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The Second Sino-Japanese War was a major invasion of
eastern
China by
Japan preceding and during
World War II. It ended with the surrender of Japan in
1945. In
Chinese, the war is known as the War to Resist the Japanese
(抗日戰爭).
Overview
Most historians place the beginning of the second Sino-Japanese War on
the
Battle of Lugou Bridge (Marco Polo Bridge Incident) on
July 7,
1937. However, Chinese historians place the starting point at the
Mukden Incident of
September 18,
1931. Following the Mukden Incident, the Japanese
Guandong army occupied
Manchuria and established the
puppet state of
Manchukuo (February
1932). Japan pressured China into recognising the independence of
Manchukuo. China and Japan did not formally declare war against each other
until after the attack on
Pearl Harbor on
December 7,
1941.
Following the Battle of Lugou Bridge in 1937, the Japanese occupied
Shanghai,
Nanjing and Northern
Shanxi as part of campaigns involving approximately 200,000 Japanese
soldiers, and considerably more Chinese soldiers. After the
fall of Nanjing, it is estimated that as many as 300,000 people died
in the
Nanjing Massacre.
The Japanese had neither the intention or the capability of directly
administering China. Their goal was to set up friendly puppet governments
that would be favorable to Japanese interests. However, the brutality of
the Japanese made the governments that they did set up very unpopular, and
the Japanese refused to negotiate with either
Kuomintang or the
Communists, which could have brought popularity.
By 1940, the fighting had reached a stalemate. While Japan held most of
the eastern coastal areas of China,
guerrilla fighting continued in the conquered areas. The Nationalist
government of
Chiang Kai-shek struggled on from a provisional capital at
Chongqing City; however, realizing that he also faced a threat from
communist forces of
Mao Zedong, he mostly tried to preserve the strength of his army and
avoid heavy battle with the Japanese in the hopes of defeating the
Communists once the Japanese left. Moreover, Chiang could not risk an
all-out campaign given the well-trained, equipped, and organized Chinese
armies and opposition against his leadership within and outside the
Kuomintang.
Most military analysts predicted that the Chinese could not keep up the
fighting with most of the war factories located in the prosperous areas
under or near Japanese control. Other global powers were reluctant to
provide any support -- unless supporting an ulterior motive -- because in
their opinion the Chinese would eventually lose the war. They expected any
support given to China might worsen their own relationship with the
Japanese, who taunted the Kuomintang with the prospect of conquest within
3 months.
Germany and the
Soviet Union did provide support to the Chinese before the war
escalated to the Asian theatre of World War II. The Soviet Union was
exploiting the Kuomintang government to hinder the Japanese from invading
Siberia, thus saving itself from a two-front war. Furthermore, the
Soviets expected any major conflict between the Japanese and the Chinese
to hamper any Kuomintang effort to remove the
Communist Party of China (CCP) opposition or, in the best case, hoped
to install a friendly
Communist government surreptitiously after the dwindling of Kuomintang
authority. Soviet technicians upgraded and handled some of the Chinese
war-supply transport. Military supplies and advisors arrived, and one
Russian named Zhukov witnessed the
battle of Tai er zhuang.
Because of Chiang Kai-shek's anti-communist policy and hopes of
defeating the CCP, Germany provided the largest proportion of Chinese arms
imports. German military advisors modernized and trained the Chinese
armies; Chinese officers (including Chiang's second son) were educated in
and served in the German army before World War II.
Nevertheless the proposed 30 new divisions equipped with all German
arms did not materialize as the Germans sided with the Japanese later in
World War II.
Other prominent
powers, including the
United States of America,
Britain and
France, only officially assisted in war supply contracts up to the
attack on Pearl Harbor in late 1941, when major influx of trained
military personnels and supplies boosted Chinese chance of keeping up the
fighting.
Unofficially, public opinion in the United States was becoming
favorable to China. At the start of the 1930's, public opinion in the
United States had tended to support the Japanese. However, reports of
Japanese brutality added to Japanese actions such as the attack on the
U.S.S. Panay swung public opinion sharply against Japan. By the start
of 1941, the United States had begun to sponsor the
American Volunteer Group otherwise known as the
Flying Tigers to boost Chinese air defenses. In addition, the United
States began an oil and steel
embargo which made it impossible for Japan to continue operations in
China without another source of oil from Southeast Asia. This set the
stage for the Japanese attack on
Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941.
With that attack, both the United States and China officially declared
war against Japan. Chiang Kai-shek received some supplies from the
United States once the conflict was escalated to the Asian theatre of
WWII, and he was appointed Commander-in-chief of the China war zone by the
Allies in
1942. Notorious poor relations between Colonel
Joseph Stilwell and Chiang led to Stilwell's devious criticism and his
minimizing of the Chinese contribution in World War II in the American
media and to President
Franklin Roosevelt. The Allies thus underestimated the Chinese need
for supplies and trained personnels. Stilwell also incited power struggles
within the Kuomintang which eventually contributed to the rise of the CCP.
Both sides fought to a stalemate after
1941, mainly owing to the dispersion of Japanese forces through vast
areas of China - Japan could not concentrate its superior armor and
firepower.
Guerilla activities behind the
frontlines also meant constantly deploying stationary Japanese forces
in major cities and at road and rail junctions. Control over the
countryside and villages gradually swung towards the CCP and Kuomintang.
The United States saw the Chinese theater as a means to tie up a large
number of Japanese troops, as well as being a possible location for
American airbases. In 1944, as the Japanese position in the Pacific was
deteriorating fast, they launched
Operation Ichigo to attack the airbases which had begun to operate.
This brought the
Hubei,
Henan, and
Guangxi provinces under Japanese administration.
Nevertheless their prospect of tranferring their troops to fight the
Americans was in vain and they only committed the
Guandong Army from
Manchuria in their "Sho plan", which later facilitated the Soviet
advancement after the war declaration on
August 8,
1945.
As of Summer 1945, all sides expected the war to continue for at least
another year. However it was suddenly ended by the dropping of the
atomic bomb on
Hiroshima and
Nagasaki. Japan capitulated to the allies on
August 14,
1945. The Japanese troops in China formally surrendered on
September 9,
1945 and by the provisions of the
Cairo Conference of 1943 the lands of
Manchuria,
Taiwan and the
Pescadores Islands reverted to China. However the
Ryukyu islands have not regained their independence.
Casualties Assessment
The conflict lasted for 97 months and 3 days (measured from 1937 to
1945). The Kuomintang fought in 22 major engagements, each of which
involved at least one hundred thousand troops from both sides, and in just
over 40,000 skirmishes. The CCP fought in 111,500 engagements of various
sizes. The Japanese recorded around 1.1 million military casualties,
wounded and missing. The Chinese suffered much worse, losing approximately
3.22 million soldiers. 9.13 million civilians died in crossfire, and
another 8.4 million as non-military casualties. Property loss of the
Chinese worthed up to 383,301.3 million US dollars according to the
currency exchange rate in July 1937, roughly 50 times of the
GDP of Japan (770 million US dollars).
Major figures
China: Nationalist
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Bai Chongxi (白 崇禧)
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Chen Cheng (陈 诚)
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Chiang Kai-Shek (蒋 介石)
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Du Yuming (杜 聿明)
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Fang Xianjue (方 先觉)
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Feng Yuxiang (冯 玉祥)
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Gu Zhutong (顾 祝同)
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He Yingyin (何 应钦) Chairman of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff of Republic of China
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H. H. Kung (孔 祥熙)
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Hu Zongnan (胡 宗南)
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Li Zongren (李 宗仁)
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Long Yun (龙 云)
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Song Zheyuan (宋 哲元)
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Soong May-ling (宋 美龄)
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T. V. Soong (宋 子文)
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Sun Lianzhong (孙 连仲)
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Sun Liren (孙 立人)
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Tang Enbai (汤 恩伯)
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Tang Shengzhi (唐 生智)
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Wang Jingwei (汪 精卫)
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Wei Lihuang (卫 立煌)
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Xue Yue (薛 岳)
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Yan Xishan (阎锡山)
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Zhang Zhizhong (张 治中)
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Zhang Zizhong (张 自忠)
China: Communist
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Lin Biao (林 彪)
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Mao Zedong (毛 泽东)
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Peng Dehuai (彭 德怀)
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Zhou Enlai (周 恩来)
Japan
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Anami Korechika (阿南 惟幾)
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Abe Nobuyuki (阿部 信行)
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Doihara Kenji (土肥原 賢二)
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Koiso Kuniaki (小磯 國昭)
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Hata Shunroku (畑 俊六)
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Honma Masaharu (本間 雅晴)
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Isogai Rensuke (磯谷廉介)
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Itagaki Seishiro (板垣 征四郎)
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Matsui Iwane (松井 石根)
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Mutaguchi Renya (牟田口 廉也）
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Nakajima Kesago (中島 今朝吾)
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Nagumo Chuichi (南雲 忠一)
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Nishio Toshizo (西尾 壽造)
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Nomura Kichisaburo (野村 吉三郎)
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Okamura Yasuji (岡村 寧次)
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Umezu Yoshijiro (梅津 美治郎)
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Sakai Takashi (酒井 隆)
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Sugiyama Hajime (杉山 元)
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Suzuki Kantaro (鈴木 貫太郎)
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Terauchi Hisaichi (寺内 寿一)
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Tojo Hideki (東條 英機)
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Yamaguchi Tamon (山口 多聞)
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Yamamoto Isoroku (山本 五十六)
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Yamashita Tomoyuki (山下 奉文)
Others
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Norman Bethune
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Claire Chennault
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Joseph Stilwell
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Albert Coady Wedemeyer
Military engagements
Battles
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Battle of Lugou Bridge
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Battle of Shanghai
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Defense of Nanjing or
Battle of Nanjing
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Battle of Taierzhuang
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Battle of Xuzhou
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Battle of Wuhuan
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Battle of Changsha
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Retreat of Xianggui
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Battle of Hengyang
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Hundred Regiments Offensive
Attacks on civilians
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Nanjing Massacre
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Unit 731
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Tongzhou Incident
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