The
Second Sino-Japanese War was one of the
largest yet overlooked fronts of World War II. In this theatre of war Chiang
Kai-Shek’s Nationalist government forces and Mao Tse-Tung’s Communists forged
an uneasy alliance to stave off Japanese conquest. After victory was achieved,
they quickly turned on each other. Though it was the first theatre of war to
open up, predating Nazi Germany’s attack on Poland by two years, little has
been written about it beyond the opening phases. Many sources and documents
were destroyed by the upheaval of the continuing Chinese Civil War and then
Mao’s Cultural Revolution. Information from Chinese or Taiwanese scholars are
often heavily slanted in favor of the Communist or Nationalist causes or simply
difficult to translate, while Japan’s presentation of its role in World War II
is often purposefully hazy. Here are ten battles from an often ignored front of
World War II, a couple fairly well-known and the others not so much.
#1:
Shanghai (August 13 – November 26, 1937)
Shanghai was a major world economic center with thousands of foreign residents. It was therefore a natural target for Japanese military planners, who hoped to end the war with one swift blow. Chiang Kai-Shek also hoped to end the war soon. Thus both sides continuously funneled reinforcements into a desperate bid for quick victory. The battle itself largely took place within the city itself, resulting in furious and confusing building-to-building fighting. Ironically many Chinese units were led into battle by their German advisers (Germany was already under Nazi control and was turning towards an alliance with Japan).[1] The battle was a grueling stalemate, the Chinese using their numerical advantage to counter Japan’s advantage in aircraft and tanks. This changed in mid-November when the Japanese 10th Army arrived and made a major breakthrough with an amphibious operation.[2] The Chinese army was sent retreating towards Nanking. China had lost much of its industrial base as well as many of its best units. However, it displayed a newfound determination to resist decades of Japanese aggression. The Chinese lost over 250,000 out of 750,000 men while the Japanese lost about 40-60,000 out of 300,000.[3] The latter army would soon seize Nanking and commit one of the greatest atrocities of the 20th Century.
