mukden Incident.

The origin of the Second Sino-Japanese War can be traced to the First Sino-Japanese War of 1894-95, in which China, then under the Qing Dynasty, was defeated by Japan and was forced to cede Taiwan and recognize the independence 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. The Republic of China was founded in 1912, following the Xinhai Revolution which overthrew the Qing Dynasty. However, the nascent Republic was even weaker than its predecessor because of the dominance of warlords. Unifying the nation and repelling imperialism seemed a very remote possibility. Some warlords even aligned themselves with various foreign powers in an effort to wipe each other out. For example, warlord Zhang Zuolin (張作霖) of Manchuria openly cooperated with the Japanese for military and economic assistance.

In 1915, Japan issued the Twenty-One Demands to extort further political and commercial privilege from China. Following World War I, Japan acquired the German sphere of influence in Shandong, 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. In order to unite China and eradicate regional warlords, the Kuomintang (KMT, or Chinese Nationalist Party) in Canton launched the Northern Expedition of 1926-28. 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. In the same year, Zhang Zuolin was assassinated when he became less willing to cooperate with Japan. . Afterwards Zhang's son Zhang Xueliang quickly took over control of Manchuria, and despite strong Japanese lobbying efforts to continue the resistance against the KMT, he shortly declared his allegiance to the Kuomintang government under Chiang Kai-shek, which resulted in the nominal unification of China at the end of 1928.

However, a large scale civil war broke out between warlords who fought in alliance with Kuomintang during the Northern Expedition and central government under Chiang. In addition, the Chinese Communists (CCP, or Communist Party of China) revolted against the central government following a purge of its members from the KMT. Therefore the Chinese central government diverted much attention into fighting these civil wars and followed a policy of "first internal pacification before external resistance"(Chinese:攘外必先安内). This situation provided an easy opportunity for Japan to further its goals. Since Japan saw Manchuria as a limitless supply of raw materials and as a buffer state against the Soviet Union, the Japanese invaded Manchuria right after the Mukden Incident (九一八事變) in 1931. After five months of fighting, the puppet state of Manchukuo was established in 1932 with the last emperor of China, Puyi, installed as the figure head. Militarily too weak to challenge Japan directly, China appealed to the League of Nations for help. The League's investigation was published as the Lytton Report, which condemned Japan for its incursion of Manchuria, and caused Japan to withdraw from the League of Nations. Since appeasement was the dominant policy of the international community at that time, no country was willing to take an active stance against Japan other than a weak censure.

Incessant conflicts followed the Mukden Incident. In 1932, Chinese and Japanese soldiers fought a short war in the January 28 Incident. The war resulted in the demilitarization of Shanghai, which forbade the Chinese from deploying troops in their own city. In Manchukuo there was an ongoing campaign to defeat the volunteer armies that arose from the popular frustration at the policy of nonresistance to the Japanese. In 1933, the Japanese attacked the Great Wall region, and in its wake the Tanggu Truce was signed, which gave Japan the control of Rehe province and a demilitarized zone between the Great Wall and Beiping-Tianjin region. The Japanese aim was to create another buffer region, this time between Manchukuo and the Chinese Nationalist government whose capital was Nanjing.

In addition, Japan increasingly utilized the internal conflicts among the Chinese factions to reduce their strength one by one. This was precipitated by the fact that even some years after the Northern Expedition, the political power of the Nationalist government only extended around the Yangtze River Delta region, and other regions of China were essentially held in the hands of regional powers. Japan sought various Chinese collaborators and helped these men lead governments that were friendly to Japan. This policy was called the Specialization of North China (Chinese: 華北特殊化; pinyin: húaběitèshūhùa), or 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 He-Umezu Agreement, which forbade the KMT from conducting party operations in Hebei. In the same year, the Ching-Doihara Agreement was signed and vacated the KMT from Chahar. Thus, by the end of 1935, the Chinese central government had virtually vacated North China. In its place, the Japanese-backed East Hebei Autonomous Council and the Hebei-Chahar Political Council were established. There in the vacated area of Chahar the Mongol Military Government (蒙古軍政府) was formed on May 12 1936 with Japan providing military and economic aid. Afterwards Chinese volunteer forces continued the resistance to Japanese aggression in Manchuria, and Chahar and Suiyuan.

Japan's invasion of China

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Japanese soldiers loading bombs onto warplanes taking off for China.

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 in 1939

Most historians place the beginning of the Second Sino-Japanese War on July 7, 1937 at the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, when a crucial access point to Beiping (Beijing) was assaulted by the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA). Because the Chinese defenders were the poorly equipped infantry divisions of the former Northwest Army, the Japanese easily captured Beiping and Tianjin.

The Imperial General Headquarters in Tokyo were initially reluctant to escalate the conflict into full scale war, being content with the victories achieved in northern China following the Marco Polo Bridge Incident. However, the KMT central government determined that the "breaking point" of Japanese aggression had been breached and Chiang Kai-shek quickly mobilized the central government army and airforce under his direct command to attack the Japanese Marines in Shanghai on August 13, 1937, which led to the Battle of Shanghai. The IJA had to mobilize over 200,000 troops, coupled with numerous naval vessels and aircraft to capture Shanghai after more than three months of intense fighting, with casualties far exceeding initial expectations.

Building on the hard won victory in Shanghai, the IJA captured the KMT capital city of Nanjing and Southern Shanxi by the end of 1937, in campaigns involving approximately 350,000 Japanese soldiers, and considerably more Chinese soldiers. Historians estimate up to 300,000 Chinese were mass murdered in the Nanjing Massacre, after the fall of Nanjing on December 13, 1937, while some Japanese deny the existence of a massacre.

At the start of 1938, the Headquarters in Tokyo still hoped to limit the scope of the conflict at occupying areas around Shanghai, Nanjing and most of northern China, in order to preserve strength for an anticipated showdown with the Soviet Union. But by now the Headquarters had effectively lost command over Japanese generals fighting in China. With many victories achieved, these generals escalated the war and finally met with defeat in Taierzhuang. Afterwards the IJA had to change its strategy and deployed almost all of its armies to attack the city of Wuhan, which by now was the political, economic and military center of China, hoping to destroy the fighting strength of the National Revolutionary Army (NRA) and force the KMT government to negotiate for peace. But after the IJA captured the city of Wuhan on October 27, 1938, the KMT retreated to Chongqing to set up a provisional capital and Chiang still refused to negotiate unless the Japanese agree to a complete withdrawal to pre-1937 levels.

With Japanese casualties and costs mounting, the deeply frustrated Imperial General Headquarters decided to retaliate by ordering the Imperial air force of the Navy and the Army to launch the war's first massive air bombing raids of civilian targets on the provisional capital of Chongqing and nearly every major city 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 IJA at Changsha and Guangxi. These favorable outcomes encouraged the NRA to launch its first large-scale counter-offensive against IJA in early 1940. However, due to very low military-industrial capacities and limited experience in modern warfare, the NRA was defeated in this offensive operation. 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 Kuomintang and in China at large. He had lost a substantial portion of his best trained and equipped army defending Shanghai and was at times at the mercy of his generals, who maintained a high degree of independence from the central KMT government.

From 1940 on 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 favorable to Japanese interests in the territories conquered, the most prominent being the Nanjing Nationalist Government headed by former KMT premier Wang Jingwei. However, the atrocities committed by the Japanese army, as well as Japanese refusal to yield any real power made them very unpopular and 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 guerrilla fighting continued in these conquered areas. Japan had suffered tremendous 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.

Use of chemical and bacteriological weapons

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Imperial Japanese Army with gas masks and rubber gloves during a chemical attack in China.

Despite Article 23 of the Hague Conventions (1899 and 1907), article V of the Treaty in Relation to the Use of Submarines and Noxious Gases in Warfare [2], article 171 of the Versailles Peace Treaty and a resolution adopted by the League of Nations on May 14 1938, condemning the use of poison gas by the Empire of Japan, the Imperial Japanese Army frequently used chemical weapons during the war.

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Japanese soldiers with gas masks firing 129mm gun with chemical warheads

According to historians Yoshiaki Yoshimi and Seiya Matsuno, the chemical weapons were authorized by specific orders given by emperor Shōwa himself, transmitted by the chief of staff of the army. For example, the Emperor authorized the use of toxic gas on 375 separate occasions during the battle of Wuhan from August to October 1938. They were also used during the invasion of Changde. Those orders were transmitted either by prince Kotohito Kan'in or general Hajime Sugiyama. Because of fear of retaliation however, those weapons were never used against Westerners but against other Asians judged "inferior" by the imperial propaganda.

Bacteriological weapons provided by Shirō Ishii's units were also profusely used. For example, in 1940, the Imperial Japanese Army Air Service bombed Ningbo with fleas carrying the bubonic plague. 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 operations caused epidemic plague outbreaks.

Chinese resistance strategy

Chinese cavalry charging with Dao swords and pistols.

Chinese soldiers in house-to-house fighting in Battle of Tai'erzhuang.

The basis of Chinese strategy before the entrance of Western Allies can be divided into two periods:

First Period: 7 July 1937 (Battle of Lugou Bridge) – 25 October 1938 (Fall of Wuhan).

Unlike Japan, China was unprepared for total war and had little military-industrial strength, no mechanized divisions, and few armored forces. Up until the mid-1930s China had hoped that the League of Nations would provide countermeasures to Japan's aggression. In addition, the Kuomintang government was mired in a civil war against the Communists, as Chiang Kai-shek was famously quoted: "the Japanese are a disease of the skin, the Communists are a disease of the heart". The United Front between KMT and CCP was never truly unified, as each side was preparing for a showdown with the other once the Japanese were driven out.

Even under these extremely unfavorable circumstances, Chiang realized that in order to win the support from the United States and other foreign nations, China must prove that it was indeed capable of fighting. A fast retreat would discourage foreign aid so Chiang decided to make a stand in the Battle of Shanghai. Chiang sent 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. While this was a military defeat for the Chinese, it proved that China would not be defeated easily and showed China's determination to the world, which became an enormous morale booster for the Chinese people as it ended the Japanese taunt that Japan could conquer Shanghai in three days and China in three months.

Afterwards the Chinese began to adopt the strategy of "trading space for time" (Chinese: 以空間換取時間). The Chinese army would put up fights to delay Japanese advance to northern and eastern cities, to allow the home front, along with its professionals and key industries, to retreat west into Chongqing. As a result of Chinese troops' scorched earth strategies, where dams and levees were intentionally sabotaged to create massive flooding, the consecutive Japanese advancements and conquests began to stall in late-1938.

Second Period: 25 October 1938 (Fall of Wuhan) - December 1941 (before the Allies' declaration of war on Japan).

Chinese soldiers march to the front in 1939.

During this period, the Chinese main objective was to prolong the war and waited for the Japanese to make the mistake of attacking the United States. American general Joseph Stilwell called this strategy "winning by outlasting". Therefore, 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 is the successful defense of Changsha in 1939 and again in 1941 while inflicting heavy casualties on the IJA.

Also, CCP and other local Chinese guerrillas forces continued their resistance in occupied areas to pester the enemy and make their administration over the vast lands of China difficult. In 1940 the Chinese Red Army launched a major offensive in north China, destroyed railways and blew up 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) (三光政策, Hanyu Pinyin: Sānguāng Zhèngcè, Japanese On: Sankō Seisaku). It was during this time period that the bulk of Japanese atrocities were committed.

By 1941, Japan had occupied much of north and coastal China, but the Kuomintang central government and military had successfully retreated to the western interior to continue their stubborn resistance, while the Chinese communists remained in control of base areas in Shaanxi. Furthermore, in the occupied areas Japanese control was limited to just railroads and major cities ("points and lines"), but they did not have a major military or administrative presence in the vast Chinese countryside, which was a hotbed of Chinese partisan activities. This stalemate situation made a decisive victory seem impossible to the Japanese.

Relationship between the Nationalists and Communists

After the Mukden Incident, Chinese public opinion strongly criticized the leader of Manchuria, the "young marshal" Zhang Xueliang, for his nonresistance to the Japanese invasion, even though the Kuomintang central government was indirectly responsible for this policy. Afterwards Chiang Kai-shek assigned Zhang and his Northeast Army the duty of suppressing the Red Army of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in Shaanxi after their Long March. This resulted in great casualties for his Northeast Army, and Chiang Kai-shek did not give him any support in manpower and weaponry.

On 12 December, 1936 a deeply disgruntled Zhang Xueliang decided to conspire with the CCP and kidnapped Chiang Kai-shek in Xi'an to force an end to the conflict between KMT and CCP. In order to secure the release of Chiang, the KMT was forced to agree to a temporary end to the Chinese Civil War and the forming of a United Front between the CCP and KMT against Japan on 24 December 1936. The cooperation took place with salutary effects for the beleaguered CCP, and they agreed to form the New Fourth Army and the 8th Route Army which were nominally under the command of the National Revolutionary Army. The Red Army of CCP fought in alliance with the KMT forces during the Battle of Taiyuan, and the high point of their cooperation came in 1938 during the Battle of Wuhan.

However, despite Japan's steady territorial gains in northern China, the coastal regions, and the rich Yangtze River Valley in central China, the distrust between the two antagonists was scarcely veiled. The uneasy alliance began to break down by late 1938 as a result of the Communists efforts to aggressively expand their military strength through absorbing Chinese guerrilla forces behind enemy lines. For Chinese militia who refuse to switch their allegiance, the CCP would call them "collaborators" and then attack to eliminate their forces. For example, the Red Army led by He Long attacked and wiped out a brigade of Chinese militia led by Zhang Yin-wu in Hebei in June, 1939. Starting in 1940, open conflicts between the Nationalists and Communists became more frequent in the occupied areas outside of Japanese control, culminating in the New Fourth Army Incident in January 1941.

Afterwards, the Second United Front completely broke down and the CCP began to build up their sphere of influence wherever opportunities were presented, mainly through rural mass organizations, administrative, land and tax reform measures favoring poor peasants; while the Nationalists attempted to neutralize the spread of Communist influence by military blockade of areas controlled by CCP and fighting the Japanese at the same time

Foreign involvement

See also: Motives of the Second Sino-Japanese War

I-16 with Chinese insignia. I-16 was the main fighter plane used by the Chinese Air Force and Soviet volunteers.

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P-40 of the American Volunteer Group, painted with the shark-face emblem and the 12-point sun of the Chinese Air Force.

At the outbreak of full scale war, many global powers were reluctant to provide support to China; because in their opinion the Chinese would eventually lose the war, and they did not wish to antagonize the Japanese who might, in turn, eye their colonial possessions in the region. They expected any support given to Kuomintang might worsen their own relationship with the Japanese, who taunted the Kuomintang with the prospect of conquest within three months. However, Germany and the Soviet Union did provide support to the Chinese before the war escalated to the Asian theatre of World War II, with USA and other allies lending support to China afterwards.

German support

Prior to the outbreak of the war, Germany and China had close economic and military cooperation, with Germany helping China modernize its industry and military in exchange for raw materials. More than half of the German arms exports during its rearmament period were to China. Nevertheless the proposed 30 new divisions equipped and trained with German assistance did not materialize when Germany withdrew its support in 1938, because Adolf Hitler wanted to form an alliance with Japan against the Soviet Union.

Soviet support

With the signing of the Anti-Comintern Pact between Germany and Japan, the Soviet Union wished to keep China in the war to hinder 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, began aiding China, and approved Operation Zet, a Soviet volunteer air force. As part of the secret operation, Soviet technicians upgraded and handled some of the Chinese war-supply transport. Bombers, fighters, military supplies and advisors arrived, including future Soviet war hero Vasily Chuikov, who won the Battle of Stalingrad. Prior to the entrance of Western allies, the Soviet Union provided the largest amount of foreign aid to China, totalling some $250 million of credits in munitions and supplies. In 1941, Soviet aid ended as a result of the Soviet-Japanese 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. 3,665 Soviet advisors and pilots fought fo the Chinese side In total, 227 Soviets died fighting for China.

Allies' support

Flying Tigers Commander Claire Chennault

A “blood chit” issued to AVG pilots requesting all Chinese to offer rescue and protection.

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 Republic of China. Furthermore, Australia prevented a Japanese Government-owned company from taking over an iron mine in Australia, and banned iron ore exports in 1938. Japan retaliated by invading and occupying French Indochina (Present-day Vietnam) in 1940, and successfully blockaded China from the import of arms, fuel and 10,000 tons/month of materials supplied by the Western Allies through the Haiphong-Yunnan Fou railway line.

In mid-1941, the United States government financed the creation of the American Volunteer Group (AVG), or Flying Tigers, to replace the withdrawal of Soviet volunteers and aircraft. Led by Claire 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 the time when Allies were suffering heavy losses, and soon afterwards their dogfighting tactics would be adopted by all US forces. Furthermore, in order to pressure the Japanese to end all hostilities in China, the United States, Britain and the Netherlands East Indies began oil and/or steel embargos against Japan. The loss of oil imports made it impossible for Japan to continue operations in China. This set the stage for Japan to launch a series of military attacks against the western Allies when the Imperial Navy raided Pearl Harbor on December 7 1941.

Entrance of Western Allies

Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Winston Churchill met at the Cairo Conference in 1943 during World War II.

Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek and his wife Madame Chiang with Lieutenant General Joseph W. Stilwell in 1942.

Within a few days of the attack on Pearl Harbor, both the United States and China officially declared war against Japan, and right afterwards the National Revolutionary Army achieved another decisive victory against the Japanese army in Changsha, which earned the Chinese government much prestige from the Allies. U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt referred to the United States, United Kingdom, Soviet Union and China as the world's "Four Policemen", elevating the international status of China to a unprecedented height after a century of humiliation at the hands of various imperialist powers.

Chiang Kai-shek continued to receive supplies from the United States as the Chinese conflict was merged into the Asian theatre of World War II. However, in contrast to the Arctic supply route to the Soviet Union that stayed open most of the war, sea routes to China and the Sino-Vietnamese 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 U.S. to supply China through Kazakhstan into Xinjiang because Xinjiang warlord Sheng Shicai turned anti-Soviet in 1942 with Chiang's approval. For these reasons, the Chinese government never had the supplies and equipment needed to mount any major counter-offensive. But despite the severe shortage of materiel, in 1943 the Chinese was successful in repelling major Japanese offensives in Hubei and Changde.

Chiang was appointed Allied Commander-in-Chief in the China theater in 1942, while U.S. General Joseph Stilwell served for a time as Chiang's Chief of Staff, and at the same time commanding US forces in the China Burma India Theater. However, relations between Stilwell and Chiang soon broke down for many reasons. Many historians (such as Barbara Tuchman) suggested it was largely due to the corruption and inefficiency of the KMT government. However, other historians (such as Ray Huang) found that it was a more complicated situation. Stilwell had a strong desire to assume total control of Chinese troops, which Chiang vehemently opposed. Stilwell also did not appreciate the complexity of the situation, including the buildup of the Chinese Communists during the war (essentially Chiang had to fight a multi-front war - the Japanese on one side, the Communists on the other). Stilwell openly criticized the Chinese government's conduct of the war in the American media, and to President Roosevelt. Chiang continued to maintain a defensive posture despite pleads from the other Allies to actively break the Japanese blockade, because China had already suffered tens of millions of war casualties and believed that Japan would eventually capitulate to America's overwhelming industrial output. Due to 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.

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General Marshall, Soong May-ling and Chiang Kai-shek

Conflicts among China, the United States, and the United Kingdom also emerged in the Pacific war. Winston Churchill was reluctant to devote British troops, the majority of whom were defeated by the Japanese in earlier campaigns, to reopen the Burma Road. On the other hand, Stilwell believed that the reopening of the Burma Road was vital to China as all the ports on mainland China were under Japanese control. Churchill's "Europe First" policy obviously did not sit well with Chiang, while the later British insistence that China send in more and more troops into Indochina in the Burma Campaign was suspected by Chiang as an attempt by Great Britain to use Chinese manpower to defend Britain's colonial holdings and prevent the gate to India from falling to Japan. Chiang also believed that China should divert their crack army divisions from Burma to eastern China to defend the airbases of the American bombers and defeat the IJA through bombing, a strategy that U.S. General Claire Chennault supported but Stilwell strongly opposed. In addition, Chiang voiced his support of Indian independence in a meeting with Mahatma Gandhi in 1942, which further soured the relationship between China and the United Kingdom.

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, as the Japanese position in the Pacific was deteriorating fast, the Imperial Japanese Army mobilized over 400,000 men and launched their largest offensive in World War II to attack the U.S. 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 the Chinese forces to defend these areas encouraged Stilwell to attempt to gain command of the entire Chinese army, and his subsequent showdown with Chiang that led to his replacement by Major General Albert Wedemeyer.

However, by the end of 1944 Chinese troops under the command of Sun Li-jen attacking from India and those under the command of Wei Lihuang attacking from Yunnan joined forces in Mong-Yu, which succeeded in driving out the Japanese in North Burma to secure the Ledo Road, a supply route to China. In Spring 1945 the Chinese launched offensives and retook Hunan and Guangxi. With the Chinese army well in progress training and equipping, Wedemeyer planned to launch Operation Carbonado in summer 1945 to retake Guangdong, obtaining a coastal port, and from there drive northwards toward Shanghai. But the dropping of the atomic bombs hastened Japanese surrender and these plans were not put into action.

Conclusion and aftermath

A United States Air Forces USAAF B-29 Superfortress in flight

On August 6, an American B-29 bomber dropped the first atomic bomb used in combat on Hiroshima. 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. In less than two weeks the Kwantung Army in Manchuria, consisting of over a million men but lacking in adequate armor, artillery, or air support, and depleted of many of its best soldiers by the demands of the Allies' Pacific drive, had been destroyed by the Soviets. On August 9, a second atomic bomb was dropped by the United States on Nagasaki. Emperor Hirohito officially capitulated to the Allies on August 15, 1945, and the official surrender was signed aboard the battleship USS Missouri on September 2. The Japanese troops in China formally surrendered on September 9, 1945 and by the provisions of the Cairo Conference of 1943, Manchuria, Taiwan and Penghu were reverted to China.

The Chinese return to Liuchow (Liuzhou) in July 1945.

In 1945 China emerged from the war nominally a great military power but was actually a nation economically prostrated and on the verge of all-out civil war. The economy deteriorated, sapped by the military demands of a long, costly war and internal strife, by spiraling inflation, and by Nationalist profiteering, speculation, and hoarding. Starvation came in the wake of the war, as large swathes of the prime farming areas had been ravaged by the fighting. Millions were rendered homeless by floods and the destruction of towns and cities in many parts of the country. The problems of rehabilitating the formerly Japanese-occupied areas and of reconstructing the nation from the ravages of a protracted war were staggering.

The situation was further complicated by an Allied agreement at the Yalta Conference in February 1945 that brought Soviet troops into Manchuria to hasten the termination of the war against Japan. Although the Chinese had not been present at Yalta, they had been consulted, and had agreed to have the Soviets enter the war in the belief that the Soviet Union would deal only with the Nationalist government. After the war, the Soviet Union, as part of the Yalta agreement's allowing a Soviet sphere of influence in Manchuria, dismantled and removed more than half of the industrial equipment left there by the Japanese. The Soviet presence in northeast China enabled the Communists to move in long enough to arm themselves with the equipment surrendered by the withdrawing Japanese army.

File:SurrenderNanjing.JPG

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.

The war left the Nationalists severely weakened and their policies left them unpopular. Meanwhile the war strengthened the Communists, both in popularity and as a viable fighting force. At Yan'an and elsewhere in the liberated areas, Mao Zedong was able to adapt Marxism-Leninism to Chinese conditions. He taught party cadres to lead the masses by living and working with them, eating their food, and thinking their thoughts. However, when this failed, more repressive forms of coercion, indoctrination and ostracization were also employed. The 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. Mao also began preparing for the establishment of a new China, well away from the front at his base in Yan'an.

The Taiwan Strait and the Island of Taiwan.

In 1940 Mao outlined the program of the Chinese Communists for an eventual seizure of power and began his final push for consolidation of CCP power under his authority. His teachings became the central tenets of the CCP doctrine that came to be formalized as "Mao Zedong Thought". With skillful organizational and propaganda work, the Communists increased party membership from 100,000 in 1937 to 1.2 million by 1945. Soon, all out war broke out between the KMT and CCP, a war that would leave the Nationalists banished to Taiwan and the Communists victorious in mainland China.

Legacy: Who fought the War of Resistance?

China War of Resistance Against Japan Memorial Museum on the site where Marco Polo Bridge Incident took place.

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 in order to preserve its strength for a final showdown with the Communists, while the CCP was the main military force in the Chinese resistance efforts against the Japanese invasion. Recently, however, with a change in the political climate, the CCP has admitted that certain 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 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.

Leaving aside Nationalists sources, scholars researching third party Japanese and Soviet sources have documented quite a different view. Such studies claim that the Communists actually played a minuscule involvement in the war against the Japanese compared to the Nationalists, and used guerrilla warfare as well as opium sales to preserve its strength for a final showdown with the Kuomintang. This is congruent with the Nationalist viewpoint, as demonstrated by history textbooks published in Taiwan, which gives the KMT credit for the brunt of the fighting. According to these third-party scholars, the Communists were not the main participants in any of the 22 major battles between China and Japan, most involving more than 100,000 troops on both sides. Peter Vladimirov, the Soviet liaison to the Chinese Communists documented that he never once found the Chinese Communists and Japanese engaged in battle during the period from 1942 to 1945. He also expressed frustration at not being allowed by the Chinese Communists to visit the frontline, although as a foreign diplomat Vladimirov may have been overly optimistic to expect to be allowed to join Chinese guerrilla sorties. The Communists usually avoided open warfare (the Hundred Regiments Campaign 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. The Japanese considered the Kuomintang rather than the Communists as their main enemy and bombed the Nationalist wartime capital of Chongqing to the point that it was the most heavily bombed city in the world to date. The KMT army suffered some 3.2 million casualties while the CCP increased its military strength from minimally significant numbers to 1.7 million men. This change in strength was a direct result of Japanese forces fighting mainly in Central and Southern China, away from major Communist strongholds such as those in Shaanxi

Mao Zedong quotations

After the breakdown of the united front with KMT, Mao issued this order to all party members of CCP:

Our aim is to develop the military power of the CCP, in order to stage a coup d'état. Therefore this main directive is to be strictly followed: "70% of our efforts for expansion, 20% for dealing with the Kuomintang, and 10% for resisting Japan." All party members and groups are hereby ordered not to oppose this paramount directive.

In 1972, when PRC and Japan established formal diplomatic relationship, Mao Zedong met the then Japanese Prime Minister Tanaka Kakuei. When Tanaka personally apologized to Mao for invading China, Mao responded:

(You) don't have to say sorry, your country had made a great contribution to China. Why? Because if Imperial Japan did not start the war, how could we communists become mighty and powerful? How could we overthrow KMT? How could we defeat Chiang Kai-Shek? No, we are grateful and do not want your war reparations! (Translated from Tanaka Kakuei Biography, original in Japanese).

While the PRC government has been accused of greatly exaggerating the CCP's role in fighting the Japanese, the legacy of the war is more complicated in the Republic of China on Taiwan. Traditionally, the 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, with the power transfer from KMT to the pro-Taiwan independence Democratic Progressive Party in 2000 and the rise of desinicization, events commemorating the war have become less commonplace. Many supporters of Taiwan independence see no relevance in preserving the memory of the war of resistance that happened primarily on mainland China. Some 120,000 Taiwanese even volunteered for or were drafted into the IJA. Still, 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 sixtieth 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. In 2008 KMT won the presidential election, which will impact the government position once more.

To this day the war is a major point of contention between China and Japan. The war remains a major roadblock for Sino-Japanese relations, and many people, particularly in China, harbour grudges over the war and related issues. A small but vocal group of Japanese nationalists and/or right-wingers deny a variety of crimes attributed to Japan. The Japanese invasion of its neighbours is often glorified or whitewashed, and wartime atrocities, most notably the Nanjing Massacre, comfort women, and Unit 731, are frequently denied by such individuals. The Japanese government has also been accused of historical revisionism by allowing the approval of school textbooks omitting or glossing over Japan's militant past. 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 feelings in order to whip up nationalistic sentiments and divert its citizens' minds from internal matters.

Casualties assessment

The conflict lasted for 8 years, 1 month, and 3 days (measured from 1937 to 1945).

Chinese casualties

• The Kuomintang 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.
• The Chinese casualties were 3.22 million soldiers, 9.13 million civilians who were collateral damage, and another 8.4 million were non-military casualties. 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.

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 property loss suffered by the Chinese was valued at 383 billion US dollars according to the currency exchange rate in July 1937, roughly 50 times the GDP of Japan at that time (US$7.7 billion).

• In addition, the war created 95 million refugees.

See also: Japanese war crimes

Japanese casualties

The Japanese recorded around 1.1 to 1.9 million military casualties (which include killed, wounded and missing). The official death-toll according to the Japan Defense Ministry is 480,000 men, which some historians claim, is an understatement, due to the length of the war. The combined Chinese forces claimed to have killed at most 1.77 million Japanese soldiers during the eight-year war.

Number of troops involved

National Revolutionary Army

Main article: National Revolutionary Army

Flag of the National Revolutionary Army.

The National Revolutionary Army (NRA) throughout its lifespan employed approximately 4,300,000 regulars, in 370 Standard Divisions (正式師), 46 New Divisions (新編師), 12 Cavalry Divisions (騎兵師), 8 New Cavalry Divisions (新編騎兵師), 66 Temporary Divisions (暫編師), and 13 Reserve Divisions (預備師), 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 4,000–5,000 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. The National Revolutionary Army can be divided roughly into two groups. The first one is the so-called dixi (嫡系, "direct descent") group, which comprised divisions trained by the Whampoa Military Academy and loyal to Chiang Kai-shek, and can be considered the Central Army (中央軍) of the NRA. The second group is known as the zapai (雜牌, "miscellaneous units"), and comprised all divisions led by non-Whampoa commanders, and is more often known as the Regional Army or the Provincial Army (省軍). Even though both military groups were part of the National Revolutionary Army, their distinction lies much in their allegiance to the central government of Chiang Kai-shek. Many former warlords and regional militarists were incorporated into the NRA under the flag of the Kuomintang, but in reality they retained much independence from the central government. They also controlled much of the military strength of China, the most notable of them being the Guangxi, Shanxi, Yunnan and Ma Cliques.

Communist Chinese Forces

Main article: Chinese Red Army

Although during the war the Chinese Communist forces fought as a nominal part of the NRA, the number of those on the CCP side, due to their guerrilla status, is difficult to determine, though estimates place the total number of the Eighth Route Army, New Fourth Army, and irregulars in the Communist armies at 1,300,000.

For more information of combat effectiveness of communist armies and other units of Chinese forces see Chinese armies in the Second Sino-Japanese War.

Imperial Japanese Army

Main article: Imperial Japanese Army

Flag of the Imperial Japanese Army.

• The 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 Pearl Harbor attack, 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.

Main article: Collaborationist Chinese Army

• The Collaborationist Chinese Army had only 78,000 people in 1938, but has grown to around 649,640 men by 1943,. and reached a maximum strength of 900,000 troops before the end of the war. Almost all of them belonged to Japanese puppet governments such as Manchukuo, Provisional Government of the Republic of China (Beijing), Reformed Government of the Republic of China (Nanjing) and the later Nanjing Nationalist Government. The collaborationist troops were mainly assigned to garrison and logistics duties in occupied territories, and were rarely fielded in combat because of their low morale and distrust by the Japanese. They fared very poorly in skirmishes against real Chinese forces, whether the KMT or the CCP.

Chinese and Japanese equipment

The National Revolutionary Army

See also: Development of Chinese armoured forces (1927-1945), List of aircraft used in China before 1937, Development of Chinese Nationalist air force (1937-1945), and List of World War II firearms of China

File:NRA gas mask and Mauser.jpg

A NRA soldier fully decked in German equipment - Stahlhelm, gas mask, and Mauser pistol.

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.

Chinese weapons were mainly produced in the Hanyang and Guangdong arsenals. However, for most of the German-trained divisions, the standard firearms were German-made 7.92 mm Gewehr 98 and Karabiner 98k. A local variant of the 98k style rifles were often called the "Chiang Kai-shek rifle" a Chinese copy from the Mauser Standard Modell. Another rifle they used was Hanyang 88. The standard light machine gun was a local copy of the Czech 7.92 mm Brno ZB26. There were also Belgian and French LMGs. Surprisingly, the NRA did not purchase any of the famous Maschinengewehr 34s from Germany, but did produce their own copies of them. On average in these divisions, there was one machine gun set for each platoon. Heavy machine guns were mainly locally-made Type 1924 water-cooled Maxim guns, from German blueprints. On average every battalion would get one HMG. The standard sidearm was the 7.63 mm Mauser M1932 semi-automatic pistol

Some divisions were equipped with 37 mm PaK 35/36 anti-tank guns, and/or mortars from Oerlikon, Madsen, and Solothurn. Each infantry division had 6 French Brandt 81 mm mortars and 6 Solothurn 20 mm autocannons. Some independent brigades and artillery regiments were equipped with Bofors 72 mm L/14, or Krupp 72 mm L/29 mountain guns. They were 24 Rheinmetall 150 mm L/32 sFH 18 howitzers (bought in 1934) and 24 Krupp 150 mm L/30 sFH 18 howitzers (bought in 1936).

Infantry uniforms were basically redesigned Zhongshan suits. Leg wrappings are standard for soldiers and officers alike since the primary mode of movement for NRA troops was by foot. 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 12-ray sun emblem of the ROC on the sides. Other equipment included cloth shoes for soldiers, leather shoes for officers and leather boots for high-ranking officers. Every soldier was issued ammunition, ammunition pouch/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 (大刀, a one-bladed sword type close combat weapon) Team and the Yunnanese army. Some however were highly professional forces with their own air force and navies. The quality of Guangxi army 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.

The Imperial Japanese Army

File:Large number of Japanese tanks.jpg

Large number of Japanese tanks ready for combats in China.

File:Japanese Type 97 Light Armor tank with burning house.JPG

Up to 700 of various Light Armor Tanks were used during the war, mainly to provide cover and protection for infantry men.

See also: List of Japanese infantry weapons used in the Second-Sino Japanese War, List of armour used by the Imperial Japanese Army in the Second Sino-Japanese War, and List of Japanese aircraft in use during the Second Sino-Japanese War

Although Imperial Japan possessed significant mobile operational capacity, it did not possess capability for maintaining a long sustained war. At the beginning of the Sino-Japanese War the Japanese Army comprised 17 divisions, each composed of approximately 22,000 men, 5,800 horses, 9,500 rifles and submachine guns, 600 heavy machine guns of assorted types, 108 artillery pieces, and numbers of light armor 2-men tanks. Special forces were also available. The Japanese Navy displaced a total of 1,900,000 tonnes, ranking third in the world, and possessed 2,700 aircraft at the time. Each Japanese division was the equivalent in fighting strength of four Chinese regular divisions (at the beginning of Battle of Shanghai (1937)).

Major figures

China: Nationalist

• Bai Chongxi (白崇禧)
• Chen Cheng (陳誠, 陈诚)
• Chiang Kai-Shek (蔣介石, 蒋介石)
• Du Yuming (杜聿明)
• Fang Xianjue (方先覺, 方先觉)
• Feng Yuxiang (馮玉祥, 冯玉祥)
• Gu Zhutong (顧祝同, 顾祝同)
• He Yingqin (何應欽, 何应钦)
• H. H. Kung (孔祥熙)
• Hu Kexian (胡克先)
• Hu Zongnan (胡宗南)
• Li Zongren (李宗仁)
• Long Yun (龍雲, 龙云)
• Ma Zhanshan (馬占山)
• Song Zheyuan (宋哲元)
• Soong May-ling (宋美齡, 宋美龄)
• T. V. Soong (宋子文)
• Sun Lianzhong (孫連仲, 孙连仲)
• Sun Liren (孫立人, 孙立人)
• Tang Enbai (湯恩伯, 汤恩伯)
• Tang Shengzhi (唐生智)
• Wang Jingwei (汪精衛, 汪精卫)
• Wei Lihuang (衛立煌, 卫立煌)
• Xue Yue (薛岳)
• Yan Xishan (閻錫山, 阎锡山)
• Xie Jinyuan (謝晉元, 谢晋元)
• Zhang Fakui (張發奎)
• Zhang Zhizhong (張治中, 张治中)
• Zhang Zizhong (張自忠, 张自忠)
• Zhu Shaoliang (朱紹良)

China: Communist

• Chen Yi (陳毅, 陈毅)
• Deng Xiaoping (鄧小平, 邓小平)
• He Long (賀龍, 贺龙)
• Lin Biao (林彪)
• Liu Bocheng (劉伯承, 刘伯承)
• Liu Shaoqi (劉少奇, 刘少奇)
• Luo Ronghuan (羅榮桓, 罗荣桓)
• Mao Zedong (毛澤東, 毛泽东)
• Nie Rongzhen (聶榮臻, 聂荣臻)
• Peng Dehuai (彭德懷, 彭德怀)
• Su Yu (粟裕)
• Xu Xiangqian (徐向前)
• Ye Jianying (葉劍英, 叶剑英)
• Ye Ting (叶挺)
• Zhang Aiping (张爱萍)
• Zhou Enlai (周恩來, 周恩来)
• Zhu De (朱德)

Foreign personnel on Chinese side

• Alexander von Falkenhausen
• Joseph Stilwell
• Albert Coady Wedemeyer
• Claire Chennault
• Agnes Smedley
• Edgar Snow
• Norman Bethune
• John Rabe
• Jakob Rosenfeld
• Morris Abraham "Two-Gun" Cohen
• James Gareth Endicott
• Dwarkanath Kotnis
• George Hogg
• Vasily Chuikov

Japan: Imperial Japanese Army

• Emperor Shōwa (昭和天皇) Hirohito (裕仁)
• Abe Nobuyuki (阿部 信行
• Anami Korechika (阿南 惟幾)
• Prince Asaka Yasuhiko (朝香宮)
• Prince Chichibu Yasuhito (秩父宮)
• Doihara Kenji (土肥原 賢二)
• Prince Fushimi Hiroyasu (伏見宮博恭王)
• Hashimoto Kingoro (橋本 欣五郎)
• Hata Shunroku (畑 俊六)
• Prince Higashikuni Naruhiko (東久邇宮 稔彦王)
• Honma Masaharu (本間 雅晴)
• Ishii Shiro (石井 四郎)
• Isogai Rensuke (磯谷 廉介)
• Itagaki Seishiro (板垣 征四郎)
• Prince Kan'in Kotohito (閑院宮 載仁親王)
• Konoe Fumimaro (Kyūjitai: 近衞 文麿, Shinjitai: 近衛 文麿)
• Kanji Ishiwara (石原 莞爾)
• Koiso Kuniaki (小磯 國昭,小磯 国昭)
• Matsui Iwane (松井 石根)
• Mutaguchi Renya (牟田口 廉也）
• Kesago Nakajima (中島 今朝吾)
• Toshizo Nishio (西尾 壽造, 西尾 寿造)
• Yasuji Okamura (岡村 寧次)
• Sakai Takashi (酒井 隆)
• Sugiyama Hajime (杉山 元)
• Prince Takeda Tsuneyoshi (竹田宮 恒徳王)
• Terauchi Hisaichi (寺内 壽一, 寺内 寿一)
• Tojo Hideki (Kyūjitai: 東條 英機, Shinjitai: 東条 英機)
• Umezu Yoshijiro (梅津 美治郎)
• Yamaguchi Tamon (山口 多聞)
• Yamashita Tomoyuki (山下 奉文)

Japan: Puppet governments

• Manchukuo
  • Puyi
• Mengjiang
  • Demchugdongrub
• East Hebei Autonomous Council
  • Yin Ju-keng
• Provisional Government of the Republic of China
  • Wang Kemin 王克敏
• Nanjing Nationalist Government
  • Chen Gongbo 陈公博
  • Wang Jingwei 汪精卫
  • Zhou Fohai 周佛海

Military engagements of the Second Sino-Japanese War

Battles

Battles with articles. Flag shows victorious side in each engagement. Date shows beginning date except for the 1942 battle of Changsha, which began in Dec. 1941.

• Mukden September 1931
• Invasion of Manchuria September 1931
  • Jiangqiao Campaign October 1931
  • Resistance at Nenjiang Bridge November 1931
  • Jinzhou December 1931
  • Defense of Harbin January 1932
• Shanghai (1932) January 1932
• Pacification of Manchukuo March 1932
• Great Wall January 1933
  • Battle of Rehe February 1933
• Actions in Inner Mongolia (1933-36)
  • Suiyuan Campaign October 1936
• Battle of Lugou Bridge (Marco Polo Bridge Incident) July 1937
• Beiping-Tianjin July 1937
• Chahar August 1937
• Battle of Shanghai August 1937
• Beiping–Hankou August 1937
• Tianjin–Pukou 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
• 1939-40 Winter Offensive November 1939
  • Battle of Wuyuan March 1940
• Battle of Zaoyang-Yichang May 1940
• Hundred Regiments Offensive August 1940
• Vietnam Expedition September 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
  • 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 Guilin-Liuzhou August 1944
• Battle of West Hunan April - June, 1945
• Second Guangxi Campaign April - July, 1945

Aerial engagements

• Aerial Engagements of the Second Sino-Japanese War

Japanese invasions and operations

• Japanese Campaigns in Chinese War
• Chinchow Operation
• Manchukuoan Anti Bandit Operations
• Operation Nekka
• Peiking-Hankou Railway Operation
• Tientsin–Pukow Railway Operation
• Operation Quhar
• Kuolichi-Taierhchuang Operation
• Canton Operation
• Amoy Operation
• Hainan Island Operation
• Han River Operation
• Invasion of French Indochina
• Swatow Operation
• Sczechwan Invasion
• CHE-KIANG Operation
• Kwanchow-Wan Occupation
• Operation Ichi-Go

Japanese political and military incidents

See List of Japanese political and military incidents

Internet video

• 1937 video-cast of Soong Mai-ling address to the world in English
• 1943 Soong Mai-ling address to the American Congress

See also

• Chiang Kai-shek
• National Revolutionary Army
• Whampoa Military Academy
• Chinese Civil War
• History of China
• History of the Republic of China
• Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere
• History of Japan
• Military of the Republic of China
• Military history of China
• Military history of Japan
• Military of the People's Republic of China
• New 1st Army
• Mitsubishi
• Republic of China Air Force
• Events preceding World War II in Asia
• List of World War II firearms of China

References

• Chang, Flora and Ming, Chu-cheng. (July 12 2005). Rewriters of history ignore truth. Taipei Times, pg. 8.
• Gordon, David M. "The China-Japan War, 1931–1945" Journal of Military History (Jan 2006) v 70#1, pp 137–82. Historiographical overview of major books from the 1970s through 2006 (for paid subscribers only).
• Jung Chang and Jon Halliday, Mao: The Unknown Story (London, 2005); Jonathan Cape, ISBN 0-679-42271-4
• Annalee Jacoby and Theodore H. White, Thunder out of China, New York: William Sloane Associates, 1946
• 從大歷史的角度讀蔣介石日記 Chiang Kai-shek Diary from a Macro History Perspective
  • Author : Ray Huang
  • Press : China Times Publishing Company
  • Date published : 1994-1-31
  • ISBN 957-13-0962-1
• 中国抗日战争正面战场作战记 China's Anti-Japanese War Combat Operations
  • Author : Guo Rugui, editor-in-chief Huang Yuzhang
  • Press : Jiangsu People's Publishing House
  • Date published : 2005-7-1
  • ISBN 7214030349
  • On line in Chinese: 中国抗战正向战场作战记

• Jowett, Phillip (2005). Rays of the Rising Sun: Japan's Asian Allies 1931–45 Volume 1: China and Manchukuo. Helion and Company Ltd. ISBN 1-874622-21-3. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)- Book about the Chinese and Mongolians who fought for the Japanese during the war.
• Long-hsuen, Hsu (1972). History of the Sino-Japanese war (1937–1945). Chung Wu Publishers. ASIN B00005W210. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
• Taylor, Jay (2009). The Generalissimo: Chiang Kai-shek and the struggle for modern China. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. ISBN 987-0-674-03338-2. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid prefix (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)

• Wilson, Dick (1982). When Tigers Fight: The story of the Sino-Japanese War, 1937-1945. New York: Viking Press. ISBN 0-670-76003-X. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)

• Salisbury, Harrison (2000). China 100 years of revolution. J-C Suates. doi:10.1007/b62130. ISBN 0233975993.
• Zarrow, Peter. "The War of Resistance, 1937-45". China in war and revolution 1895-1949. London: Routledge, 2005.

External links

• s:Addresses to the House of Respresentatives and to the Senate by Soong Mai Ling

• World War II Newspaper Archives - War in China, 1937-1945
• Annals of the Flying Tigers
• Template:Zh icon/Template:En icon KangZhan.org - Gallery and history of the Sino-Japanese war
• Japanese soldiers in the Sino-Japanese war, 1937-1938 (Japanese)
• History and Commercial Atlas of China, Harvard University Press 1935, by Albert Herrmann, Ph.D. See bottom of the list for 1930s maps.
• Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection, China 1:250,000, Series L500, U.S. Army Map Service, 1954- . Topographic Maps of China during the Second World War.
• Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection 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. 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 [3]