Chapter 3 Chinese Armies in the Second Sino-Japanese War

159 Pages·2012·13.72 MB·English

Revised Edition: 2016
ISBN 978-1-280-19830-4
© All rights reserved.
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Table of Contents

Chapter 1 - Second Sino-Japanese War
Chapter 2 - Sino-German Cooperation (1911–1941)
Chapter 3 - Chinese Armies in the Second Sino-Japanese War
Chapter 4 - Japanese War Crimes
Chapter 5 - Introduction to Attack on Pearl Harbor
Chapter 6 - Events Leading to the Attack on Pearl Harbor
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Chapter 7 - Infamy Speech
Chapter 8 - Results of the Attack on Pearl Harbor
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Chapter 1
Second Sino-Japanese War

The Second Sino-Japanese War (July 7, 1937 – September 9, 1945) was a military conflict
fought primarily between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. From 1937 to 1941,
China fought Japan with some economic help from Germany, the Soviet Union (1937–1940) and
the United States. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor (1941), the war merged into the
greater conflict of World War II as a major front of what is broadly known as the Pacific War.
The Second Sino-Japanese War was the largest Asian war in the 20th century. It also made up
more than 50% of the casualties in the Pacific War if the 1937–1941 period is taken into account.
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Although the two countries had fought intermittently since 1931, total war started in earnest in
1937 and ended only with the surrender of Japan in 1945. The war was the result of a decades-
long Japanese imperialist policy aiming to dominate China politically and militarily and to
secure its vast raw material reserves and other economic resources, particularly food and labour.
Before 1937, China and Japan fought in small, localized engagements, so-called "incidents". Yet
the two sides, for a variety of reasons, refrained from fighting a total war. In 1931, the Japanese
invasion of Manchuria by Japan's Kwantung Army followed the Mukden Incident. The last of
these incidents was the Marco Polo Bridge Incident of 1937, marking the beginning of total war
between the two countries.
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Nomenclature
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Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, Allied Commander-in-Chief in the China theatre from 1942–1945
In the Chinese language, the war is most commonly known as the War of Resistance Against
Japan (simplified Chinese: 抗日战争; traditional Chinese: 抗日戰爭), and also known as the
Eight Years' War of Resistance(八年抗战/八年抗戰), simply War of Resistance (抗战/抗戰), or
Second Sino-Japanese War (第二次中日战争/第二次中日戰爭).
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The Name
In Japan, the name "Japan–China War" (日中戰爭 Nitchū Sensō?) is most commonly used
because of its perceived objectivity. In Japan today, it is written as 日中戦争 in shinjitai. When
the invasion of China proper began in earnest in July 1937 near Beijing, the government of Japan
used "The North China Incident" (華北事變 Kahoku Jihen?), and with the outbreak of the Battle
of Shanghai the following month, it was changed to "The China Incident" (支那事變 Shina
Jihen?).
The word "incident" (事變 jihen?) was used by Japan, as neither country had made a formal
declaration of war. Japan wanted to avoid intervention by other countries, particularly the United
Kingdom and the United States, which were her primary source of petroleum; the United States
was also her biggest supplier of steel. US President Franklin D. Roosevelt would have been
legally obliged to impose an embargo on Japan in observance of the US Neutrality Acts had the
fighting been formally escalated to "general war".
Other Names
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In Japanese propaganda however, the invasion of China became a "holy war" (seisen), the first
step of the Hakkō ichiu (八紘一宇?, eight corners of the world under one roof). In 1940,
Japanese Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe launched the Taisei Yokusankai. When both sides
formally declared war in December 1941, the name was replaced by "Greater East Asia War"
(大東亞戰爭 Daitōa Sensō?).
Although the Japanese government still uses the term "China Incident" in formal documents,
because the word Shina is considered a derogatory word by China, the media in Japan often
paraphrase with other expressions like "The Japan–China Incident" (日華事變 Nikka Jihen?,
日支事變 Nisshi Jihen), which were used by media even in the 1930s.
In addition, the name "Second Sino-Japanese War" is not usually used in Japan, as the First Sino-
Japanese War (日清戦争 Nisshin–Sensō?) between Japan and the Qing Dynasty in 1894 is not
regarded to have obvious direct linkage to the second, 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
1894–95, in which China, then under the Qing Dynasty, was defeated by Japan and was forced to
cede Taiwan to it, and to recognize the independence of Korea in the Treaty of Shimonoseki. The
Qing Dynasty was on the brink of collapse from internal revolts and foreign imperialism, while
Japan had emerged as a great power through its effective measures of modernization.

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The Republic of China
The Republic of China was founded in 1912, following the Xinhai Revolution which overthrew
the Qing Dynasty. However, the nascent Republic was even weaker than its predecessor due to
the predominance of Chinese warlords. Unifying the nation and repelling imperialism seemed a
very remote possibility. Some warlords even aligned themselves with various foreign powers in
an effort to wipe each other out. For example, the warlord Zhang Zuolin of Manchuria openly
cooperated with the Japanese for military and economic assistance.
Twenty-One Demands
In 1915, Japan issued the Twenty-One Demands to extort further political and commercial
privilege from China. Following World War I, Japan acquired the German Empire's sphere of
influence in Shandong (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. To unite China and eradicate regional warlords, the Kuo-
mintang (KMT, or Chinese Nationalist Party) in Guangzhou launched the Northern Expedition
of 1926–28.
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Jinan Incident
The Kuomintang's National Revolutionary Army (NRA) swept through China until it was
checked in Shandong, where Beiyang warlord Zhang Zongchang, backed by the Japanese,
attempted to stop the NRA's advance. This battle culminated in the Jinan Incident of 1928 in
which the National Revolutionary Army and the Imperial Japanese Army were engaged in a
short conflict that resulted in Kuomintang's withdrawal from Jinan.
Zhang Zuolin and Chiang Kai Shek
In the same year, Zhang Zuolin was assassinated when he became less willing to cooperate with
Japan. Afterwards Zhang's son Zhang Xueliang quickly took over control of Manchuria, and
despite strong Japanese lobbying efforts to continue the resistance against the KMT, he shortly
declared his allegiance to the Kuomintang government under Chiang Kai-shek, which resulted in
the nominal unification of China at the end of 1928.
Communist Party of China
However in 1930, a large scale civil war broke out between warlords who fought in alliance with
Kuomintang during the Northern Expedition and central government under Chiang. In addition,
the Chinese Communists (CCP, or Communist Party of China) revolted against the central
government following a purge of its members by the KMT in 1927. Therefore the Chinese
central government diverted much attention into fighting these civil wars and followed a policy
of "first internal pacification before external resistance"((Chinese): 攘外必先安内).

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Course of the war
Invasion of Manchuria, interventions in China
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Kwantung Army entering Shenyang during the Mukden Incident

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.
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The situation in China provided an easy opportunity for Japan to further its goals. Japan saw
Manchuria as a limitless supply of raw materials, a market for her manufactured goods (now
excluded from many Western countries by Depression era tariffs), and as a protective buffer state
against the Soviet Union in Siberia. Japan invaded Manchuria outright after the Mukden Incident
(九一八事變) in September 1931. After five months of fighting, the puppet state of Manchukuo
was established in 1932, with the last emperor of China, Puyi, installed as a puppet ruler.
Militarily too weak to directly challenge Japan, China appealed to the League of Nations for
help. The League's investigation was published as the Lytton Report, condemning Japan for its
incursion into Manchuria, and causing Japan to withdraw from the League of Nations entirely.
Appeasement being the predominant 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
short war in the January 28 Incident. This battle resulted in the demilitarisation of Shanghai,
which forbade the Chinese from deploying troops in their own city. In Manchukuo there was an
ongoing campaign to defeat the anti-Japanese volunteer armies that 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
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aftermath, giving Japan control of Rehe province as well as a demilitarized zone between the
Great Wall and Beiping-Tianjin region. Here the Japanese aim was to create another buffer
region, this time between Manchukuo and the Chinese Nationalist government in Nanjing.
Japan increasingly used internal conflict in China to reduce the strength of her fractious
opponents. This was precipitated by the fact that even years after the Northern Expedition, the
political power of the Nationalist government was limited to just the area of the Yangtze River
Delta. Other sections of China were essentially in the hands of local Chinese warlords. Japan
sought various Chinese collaborators and helped them establish governments friendly to Japan.
This policy was called the Specialization of North China (Chinese: 華北特殊化; pinyin:
húaběitèshūhùa), more commonly known as the North China Autonomous Movement. The
northern provinces affected by this policy were Chahar, Suiyuan, Hebei, Shanxi, and Shandong.
This Japanese policy was most effective in the area of what is now Inner Mongolia and Hebei. In
1935, under Japanese pressure, China signed the He–Umezu Agreement, which forbade the
KMT from conducting party operations in Hebei. In the same year, the Chin–Doihara Agreement
was signed expelling the KMT from Chahar. Thus, by the end of 1935 the Chinese government
had essentially abandoned northern China. In its place, the Japanese-backed East Hebei
Autonomous Council and the Hebei–Chahar Political Council were established. There in the
empty space of Chahar the Mongol Military Government (蒙古軍政府) was formed on May 12,
1936, Japan providing all necessary military and economic aid. Afterwards Chinese volunteer
forces continued to resist Japanese aggression in Manchuria, and Chahar and Suiyuan.
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Full scale invasion of China
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Casualties of a mass panic during a June 1941 Japanese bombing of Chongqing. More than 5000 civilians
died during the first two days of air raids in 1939
Most historians place the beginning of the Second Sino-Japanese War on July 7, 1937 at the
Marco Polo Bridge Incident, when a crucial access point to Beijing was assaulted by the Imperial
Japanese Army (IJA). Because the Chinese defenders were the poorly equipped infantry
divisions of the former Northwest Army, the Japanese easily captured Beiping and Tianjin.
The Imperial General Headquarters (GHQ) in Tokyo were initially reluctant to escalate the
conflict into full scale war, being content with the victories achieved in northern China following
the Marco Polo Bridge Incident. However, the KMT central government determined that the
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