Second Sino-Japanese War

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Second Sino-Japanese War

Part of the Pacific War of World War II (from 1941)

Clockwise from top left: Chinese machine gun nest at the

Battle of Shanghai, P-40 fighter planes of the Flying Tigers

guarded by a Chinese soldier, Japanese surrender in

Nanjing on September 9, 1945, Japanese troops staged a

poison gas attack near Changsha, Japanese forces at the

Battle of Wuhan

Date Minor fighting since September 18,

1931

Full scale war: July 7, 1937

September 9, 1945

(8 years, 1 month, 3 weeks and 5 days)

Location Mainland China, Burma

ResultChinese 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

Second Sino-Japanese WarFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"War of Resistance" redirects here. For the 2011 film, see War of Resistance (film).

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 foughtprimarily between the Republic of China and the Empireof Japan from 1937 to 1941. China fought Japan withsome economic help from Germany (see Sino-Germancooperation), the Soviet Union (see Soviet VolunteerGroup) and the United States (see American VolunteerGroup). After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in1941, the war merged into the greater conflict of WorldWar II as a major front of what is broadly known as thePacific War. The Second Sino-Japanese War was the

largest Asian war in the 20th century.[8] It also made upmore 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 Japaneseimperialist policy aiming to dominate China politically andmilitarily and to secure its vast raw material reserves andother economic resources, particularly food and labour.Before 1937, China and Japan fought in small, localizedengagements, so-called "incidents". In 1931, the Japaneseinvasion of Manchuria by Japan's Kwantung Armyfollowed the Mukden Incident. The last of these incidentswas the Marco Polo Bridge Incident of 1937, markingthe beginning of total war between the two countries.

Initially the Japanese scored major victories in Shanghaiafter heavy fighting, and by the end of 1937 captured theChinese capital of Nanking. After failing to stop theJapanese in Wuhan, the Chinese central government wasrelocated to Chongqing in the Chinese interior. By 1939the war had reached stalemate after Chinese victories inChangsha and Guangxi. The Japanese were also unableto defeat the Chinese communist forces in Shaanxi, whichperformed harassment and sabotage operations againstthe Japanese using guerrilla warfare tactics. On December7, 1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, and thefollowing day (December 8, 1941) the United Statesdeclared war on Japan. The United States began to aidChina via airlift matriel over the Himalayas after theAllied defeat in Burma that closed the Burma Road. In1944 Japan launched a massive invasion and conquered



War

Territorial

changes

China recovers all territories lost to

Japan since the Treaty of Shimonoseki.

Belligerents

Republic of China [a]

with Foreign support

United States

(194245)

Soviet Union

(193741)

PGR Korea

Communist Party of

China

Empire of Japan

with Collaborator support

Nanjing

Government (1940

45)

Manchukuo

(193245)

Mengjiang

(193645)

Provisional

Government (1937

40)

Reformed

Government (1937

40)

East Hebei

(193738)

Commanders and leaders

Chiang Kai-shek

Chen Cheng

Cheng Qian

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

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

Henan and Changsha, but eventually surrendered onSeptember 2, 1945 after atomic bombings of Hiroshimaand Nagasaki and Soviet invasion of Japanese-heldManchuria.

Contents

1 Nomenclature

1.1 Name

1.2 Other names

2 Background

2.1 First Sino-Japanese War

2.2 The Republic of China

2.3 Twenty-One Demands

2.4 Jinan Incident

2.5 Nominal Unification of China

2.6 Communist Party of China

3 Course of the war

3.1 Invasion of Manchuria, interventions in

China

3.2 Full scale invasion of China

3.3 Chinese resistance strategy

3.4 Relationship between the Nationalists

and Communists

3.5 Foreign support for China

3.5.1 German support

3.5.2 Soviet support

3.5.3 Allied support

3.5.4 Japanese Political Dissidents

Support

3.6 Entrance of Western Allies

4 Intrusion into French Indochina

5 Contemporaneous wars being fought by China

6 Use of chemical and bacteriological weapons

7 Ethnic minorities

8 Conclusion and aftermath

8.1 End of Pacific War and surrender of



Strength

5,600,000 Chinese

3,600 Soviets (193740)

900 US aircraft (1942

45)[1]

4,100,000 Japanese [2]

900,000 Chinese

collaborators[3]

Casualties and losses

Nationalist: 1,320,000

KIA, 1,797,000 WIA,

120,000 MIA, and

17,000,00022,000,000

civilians dead [4]

Communist: 500,000 KIA

and WIA.

Japanese estimates

including 480,000 dead in

total and 1.9 million

military casualties [5] [b]

Contemporary PRCstudies: 1,055,000 dead1,172,200 injured

Total: 2,227,200 [6]

Nationalist Chinese (ROC)estimates1.77 milliondeaths, 1.9 million

wounded[7]

a. ^ Chiang Kai-shek was the leader of Nationalist

Government that led a Chinese united front which

included Nationalists, Communists, and regional

warlords.

b. ^ This number does not include the casualty of large

number of the Chinese collaborator government troops

fighting on Japanese side.

Japanese troops in China

8.2 Post-war struggle and resumption of

civil war

8.3 Peace treaty and Taiwan

8.4 Aftermath

8.4.1 Chinese/Japanese relations

8.4.2 Aftermath in Taiwan

9 Casualties assessment

9.1 Chinese casualties

9.2 Japanese casualties

10 Number of troops involved

10.1 Chinese forces

10.1.1 National Revolutionary

Army

10.2 Japanese forces

10.2.1 Imperial Japanese Army

10.2.2 Collaborationist Chinese

Army

11 Military equipment

11.1 National Revolutionary Army

11.2 Imperial Japanese Army

12 Major figures

12.1 Chinese Nationalists

12.2 Chinese Communists

12.3 Foreigners supporting China

12.4 Imperial Japanese Army

12.5 Chinese collaborators supporting

Japan

13 Military engagements of the Second Sino-

Japanese War

13.1 Battles

13.2 Aerial engagements

13.3 Japanese invasions and operations

14 Commemoration

15 See also

16 Notes



Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, Allied

Commander-in-Chief in the China

theatre from 1942 to 1945.

The beginning of the war.

17 References and bibliography

18 External links

18.1 Internet video

Nomenclature

Name

In the Chinese language, the waris most commonly known as theWar of Resistance AgainstJapan (simplified Chinese: ; traditional Chinese:

), and also known as the

Eight Years' War of Resistance(simplified Chinese: ;traditional Chinese: ),

simply War of Resistance (simplified Chinese: ; traditionalChinese: ), or Second Sino-Japanese War (simplified Chinese:

; traditional Chinese: ).

In Japan, nowadays, the name "JapanChina War" (Japanese: Hepburn: Nitch Sens) is most commonly used because of itsperceived objectivity. In Japan today, it is written as inshinjitai. When the invasion of China proper began in earnest in July1937 near Beijing, the government of Japan used "The North ChinaIncident" (Japanese: / Hepburn: HokushiJihen/Kahoku Jihen), and with the outbreak of the Battle of Shanghaithe following month, it was changed to "The China Incident" (Japanese:

Hepburn: Shina Jihen).

The word "incident" (Japanese: Hepburn: jihen) was used by Japan, as neither country had made a formaldeclaration of war. Especially Japan wanted to avoid intervention by other countries, particularly the UnitedKingdom and the United States, which were its primary source of petroleum; the United States was also its biggestsupplier of steel. If the fighting had been formally expressed that it had already escalated to "general war", USPresident Franklin D. Roosevelt would have been legally obliged to impose an embargo on Japan in observance ofthe US Neutrality Acts.

Other names

In Japanese propaganda, the invasion of China became a "holy war" (Japanese: Hepburn: seisen), the first

step of the Hakk ichiu (? , eight corners of the world under one roof). In 1940, Japanese PrimeMinister Fumimaro Konoe launched the Taisei Yokusankai. When both sides formally declared war in December1941, the name was replaced by "Greater East Asia War" (Japanese: Hepburn: Daita Sens).



Although the Japanese government still uses the term "China Incident" in formal documents,[citation needed] theword Shina is considered derogatory by China and therefore the media in Japan often paraphrase with otherexpressions like "The JapanChina Incident" (Japanese: Hepburn: Nikka Jiken, NisshiJiken), 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 (Japanese: Hepburn: 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 whichChina, then under the Qing Dynasty, was defeated by Japan and was forced to cede Formosa, and to recognize thenominal independence (in fact, Japanese control) of Korea in the Treaty of Shimonoseki. The Qing Dynasty was onthe brink of collapse from internal revolts and foreign imperialism, while Japan had emerged as a great power

through its effective measures of modernization.[9]

The Republic of China

The Republic of China was founded in 1912, following the Xinhai Revolution which overthrew the Qing Dynasty.However, central authority disintegrated and the Republic's authority succumbed to that of regional warlords.

Unifying the nation and repelling imperialism seemed a very remote possibility.[10] Some warlords even alignedthemselves with various foreign powers in an effort to wipe each other out. For example, the warlord Zhang Zuolin

of Manchuria openly cooperated with the Japanese for military and economic assistance.[11]

Twenty-One Demands

In 1915, Japan issued the Twenty-One Demands to extort further political and commercial privilege from

China.[12] Following World War I, Japan acquired the German Empire's sphere of influence in Shandong[13]

(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.[14] To unite China and eradicateregional warlords, the Kuomintang (KMT, or Chinese Nationalist Party) in Guangzhou launched the Northern

Expedition of 192628 with the help of the Soviet Union.[15]

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. Thisbattle 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.[16]

Nominal Unification of China



Japanese troops entering Shenyang

during Mukden Incident

In the same year, Zhang Zuolin was assassinated when he became less willing to cooperate with Japan.[17]

Afterwards Zhang's son Zhang Xueliang quickly took over control of Manchuria, and despite strong Japaneselobbying efforts to continue the resistance against the KMT, he soon declared his allegiance to the Kuomintang

government under Chiang Kai-shek, which resulted in the nominal unification of China at the end of 1928.[18]

Communist Party of China

In 1930, large-scale civil war broke out between warlords who had fought in alliance with the Kuomintang duringthe Northern Expedition and the central government under Chiang. In addition, the Chinese Communists (CCP, orCommunist Party of China) revolted against the central government following a purge of its members by the KMTin 1927. The Chinese government diverted much attention into fighting these civil wars, following a policy of "firstinternal pacification, then external resistance" (Chinese: ).

Course of the war

Invasion of Manchuria, interventions in China

The chaotic situation in China provided excellent opportunities forJapanese expansionism. Japan saw Manchuria as a limitless supply ofraw materials, a market for its manufactured goods (now excluded fromthe influence of many Western countries in Depression era tariffs), and asa protective buffer state against the Soviet Union in Siberia. Japaninvaded Manchuria outright after the Mukden Incident (simplifiedChinese: ; traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: JiybShbin) in September 1931. After five months of fighting, the puppetstate of Manchukuo was established in 1932, with the last emperor ofChina, Puyi, installed as its puppet ruler. Militarily too weak to challengeJapan directly, China appealed to the League of Nations for help. TheLeague's investigation led to the publication of the Lytton Report,condemning Japan for its incursion into Manchuria, and causing Japan towithdraw from the League of Nations. Appeasement being thepredominant policy of the day, no country was willing to take action against Japan beyond tepid censure.

Incessant fighting followed the Mukden Incident. In 1932, Chinese and Japanese troops fought a battle known asthe January 28 Incident. This resulted in the demilitarisation of Shanghai, which forbade the Chinese from deployingtroops in their own city. In Manchukuo there was an ongoing campaign to defeat the anti-Japanese volunteer armiesthat arose from widespread outrage over the policy of non-resistance to Japan.

In 1933, the Japanese attacked the Great Wall region, the Tanggu Truce taking place in its aftermath, giving Japancontrol of Jehol province as well as a demilitarized zone between the Great Wall and Beiping-Tianjin region. Japanaimed to create another buffer zone between Manchukuo and the Chinese Nationalist government in Nanjing.

Japan increasingly exploited internal conflicts in China to reduce the strength of its fractious opponents. This wasprecipitated by the fact that even years after the Northern Expedition, the political power of the Nationalistgovernment was limited to just the area of the Yangtze River Delta. Other sections of China were essentially in thehands of local Chinese warlords. Japan sought various Chinese collaborators and helped them establish



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.

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 northernprovinces 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, underJapanese pressure, China signed the HeUmezu Agreement, which forbade the KMT from conducting partyoperations 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, theJapanese-backed East Hebei Autonomous Council and the HebeiChahar Political Council were established.There in the empty space of Chahar the Mongol Military Government (simplified Chinese: ; traditionalChinese: ; pinyin: Mngg jn zhngf) was formed on May 12, 1936, Japan providing all necessary

military and economic aid. Afterwards Chinese volunteer forces continued to resist Japanese aggression inManchuria, and Chahar and Suiyuan.

Full scale invasion of China

On the night of July 7, 1937, Chinese and Japanese troops exchangedfire in the vicinity of the Lugou (or Marco Polo) bridge, a crucial accessroute to Beijing. What began as confused, sporadic skirmishing soonescalated into a full-scale battle, in which Beijing and its port city ofTianjin fell to Japanese forces. The initial skirmishes at the bridge, knownas the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, is recognized by most historians asthe beginning of the Second Sino-Japanese War.

The Imperial General Headquarters (GHQ) in Tokyo were initiallyreluctant to escalate the conflict into full scale war, being content with thegains acquired in northern China following the Marco Polo BridgeIncident. The KMT, however, determined that the "breaking point" ofJapanese aggression had been reached. Chiang Kai-shek quicklymobilized the central government's army and air force, placed them underhis direct command, and attacked Japanese Marines in Shanghai onAugust 13, 1937, leading to the Battle of Shanghai. The ImperialJapanese Army (IJA) had to commit over 200,000 troops, along withnumerous naval vessels and aircraft, to capture the city. After more thanthree months of intense fighting, their casualties far exceeded initial

expectations.[20]

Building on the hard won victory in Shanghai, the IJA captured the KMTcapital city of Nanjing (Nanking) and Northern Shanxi by the end of1937. These campaigns involved approximately 350,000 Japanesesoldiers, and considerably more Chinese. Historians estimate up to 300,000 Chinese (mostly civilians) were massmurdered and tortured and tens of thousands of women raped during the Nanking Massacre (also known as the"Rape of Nanking"), after the fall of Nanking from December 13, 1937 to late January 1938; some Japanese denythat the massacre occurred.

At the start of 1938, the leadership in Tokyo still hoped to limit the scope of the conflict to occupy areas aroundShanghai, Nanjing and most of northern China. They thought this would preserve strength for an anticipatedshowdown with the Soviet Union, but by now the Japanese government and GHQ had effectively lost control of the



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[19]

Map showing the extent of Japanese

occupation in 1940 (in red).

Japanese army in China. With many victories achieved, Japanese field generals escalated the war in Jiangsu in anattempt to wipe out Chinese resistance, but were defeated at the Battle of Taierzhuang. Afterwards the IJAchanged its strategy and deployed almost all of its existing armies in China to attack the city of Wuhan, which bynow 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.[21] The Japanesecaptured 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-1937borders.

With Japanese casualties andcosts mounting, the ImperialGeneral Headquartersattempted to break Chineseresistance by ordering the airbranches of the navy and thearmy to launch the war's firstmassive air raids on civiliantargets. Japanese raiders hit theKuomintang's newlyestablished provisional capitalof Chongqing and most othermajor cities in unoccupied

China, leaving millions dead, injured, and homeless.

From the beginning of 1939 the war entered a new phase with theunprecedented defeat of the Japanese at Changsha and Guangxi. Theseoutcomes encouraged the Chinese to launch their first large-scalecounter-offensive against the IJA in early 1940; however, due to its lowmilitary-industrial capacity and limited experience in modern warfare, theNRA was defeated in this offensive. Afterwards Chiang could not riskany more all-out offensive campaigns given the poorly trained, under-equipped, and disorganized state of his armies and opposition to hisleadership both within the Kuomintang and in China in general. He had lost a substantial portion of his best trainedand equipped troops in the Battle of Shanghai and was at times at the mercy of his generals, who maintained a highdegree 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 governmentsfavourable to Japanese interests in the territories conquered, the most prominent being the Nanjing NationalistGovernment 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 onlysuccess the Japanese had was the ability to recruit a large Collaborationist Chinese Army to maintain public securityin the occupied areas.

By 1941, Japan held most of the eastern coastal areas of China and Vietnam, but guerilla fighting continued in theseoccupied areas. Japan had suffered high casualties from unexpectedly stubborn Chinese resistance, and neither sidecould make any swift progress in the manner of Nazi Germany in Western Europe.



Chinese soldiers in house-to-house

fighting in Battle of Taierzhuang.

National Revolutionary Army soldiers

march to the front in 1939.

Chinese resistance strategy

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

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

Unlike Japan, China was unprepared for total war and had little military-

industrial strength, no mechanized divisions, and few armoured forces.[22]

Up until the mid-1930s China had hoped that the League of Nationswould provide countermeasures to Japan's aggression. In addition, theKuomintang (KMT) government was mired in a civil war against theCommunist Party of China (CCP), as Chiang Kai-shek was quoted: "theJapanese are a disease of the skin, the Communists are a disease ofthe heart". The Second United Front between the KMT and CCP wasnever truly unified, as each side was preparing for a showdown with theother once the Japanese were driven out.

Even under these extremely unfavorable circumstances, Chiang realizedthat to win support from the United States and other foreign nations,China had to prove it was capable of fighting. Knowing a hasty retreatwould discourage foreign aid, Chiang resolved to make a stand atShanghai, using the best of his German-trained divisions to defendChina's largest and most industrialized city from the Japanese. The battlelasted over three months, saw heavy casualties on both sides, and endedwith a Chinese retreat towards Nanjing, but proved that China would notbe easily defeated and showed its determination to the world. The battle became an enormous morale booster forthe Chinese people, as it decisively refuted the Japanese boast that Japan could conquer Shanghai in three days andChina in three months.

Afterwards China began to adopt the strategy of "trading space for time" (simplified Chinese: ;traditional Chinese: ). The Chinese army would put up fights to delay the Japanese advance tonorthern and eastern cities, allowing the home front, with its professionals and key industries, to retreat west intoChongqing. As a result of Chinese troops' scorched earth strategies, in which dams and levees were intentionallysabotaged to create massive flooding, Japanese advances began to stall in late 1938.

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

During this period, the main Chinese objective was to drag out the war for as long as possible, thereby exhaustingJapanese resources while building up Chinese military capacity. American general Joseph Stilwell called thisstrategy "winning by outlasting". The National Revolutionary Army adopted the concept of "magnetic warfare" toattract advancing Japanese troops to definite points where they were subjected to ambush, flanking attacks, andencirclements in major engagements. The most prominent example of this tactic was the successful defense ofChangsha in 1939 (and again in 1941), in which heavy casualties were inflicted on the IJA.



Eighth Route Army

Commander Zhu De with

KMT Blue Sky White

Sun Emblem cap.

Local Chinese resistance forces, organised separately by both the communists and KMT, continued their resistancein occupied areas to pester the enemy and make their administration over the vast land area of China difficult. In1940 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 employthe "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 hadsuccessfully retreated to the western interior to continue their resistance, while the Chinese communists remained incontrol of base areas in Shaanxi. In the occupied areas, Japanese control was mainly limited to railroads and majorcities ("points and lines"). They did not have a major military or administrative presence in the vast Chinesecountryside, where Chinese guerillas roamed freely. This stalemate situation made a decisive victory seemimpossible to the Japanese.

Relationship between the Nationalists and Communists

After the Mukden Incident in 1931, Chinese public opinion was strongly critical ofManchuria's leader, the "young marshal" Zhang Xueliang, for his nonresistance to theJapanese invasion, even though the Kuomintang central government was alsoresponsible for this policy, giving Zhang an order to "improvise" while not offeringsupport. After losing Manchuria to the Japanese, Zhang and his Northeast Armywere given 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 hisNortheast Army, which received no support in manpower or weaponry from ChiangKai-shek.

On 12 December 1936 a deeply disgruntled Zhang Xueliang kidnapped Chiang Kai-shek in Xi'an, hoping to force an end to the conflict between KMT and CCP. Tosecure the release of Chiang, the Kuomintang agreed to a temporary end to theChinese Civil War and, on 24 December, the creation of a United Front between theCCP and KMT against Japan. The alliance having salutary effects for thebeleaguered CCP, they agreed to form the New Fourth Army and the 8th RouteArmy and place them under the nominal control of the National Revolutionary Army.

The CCP's Red Army fought alongside KMT forces during the Battle of Taiyuan, and the high point of theircooperation came in 1938 during the Battle of Wuhan.

Despite Japan's steady territorial gains in northern China, the coastal regions, and the rich Yangtze River Valley incentral China, the distrust between the two antagonists was scarcely veiled. The uneasy alliance began to breakdown by late 1938, partially due to the Communists' aggressive efforts to expand their military strength byabsorbing Chinese guerrilla forces behind Japanese lines. Chinese militia who refused to switch their allegiance wereoften labelled "collaborators" and attacked by CCP 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.[23] Starting in 1940, openconflict between Nationalists and Communists became more frequent in the occupied areas outside of Japanesecontrol, culminating in the New Fourth Army Incident in January 1941.

Afterwards, the Second United Front completely broke down and Chinese Communists leader Mao Zedongoutlined the preliminary plan for the CCP's eventual seizure of power from Chiang Kai-shek. Mao began his finalpush for consolidation of CCP power under his authority, and his teachings became the central tenets of the CCP



I-16 with Chinese insignia. I-16

was the main fighter plane used

by the Chinese Air Force and

Soviet volunteers.

doctrine that came to be formalized as "Mao Zedong Thought". The communists also began to focus most of theirenergy on building up their sphere of influence wherever opportunities were presented, mainly through rural massorganizations, administrative, land and tax reform measures favoring poor peasants; while the Nationalists attemptedto neutralize the spread of Communist influence by military blockade of areas controlled by CCP and fighting the

Japanese at the same time[24]

Foreign support for China

See also: Motives of the Second Sino-Japanese War

Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union provided aid to China at the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War. By 1940

the United States had become China's main diplomatic, financial and military supporter.[25]

German support

Main article: Sino-German cooperation (19111941)

Prior to the outbreak of the war, Germany and China had close economic and military cooperation, with Germanyhelping China modernize its industry and military in exchange for raw materials. More than half of German armsexports during its rearmament period were to China. Nevertheless, the proposed 30 new German-trained divisionsin the National Revolutionary Army failed to materialize after Germany withdrew its support in 1938. By that timeAdolf 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 theJapanese from invading Siberia, thus saving itself from the threat of a two-front war. In September 1937, the Soviet leadership signed the Sino-SovietNon-Aggression Pact and approved Operation Zet, the formation of aSoviet volunteer air force. As part of this secret operation, Soviet techniciansupgraded and ran some of China's transportation systems. Bombers,fighters, supplies and advisors arrived, including Soviet general VasilyChuikov, the future victor of the Battle of Stalingrad. Prior to the entrance ofthe Western Allies, the Russians provided the largest amount of foreign aidto China, totalling some $250 million in credits for munitions and othersupplies. In April 1941, Soviet aid ended as a result of the SovietJapaneseNeutrality 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,[26] and 227

of them died fighting there.[27]

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.[28]

Allied support



Flying Tigers Commander Claire

Lee 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 USSPanay and the Nanking Massacre swung public opinion in the West sharplyagainst Japan and increased their fear of Japanese expansion, whichprompted the United States, the United Kingdom, and France to provideloan assistance for war supply contracts to the Republic of China. Australiaalso prevented a Japanese government-owned company from taking over an

iron mine in Australia, and banned iron ore exports in 1938.[29] However inJuly 1939, negotiations between Japanese Foreign Minister Arita Khatiraand the British Ambassador in Tokyo, Robert Craigie, led to an agreementby which Great Britain recognized Japanese conquests in China. At the sametime, the U.S. government extended a trade agreement with Japan for sixmonths, then fully restored it. Under the agreement, Japan purchased trucks

for the Kwantung Army,[30] machine tools for aircraft factories, strategicmaterials (steel and scrap iron up to October 16, 1940, petrol and

petroleum products up to June 26, 1941[31]), 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 fromreceiving the 10,000 tons of materials delivered monthly by the Allies via theHaiphongYunnan Fou Railway line.

On June 22, 1941, Germany attacked the Soviet Union. Notwithstandingnon-aggression pacts or trade connections, Hitler's assault threw the worldinto 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'sAgreement" not to move into southern French Indochina. From bases inCambodia and Southern Vietnam, Japanese planes could attack Malaya,Singapore, and the Dutch East Indies. As the Japanese occupation ofNorthern French Indochina in 1940 had already cut off supplies from theWest to China, the move into Southern French Indochina was viewed as adirect threat to British and Dutch colonies. Many principal figures in theJapanese government and military (particularly the navy) were against the move, as they foresaw that it would inviteretaliation from the West.

On 24 July 1941 Roosevelt requested Japan withdraw all its forces from Indochina. Two days later the USA andthe UK began an oil embargo; two days after that the Netherlands joined them. This was a decisive moment in theSecond Sino-Japanese war. The loss of oil imports made it impossible for Japan to continue operations in China ona long term basis. It set the stage for Japan to launch a series of military attacks against the Allies, including theattack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

In mid-1941, the United States government financed the creation of the American Volunteer Group (AVG), orFlying Tigers, to replace the withdrawn Soviet volunteers and aircraft. Contrary to popular perception, the FlyingTigers did not enter actual combat until after the United States had declared war on Japan. Led by Claire Lee



US Air Forces video:Flying Tigers

Bite Back

A former Japanese POW now a Japanese

People's Emancipation League member in a

Eighth Route Army uniform.

On February 18, 1943, Madame

Chiang addressed both houses of the

U.S. Congress.

Chennault, their early combat success of 300 kills against a loss of 12 of their shark painted P-40 fighters earnedthem wide recognition at a time when the Allies were suffering heavy losses, and soon afterwards their dogfightingtactics would be adopted by the United States Army Air Forces.

Japanese Political Dissidents Support

See also: Japanese resistance to the Empire of Japan in World

War II

Due to the PeacePreservation Law, and theTokubetsu KtKeisatsu, any sign ofresistance in Japan was

suppressed.[32] Someresisters who fledpersecution from theirhomeland, found themselves working with Chinese resistance

against the Empire of Japan.[33] The Japanese People's Anti-warLeague or Hansen Dmei, worked with the Kuomintang, in

Chongqing.[34] Sanzo Nosaka, a founder of the JapaneseCommunist Party, and a Comintern agent, worked with theCommunist People's Liberation Army at their base in Yan'an. He

was in charge of the Japanese People's Emancipation League (JPEL)[35] The League to Raise the PoliticalConsciousness of Japanese Troops (The Nihon Heishi Kakusei Domei), was a Japanese anti-war organization

made up of Japanese POWs of the Eighth Route Army who became disillusioned of the Empire of Japan.[36]

Entrance of Western Allies

Within a few days of the attack on Pearl Harbor, China formally declared

war against Japan, Germany and Italy,[37] and almost immediatelyChinese troops achieved another decisive victory in the Battle ofChangsha, which earned the Chinese government much prestige from theAllies. President Franklin D. Roosevelt referred to the United States,United Kingdom, Soviet Union and China as the world's "FourPolicemen", elevating the international status of China to anunprecedented height after a century of humiliation at the hands of variousimperialist powers.

Chiang Kai-shek continued to receive supplies from the United States asthe Chinese conflict was merged into the Asian theatre of World War II.However, in contrast to the Arctic supply route to the Soviet Unionwhich stayed open through most of the war, sea routes to China and theYunnanVietnam Railway had been closed since 1940. Therefore, between the closing of the Burma Road in 1942and its re-opening as the Ledo Road in 1945, foreign aid was largely limited to what could be flown in over "TheHump".



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 Stilwell

in 1942, Burma.

A U.S. poster advocating to help

China fight on.

Most of China's own industry had already been captured or destroyed by Japan, and the Soviet Union refused toallow the United States to supply China through Kazakhstan into Xinjiang as the Xinjiang warlord Sheng Shicai hadturned anti-Soviet in 1942 with Chiang's approval. For these reasons, the Chinese government never had thesupplies and equipment needed to mount major counter-offensives. Despitethe severe shortage of matriel, in 1943, the Chinese were successful inrepelling major Japanese offensives in Hubei and Changde.

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 Chiangsoon broke down. Many historians (such as Barbara W. Tuchman) havesuggested it was largely due to the corruption and inefficiency of theKuomintang (KMT) government, while others (such as Ray Huang andHans van de Ven) have depicted it as a more complicated situation. Stilwellhad a strong desire to assume total control of Chinese troops and pursue anaggressive strategy, while Chiang preferred a patient and less expensivestrategy of outwaiting the Japanese. Chiang continued to maintain adefensive posture despite Allied pleas to actively break the Japaneseblockade, because China had already suffered tens of millions of warcasualties and believed that Japan would eventually capitulate in the face ofAmerica's overwhelming industrial output. For these reasons the other Alliesgradually began to lose confidence in the Chinese ability to conduct offensiveoperations from the Asian mainland, and instead concentrated their effortsagainst the Japanese in the Pacific Ocean Areas and South West Pacific

Area, employing an island hopping strategy.[38]

Longstanding differences in national interest and political stance amongChina, the United States, and the United Kingdom remained in place. BritishPrime Minister Winston Churchill was reluctant to devote British troops,many of whom had been routed by the Japanese in earlier campaigns, to thereopening of the Burma Road; Stilwell, on the other hand, believed thatreopening the road was vital, as all China's mainland ports were underJapanese control. The Allies' "Europe First" policy did not sit well withChiang, while the later British insistence that China send more and moretroops to Indochina for use in the Burma Campaign was seen by Chiang asan attempt to use Chinese manpower to defend British colonial holdings.Chiang also believed that China should divert its crack army divisions fromBurma to eastern China to defend the airbases of the American bombers hehoped would defeat Japan through bombing, a strategy that Americangeneral Claire Lee Chennault supported but which Stilwell strongly opposed.In addition, Chiang voiced his support of Indian independence in a 1942meeting with Mahatma Gandhi, which further soured the relationship

between China and the United Kingdom.[39]

American and Canadian-born Chinese were recruited to act as covertoperatives in Japanese-occupied China (Canadian-born Chinese having notyet 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 ofsabotage. Activities focused on destruction of Japanese transportation of supplies (signaling bomber destruction of

railroads, bridges).[40]

The United States saw the Chinese theater as a means to tie up a large number of Japanese troops, as well as beinga location for American airbases from which to strike the Japanese home islands. In 1944, with the Japaneseposition 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 betweenManchuria and Vietnam. This brought major cities in Hunan, Henan and Guangxi under Japanese occupation. Thefailure of Chinese forces to defend these areas encouraged Stilwell to attempt to gain overall command of theChinese army, and his subsequent showdown with Chiang led to his replacement by Major General Albert CoadyWedemeyer.

By the end of 1944 Chinese troops under the command of Sun Li-jen attacking from India, and those under WeiLihuang 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.[41] In Spring 1945 the Chinese launched offensives thatretook Hunan and Guangxi. With the Chinese army progressing well in training and equipment, Wedemeyerplanned to launch Operation Carbonado in summer 1945 to retake Guangdong, thus obtaining a coastal port, andfrom there drive northwards toward Shanghai. However, the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki andSoviet invasion of Manchuria hastened Japanese surrender and these plans were not put into action.

Intrusion into French Indochina

See also: Invasion of French Indochina and Second French Indochina Campaign

The Chinese Kuomintang also supported the Vietnamese Viet Nam Quoc Dan Dang in its battle against French andJapanese imperialism.

In Guangxi Chinese military leaders were organizing Vietnamese nationalists against the Japanese. The VNQDD

had been active in Guangxi and some of their members had joined the KMT army.[42] Under the umbrella of KMTactivities, a broad alliance of nationalists emerged. With Ho at the forefront, the Viet Nam Doc Lap Dong Minh Hoi(Vietnamese Independence League, usually known as the Viet Minh) was formed and based in the town of

Chinghsi.[42] The pro-VNQDD nationalist Ho Ngoc Lam, a KMT army officer and former disciple of Phan Boi

Chau,[43] was named as the deputy of Pham Van Dong, later to be Ho's Prime Minister. The front was later

broadened and renamed the Viet Nam Giai Phong Dong Minh (Vietnam Liberation League).[42]

The Viet Nam Revolutionary League was a union of various Vietnamese nationalist groups, run by the pro ChineseVNQDD. Chinese KMT General Zhang Fakui created the league to further Chinese influence in Indochina, againstthe French and Japanese. Its stated goal was for unity with China under the Three Principles of the People, created

by KMT founder Dr. Sun and opposition to Japanese and French Imperialists.[44][45] The Revolutionary Leaguewas controlled by Nguyen Hai Than, who was born in China and could not speak Vietnamese. General Zhangshrewdly blocked the Communists of Vietnam, and Ho Chi Minh from entering the league, as Zhang's main goal

was Chinese influence in Indochina.[46] The KMT utilized these Vietnamese nationalists during World War II

against Japanese forces.[42] Franklin D. Roosevelt, through General Stilwell, privately made it clear that they



preferred that the French not reacquire French Indochina (modern day Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos) after thewar was over. Roosevelt offered Chiang Kai-shek control of all of Indochina. It was said that Chiang Kai-shek

replied: "Under no circumstances!".[47]

After the war, 200,000 Chinese troops under General Lu Han were sent by Chiang Kai-shek to northern Indochina(north of the 16th parallel) to accept the surrender of Japanese occupying forces there, and remained in Indochina

until 1946, when the French returned.[48] The Chinese used the VNQDD, the Vietnamese branch of the Chinese

Kuomintang, to increase their influence in Indochina and to put pressure on their opponents.[49] Chiang Kai-shekthreatened the French with war in response to manoeuvering by the French and Ho Chi Minh's forces against eachother, forcing them to come to a peace agreement. In February, 1946 he also forced the French to surrender all oftheir concessions in China and to renounce their extraterritorial privileges in exchange for the Chinese withdrawingfrom 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.[50][51][52][53]

Contemporaneous wars being fought by China

The Chinese were not entirely devoting all their resources to the Japanese, because they were fighting several otherwars at the same time.

The Soviet Union attacked the Republic of China in 1937 during the Xinjiang War (1937). The Muslim General MaHushan of the Kuomintang 36th Division (National Revolutionary Army) resisted the Soviet invasion, which wasbeing led by Russian troops commanded by Muslim General Ma Zhanshan, previously one of Chiang Kaishek'ssuboordinates.

General Ma Hushan was expecting some sort of help from Nanjing, as he exchanged messages with Chiangregarding Soviet attack. Both the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Xinjiang War erupting simultaneouslyrendered Chiang and Ma Hushan on their own to confront the Japanese and Soviet forces.

The Republic of China government was fully aware of the Soviet invasion of Xinjiang province, and Soviet troopsmoving around Xinjiang and Gansu, but was forced to mask these manoeuvers to the public as "Japanese

propaganda" to avoid an international incident and for continued military supplies from the Soviets.[54]

Because the pro-Soviet governor Sheng Shicai controlled Xinjiang, which was garrisoned with Soviet troops inTurfan, which bordered Gansu, the Chinese government had to keep troops stationed there as well.

The Muslim General Ma Buqing was in virtual control of the Gansu corridor at this time.[55] Ma Buqing had earlierfought against the Japanese, but because the Soviet threat was great, Chiang made some arrangements regardingMa's position. In July, 1942 Chiang Kai-shek instructed Ma Buqing to move 30,000 of his troops to the Tsaidam

marsh in the Qaidam Basin of Qinghai.[56][57] Chiang named Ma Reclamation Commissioner, to threaten ShengShicai's southern flank in Xinjiang, which bordered Tsaidam.

After Ma evacuated his positions in Gansu, Kuomintang troops from central China flooded the area, and infiltratedSoviet occupied Xinjiang, gradually reclaiming it and forcing Sheng Shicai to break with the Soviets. TheKuomintang ordered Ma Bufang several times to march his troops into Xinjiang to intimidate the pro-Soviet

Governor Sheng Shicai. This helped provide protection for Chinese settling in Xinjiang.[58]



Japanese Special Naval Landing

Forces with gas masks and rubber

gloves during a chemical

attack[citation needed] near Chapei in

the Battle of Shanghai.

The Ili Rebellion broke out in Xinjiang when the Kuomintang Chinese Muslim Officer Liu Bin-Di was killed whilefighting Turkic Uyghur Rebels in November 1944. The Soviet Union supported the Turkic rebels against the

Kuomintang, and Kuomintang forces were fighting back.[59]

Use of chemical and bacteriological weapons

Despite Article 23 of the Hague Conventions (1899 and 1907), article Vof the Treaty in Relation to the Use of Submarines and Noxious Gases in

Warfare,[60] article 171 of the Treaty of Versailles and a resolutionadopted by the League of Nations on May 14, 1938, condemning theuse of poison gas by the Empire of Japan, the Imperial Japanese Armyfrequently used chemical weapons during the war.

According to historians Yoshiaki Yoshimi and Seiya Matsuno, thechemical weapons were authorized by specific orders given by JapaneseEmperor Hirohito himself, transmitted by the Imperial GeneralHeadquarters. For example, the Emperor authorized the use of toxic gason 375 separate occasions during the Battle of Wuhan from August to

October 1938.[61] They were also used during the invasion of Changde.Those orders were transmitted either by Prince Kan'in Kotohito or

General Hajime Sugiyama.[62]

Bacteriological weapons provided by Shir Ishii's units were also profusely used. For example, in 1940, the

Imperial Japanese Army Air Force bombed Ningbo with fleas carrying the bubonic plague.[63] During theKhabarovsk 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.[64]

Ethnic minorities

Main article: Chinese ethnic minorities in the Second Sino-Japanese War

Japan attempted to reach out to ethnic minorities to rally to their side, but only succeeded with certain Manchu,Mongol, and Uyghur elements.

Conclusion and aftermath

End of Pacific War and surrender of Japanese troops in China

Main articles: Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Soviet invasion of Manchuria and

Japanese Instrument of Surrender

The United States and the Soviet Union put an end to the Sino-Japanese War (and World War II) by attacking theJapanese with a new weapon (on America's part) and an incursion into Manchuria (on the Soviet Union's part). OnAugust 6, 1945, an American B-29 bomber, the Enola Gay, dropped the first atomic bomb used in combat on



Japanese troops surrendering to

the Chinese.

The Chinese return to Liuzhou in July

1945

Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Zedong in

1946.

Hiroshima, killing tens of thousands and leveling the city. On August 9, 1945, the Soviet Union renounced its non-aggression pact with Japan and attacked the Japanese in Manchuria, fulfilling its Yalta Conference pledge to attackthe Japanese within three months after the end of the war in Europe. The attack was made by three Soviet armygroups. On that same day, a second equally destructive atomic bomb wasdropped by the United States on Nagasaki.

In less than two weeks the Kwantung Army, which was the primary

Japanese fighting force,[65][66] consisting of over a million men but lacking inadequate 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 battleshipUSS Missouri on September 2, 1945.

After the Allied victory in the Pacific, General Douglas MacArthur orderedall Japanese forces within China (excluding Manchuria), Formosa andFrench Indochina north of 16 north latitude to surrender to Chiang Kai-shek, and the Japanese troops in Chinaformally surrendered on September 9, 1945.

Post-war struggle and resumption of civil war

Main article: Chinese Civil War

In 1945, China emerged from the war nominally a great military powerbut economically weak and on the verge of all-out civil war. Theeconomy was sapped by the military demands of a long costly war andinternal strife, by spiraling inflation, and by corruption in the Nationalistgovernment that included profiteering, speculation and hoarding.

Furthermore, as part of the Yalta Conference, allowing a Soviet sphereof influence in Manchuria, the Soviets dismantled and removed more thanhalf of the industrial equipment left there by the Japanese before handingover Manchuria to China. Large swathes of the prime farming areas hadbeen ravaged by the fighting and there was starvation in the wake of thewar. Many towns and cities were destroyed, and millions were renderedhomeless by floods.

The problems of rehabilitation and reconstruction from the ravages of aprotracted war were staggering, and the war left the Nationalists severelyweakened, and their policies left them unpopular. Meanwhile, the warstrengthened the Communists both in popularity and as a viable fightingforce. At Yan'an and elsewhere in the communist controlled areas, MaoZedong was able to adapt MarxismLeninism to Chinese conditions. Hetaught 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 warfarein defense of the people. Communist troops adapted to changing wartimeconditions and became a seasoned fighting force. With skillful organizational and propaganda, the Communists



The Taiwan Strait and

the island of Formosa.

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 andelsewhere to Manchuria. This opportunity was available to the Communists because although Nationalistrepresentatives were not invited to Yalta, they had been consulted and had agreed to the Soviet invasion ofManchuria 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 enmasse and arm themselves with the military hardware surrendered by the Japanese army, quickly establish controlin the countryside and move into position to encircle the Nationalist government army in major cities of northeastChina. The Chinese Civil War broke out between the Nationalists and Communists following that, which concludedwith the Communist victory in mainland China and the retreat of the Nationalists to Taiwan in 1949.

Peace treaty and Taiwan

Main article: Legal status of Taiwan

Formosa and the Penghu islands were put under the administrative control of theRepublic of China (ROC) government in 1945 by the United Nations Relief and

Rehabilitation Administration.[67] The ROC proclaimed Taiwan Retrocession Day onOctober 25, 1945. However, due to the unresolved Chinese Civil War, neither thenewly established People's Republic of China (PRC) in mainland China nor theNationalist ROC that retreated to Taiwan was invited to sign the Treaty of SanFrancisco, as neither had shown full and complete legal capacity to enter into an

international legally binding agreement.[68] Since China was not present, the Japaneseonly formally renounced the territorial sovereignty of Taiwan and Penghu islandswithout specifying to which country Japan relinquished the sovereignty, and the treatywas signed in 1951 and came into force in 1952.

In 1952, the Treaty of Taipei was signed separately between the ROC and Japan that basically followed the sameguideline 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 juridical person should be the people and the

juridical person of the ROC.[67] Both the PRC and ROC governments base their claims to Taiwan on the JapaneseInstrument 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 overTaiwan has been and continues to be exercised by the ROC. Japan's position has been to avoid commenting onTaiwan's status, maintaining that Japan renounced all claims to sovereignty over its former colonial possessions after

World War II, including Taiwan.[69]

Aftermath

The question as to which political group directed the Chinese war effort and exerted most of the effort to resist theJapanese remains a controversial issue.

In the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japan Memorial near the Marco Polo Bridge and in mainlandChinese textbooks, the People's Republic of China (PRC) claims that the Nationalists mostly avoided fighting theJapanese to preserve their strength for a final showdown with the Communist Party of China (CCP or CPC), while



China War of Resistance Against

Japan Memorial Museum on the

site where Marco Polo Bridge

Incident took place.

the Communists were the main military force in the Chinese resistance efforts.[70] Recently, however, with a changein the political climate, the CCP has admitted that certain Nationalist generals made important contributions inresisting the Japanese. The official history in mainland China now states that the KMT fought a bloody, yetindecisive, frontal war against Japan, while the CCP engaged the Japanese forces in far greater numbers behindenemy lines. For the sake of Chinese reunification and appeasing the Republic of China (ROC) on Taiwan, thePRC 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.[71] Other scholarsdocument quite a different view. Such studies find evidence that theCommunists actually played a minuscule role in the war against the Japanesecompared to the Nationalists, and preserved their strength for a final

showdown with the Kuomintang (KMT).[72] This view point gives the KMTcredit for the brunt of the fighting, which is confirmed by Communists leaderZhou Enlai's secret report to Joseph Stalin in January 1940. This reportstated that out of more than one million Chinese soldiers killed or woundedsince the war began in 1937, only 40,000 were from the Communists EighthRoute Army and New Fourth Army. In other words, by the CCP's ownaccount, the Communists had suffered a mere three percent of total

casualties half way into the war.[73]

The Nationalists suffered higher casualties because they were the main combatants opposing the Japanese in eachof the 22 major battles between China and Japan (involving more than 100,000 troops on both sides). TheCommunist forces, by contrast, usually avoided pitched battles against the Japanese and generally limited theircombat to guerilla actions (the Hundred Regiments Offensive and the Battle of Pingxingguan are notableexceptions). The Nationalist committed their strongest divisions in early battle against the Japanese (including the36th, 87th, 88th divisions, the crack divisions of Chiang's Central Army) to defend Shanghai and continued todeploy most of their forces to fight the Japanese even as the Communists changed their strategy to engage mainly ina political offensive against the Japanese while declaring that the CCP should "save and preserve our strength and

wait for favorable timing" by the end of 1941.[74]

Chinese/Japanese relations

Today, the war is a major point of contention and resentment between China and Japan. The war remains a majorroadblock for Sino-Japanese relations, and many people, particularly in China, harbor grudges over the war andrelated issues.

Issues regarding the current historical outlook on the war exist. For example, the Japanese government has beenaccused of historical revisionism by allowing the approval of a few school textbooks omitting or glossing overJapan'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[75] and despite the efforts of the Japanese nationalist textbook reformers, bythe late 1990s the most common Japanese schoolbooks contained references to, for instance, the NankingMassacre, Unit 731, and the comfort women of World War II, all historical issues which have faced challenges

from ultranationalists in the past.[76] In response to criticism of Japanese textbook revisionism, the PRC governmenthas been accused of using the war to stir up already growing anti-Japanese sentiments in order to spur nationalisticfeelings.



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 theDemocratic Progressive Party (DPP) won the presidential election in 2000, these national holidays commemoratingthe war has been cancelled as the pro-independent DPP does not see the relevancy of celebrating events thathappened in mainland China.

Meanwhile, many KMT supporters, particularly veterans who retreated with the government in 1949, still have anemotional interest in the war. For example, in celebrating the 60th anniversary of the end of war in 2005, thecultural bureau of KMT stronghold Taipei held a series of talks in the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall regarding the warand post-war developments, while the KMT held its own exhibit in the KMT headquarters. Whereas the KMTwon the presidential election in 2008, the ROC government resumed commemorating the war.

Casualties assessment

See also: Japanese war crimes, 1938 Yellow River flood and 1938 Changsha Fire

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.[77] Most Western historians believed that the total number of casualties was at least 20 million.[78]

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.[79]

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.[80]

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 December 3, 1941 by Imperial Headquarter Order number 575.[81]

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 gross domestic product of Japan at that time (US$7.7

billion).[82]

In addition, the war created 95 million refugees.

Japanese casualties

Contemporary studies from the Beijing Central Compilation and Translation Press have revealed that the Japanesesuffered a total of 2,227,200 casualties, including 1,055,000 dead and 1,172,341 injured. These numbers were

largely based on Japanese statistics.[6]

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 duringthe eight-year war.

Another source from Hilary Conroy claim that a total of 447,000 Japanese soldiers died in China during theSecond Sino-Japanese War. Of the 1,130,000 Imperial Japanese Army soldiers who died during World War II,

39 percent died in China.[83]

Then in "War Without Mercy", John Dower claim that a total of 396,000 Japanese soldiers died in China during theSecond Sino-Japanese War. Of this number, the Imperial Japanese Army lost 388,605 soldiers and the ImperialJapanese Navy lost 8,000 soldiers. Another 54,000 soldiers also died after the war had ended, mostly from illness

and starvation.[83] Of the 1,740,955 Japanese soldiers who died during World War II, 22 percent died in China.[5]

Japanese statistics, however, lack complete estimates for the wounded. From 1937 to 1941, 185,647 Japanesesoldiers were killed in China and 520,000 were wounded. Disease also incurred critical losses on Japanese forces.From 1937 to 1941, 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.[5][a]From 1941to 1945: 202,958 dead; another 54,000 dead after war's end. 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.[5][83]

Both Nationalist and Communist Chinese sources report that their respective forces were responsible for the deaths

of over 1.7 million Japanese soldiers.[7] The Communist claim, which almost equate total Japanese deaths in all ofWorld War II, was ridiculed by Nationalist authorities as propaganda since the Communist People's LiberationArmy was outnumbered by the Japanese Army by approximately 3 to 1. Nationalist War Minister He Yingqinhimself contested the claim, finding it impossible for a force of "untrained, undisciplined, poorly equipped" guerrillas

to have killed so many enemy soldiers.[84]

The National Chinese authorities ridiculed Japanese estimates of Chinese casualties. In 1940, the National Heraldstated that the Japanese exaggerated Chinese casualties, while deliberately concealing the true amount of Japanesecasualties, releasing false figures that made them appear lower. The article reports on the casualty situation of the

war up to 1940.[85][86][87]

Number of troops involved



Flag of the National Revolutionary

Army.

Chinese forces

Further information: Chinese armies in the Second Sino-Japanese War

National Revolutionary Army

Main article: National Revolutionary Army

With Chiang Kai-shek as the highest commander, the NationalRevolutionary Army (NRA) is recognized as the unified armed force ofChina during the war. Throughout its lifespan, it employed approximately4,300,000 regulars, in 370 Standard Divisions (simplified Chinese: ; traditional Chinese: ), 46 New Divisions (simplified Chinese:

; traditional Chinese: ), 12 Cavalry Divisions (simplifiedChinese: ; traditional Chinese: ), eight New CavalryDivisions (simplified Chinese: ; traditional Chinese:

), 66 Temporary Divisions (simplified Chinese: ; traditionalChinese: ), and 13 Reserve Divisions (simplified Chinese: ; traditional 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 sametime. The number of active divisions, at the start of the war in 1937, was about 170 NRA divisions. The averageNRA division had 4,0005,000 troops. A Chinese army was roughly the equivalent to a Japanese division in termsof 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 Japanesedivision. Because of these material constraints, available artillery and heavy weapons were usually assigned tospecialist brigades rather than to the general division, which caused more problems as the Chinese commandstructure lacked precise coordination. The relative fighting strength of a Chinese division was even weaker whenrelative capacity in aspects of warfare, such as intelligence, logistics, communications, and medical services, aretaken into account.

Although Chiang Kai-shek is recognized as the highest commander in name, his power on NRA was in the effectlimited. 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, struggledor allied with each other under their own interests and mutual conflicts were common. Because of this, NRA couldbe unofficially divided into 3 groups, Central Army, Regional Army and Communist forces.

Loyal to Chiang Kai-shek, the Central Army(simplified Chinese: ; traditional 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(simplified Chinese: ; traditional Chinese: ) consisted of various types of strengthsfrom all the parts of China. Before the war, these strengths governed certain places and most of them admittedChiang Kai-shek's leader position. However, they didn't really follow Chiang's command, nor receive Chiang'sassist. They generally ran independently. The notable strengths under this category included Guangxi, Shanxi,Yunnan and Ma clique.



Flag of the Imperial Japanese Army.

After Xi'an Incident, Chiang paused his invasion to Chinese Red Army led by communists. Communistsincorporated into NRA and formed Eighth Route Army and New Fourth Army of NRA. Although during the entirewar 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.[88]

The National Revolutionary Army expanded from about 1.2 million in 1937 to 5.7 million in August 1945,

organized in 300 divisions.[88]

Japanese forces

Imperial Japanese Army

Main article: Imperial Japanese Army

The Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) had approximately 3,200,000regulars. More Japanese troops were quartered in China than deployedelsewhere in the Pacific Theater during the war. Japanese divisionsranged from 20,000 men in its divisions numbered less than 100, to10,000 men in divisions numbered greater than 100.

At the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor, the IJA had 51 divisions, ofwhich 35 were in China, and 39 independent brigades, of which all butone were in China. This represented roughly 80% of the IJA'smanpower.

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

Main article: 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,[89] and reached a maximum strength of 900,000 troops before the end of the war. Almost all of thembelonged to Manchukuo, Provisional Government of the Republic of China (Beijing), Reformed Government of theRepublic 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 rarelyfielded in combat because of low morale and Japanese distrust. They fared very poorly in skirmishes against bothChinese NRA and Communist forces.

Military equipment

National Revolutionary Army

See also: Development of Chinese armoured forces (19271945), List of aircraft used in China before1937, Development of Chinese Nationalist air force (19371945) and List of World War II firearms ofChina

The Central Army possessed 80 Army infantry divisions with approximately 8,000 men each, nine independentbrigades, nine cavalry divisions, two artillery brigades, 16 artillery regiments and three armored battalions. TheChinese Navy displaced only 59,000 tonnes and the Chinese Air Force comprised only about 700 obsoleteaircraft.

For regular provincial Chinese divisions their standard rifles were the Hanyang 88 (copy of Gewehr 88). Centralarmy divisions were typically equipped with the Chiang Kai-Shek rifle (copy of Mauser Standard Model) andCzechoslovakian 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 7.92mm Brno ZB26. There were also Belgian and French light machine guns. Provincial units generally did not possessany machine guns. Central Army units had one LMG per platoon on average. German-trained divisions ideally had1 LMG per squad. Surprisingly, the NRA did not purchase any Maschinengewehr 34s from Germany, but didproduce their own copies of them. Heavy machine guns were mainly locally-made Type 24 water-cooled Maximguns, which were the Chinese copies of the German MG08, and M1917 Browning machine guns chambered forthe 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 NCOsand officers was the 7.63 mm Mauser C96 semi-automatic pistol, or full-automatic Mauser M1932/M712 machinepistol. These full-automatic versions were used as substitutes for submachine guns (such as the MP18) and riflesthat 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 andequipment as their own were in short supply. Some lite units also used Lend-Lease US equipment as the warprogressed.

Generally speaking, the regular provincial army divisions did not possess any artillery. However, some CentralArmy divisions were equipped with 37 mm PaK 35/36 anti-tank guns, and/or mortars from Oerlikon, Madsen, andSolothurn. Each infantry division had 6 French Brandt 81 mm mortars and 6 Solothurn 20 mm autocannons. Someindependent brigades and artillery regiments were equipped with Bofors 72 mm L/14, or Krupp 72 mm L/29mountain guns and there were 24 Rheinmetall 150 mm L/32 sFH 18 howitzers (bought in 1934) and 24 Krupp150 mm L/30 sFH 18 howitzers (bought in 1936). At the start of the war, the NRA and the Tax Police Regimenthad three tank battalions armed with German Panzer I light tanks and CV-33 tankettes. After defeat in the Battle ofShanghai the remaining tanks, together with several hundred T-26 and BT-5 tanks acquired from the Soviet Unionwere reorganised into the 200th Division.

Infantry uniforms were basically redesigned Zhongshan suits. Puttees were standard for soldiers and officers alikesince the primary mode of movement for NRA troops was by foot. Troops were also issued sewn field caps. Thehelmets 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, anduntil 1936, the NRA imported 315,000 of these helmets, each with the Blue Sky with a White Sun emblem of theROC on the sides. These helmets were worn by both elite German-trained divisions and regular Central Armydivisions. Other helmets include the Adrian helmet, Brodie helmet and later M1 helmet. Other equipment includedstraw shoes for soldiers (cloth shoes for Central Army), leather shoes for officers and leather boots for high-rankingofficers. Every soldier was issued ammunition, ammunition pouches or harness, a water flask, combat knives, foodbag, and a gas mask.

On the other hand, warlord forces varied greatly in terms of equipment and training. Some warlord troops werenotoriously under-equipped, such as Shanxi's Dadao (Chinese: , a one-edged sword type close combatweapon) Team and the Yunnan clique. Some, however, were highly professional forces with their own air force andnavies. The quality of the New Guangxi clique was almost on par with the Central Army, as the Guangzhou regionwas wealthy and the local army could afford foreign instructors and arms. The Muslim Ma clique to the northwestwas famed for its well-trained cavalry divisions.


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

during the Second Sino-Japanese War

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

Major figures

Chinese Nationalists

Bai Chongxi ()

Chen Cheng (, )

Chiang Kai-Shek (, )

Du Yuming ()

Fang Xianjue (, )

Feng Yuxiang (, )

Fu Zuoyi (, )

Gu Zhutong (, )

He Yingqin (, )

Chinese Communists

Chen Yi (, )

Deng Xiaoping ( / )

He Long ( / )

Lin Biao ()

Liu Bocheng ( / )

Liu Shaoqi ( / )

Luo Ronghuan ( / )

Mao Zedong ( / )

Nie Rongzhen ( / )



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 (, )

Peng Dehuai ( / )

Su Yu ()

Xu Xiangqian ()

Ye Jianying ( / )

Ye Ting ( / )

Zhang Aiping ( / )

Zhou Enlai ( / )

Zhu De ()

Foreigners supporting China

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

Kim Gu

Vasily Chuikov

Rewi Alley

Kaji Wataru

Sanzo Nosaka


Shwa Emperor () Hirohito ()

Nobuyuki Abe ( )

Korechika Anami ( )

Prince Asaka Yasuhiko ()

Chinese collaborators supportingJapan

Manchukuo

Puyi

Mengjiang



Prince Chichibu Yasuhito ()

Kenji Doihara ( )

Prince Fushimi Hiroyasu ()

Kingoro Hashimoto ( )

Shunroku Hata ( )

Prince Higashikuni Naruhiko ( )

Masaharu Honma ( )

Shiro Ishii ( )

Rensuke Isogai ( )

Seishir Itagaki ( )

Prince Kan'in Kotohito ( )

Konoe Fumimaro (Kyjitai: , Shinjitai:

)

Kanji Ishiwara ( )

Kuniaki Koiso ( , )

Iwane Matsui ( )

Renya Mutaguchi ( )

Kesago Nakajima ( )

Toshiz Nishio ( , )

Yasuji Okamura ( )

Takashi Sakai ( )

Hajime Sugiyama ( )

Prince Takeda Tsuneyoshi ( )

Hisaichi Terauchi ( , )

Hideki Tojo (Kyjitai: , Shinjitai:

)

Yoshijir Umezu ( )

Tamon Yamaguchi ( )

Tomoyuki Yamashita ( )

Demchugdongrub

East Hebei Autonomous Council

Yin Ju-keng ()

Provisional Government of the Republic

of China

Wang Kemin ()

Reformed Government of the Republic of

China

Liang Hongzhi ( / )

Nanjing Nationalist Government

Chen Gongbo ( / )

Wang Jingwei ( / )

Zhou Fohai ()

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 the1942 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 (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

Bat

Documents

Second Sino-Japanese War