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.
#2:
Taierzhuang (March 24 – April 7, 1938)
1937
ended with a string of major Japanese victories, as well as a string of
atrocities such as the infamous Rape of Nanking. Pressing their advantage, the invaders
targeted the old stone town of Taierzhuang. The Chinese took advantage of the town’s
ancient walls and brick buildings to form a stout defense. Following a
devastating air bombardment, the Japanese tanks and infantry closed in. The
Nationalist and invading soldiers locked up in house-to-house fighting. Tear gas was utilized to slowly
push the defenders back.[4]
General Li Zongren intentionally drew the Japanese in, using timely
reinforcements to hit them with an encircling attack.[5]
The Japanese withdrew with massive losses (about 30 tanks were lost, many to
suicide bombers)[6]
and the Chinese earned their first major victory of the war. It was now certain
this would be no negotiated short war. This was a problematic realization for
Japan, which would be strained to the limit in attempting to subdue its much
larger and more populous neighbor.
#3:
1st Changsha (September 14 – October 13, 1939)
Changsha,
a major city and the gateway to the Nationalists’ main food supply in southern
China, was the site of four battles. The first is remembered for two things. It
was the first battle fought after the start of the war in Europe. In fact the
Sino-Japanese War would be ignored by the West as it focused on Hitler’s
aggression in Europe. Secondly Changsha was the first city to successfully hold
out against a major Japanese offensive. The Japanese sent 100,000 men against
350,000 opponents. Aware of his superior numbers, General Xue Yue unleashed a
series of massive and costly counter-attacks into the Japanese front and flanks.[7]
The victory was tremendous. The Japanese were pushed out of much of their previously
conquered territory. The Chinese were even able to hit one of their naval
ports. Both sides lost about 40,000 men, though the Japanese suffered more in
proportion.[8]
#4:
Kunlun Pass (December 18, 1939 – January 11, 1940)
At
the end of December the Japanese launched an offensive into Guangxi Province
with the intent of cutting off the Nationalists’ supply lines to French
Indochina as well as threatening their current capital of Chungking. Initially
the Japanese made considerable gains, taking the town of Nanning and Kunlun
Pass. Chiang sent Du Yuming’s 5th corps, the only armored unit in
the Chinese Army, to retake the pass. It successfully cut off the Japanese
frontal positions. In the following days the pass changed hands several times.[9]
During this fighting the Japanese commander was killed. The Japanese were
unable to make any further progress and abandoned the operation, though still
in possession of some of their gains. However, they would eventually take
advantage of French defeats in Europe to seize Indochina directly, putting the
Chinese in a serious logistical nightmare.[10]
#5:
Hundred Regiments Offensive (August 20 – December 5, 1940)
The
Nationalists fought the bulk of the major battles. Mao’s Communists preferred a
defensive guerilla warfare stance, but were willing to take on a few major
operations themselves. The most famous of these is the Hundred Regiments
Offensive, a series of scattered battles and sabotage operations. By 1940 the
Communists had a massive force in North China. The Nationalists criticized them
for failing to take significant action against the Japanese, letting them take
the brunt of casualties instead. In response the main Communist general, Peng
Duhai, launched a massive 400,000 man offensive against Japanese bases in North
China.[11] Peng
first targeted railroads and bridges, wrecking Japanese communications and
logistics. Then he directly attacked installations, including a coal mine that
played a large part in sustaining the Japanese war effort. The Japanese finally
mounted a counter-offensive starting in October and pushed the Communists back
to their starting positions. Peng had successfully harassed the Japanese and
strained their resources. Mao later repaid him with execution during the
Cultural Revolution. The justification for this act was that Peng had revealed
and wasted Communist strength, hampering efforts when the civil war resumed.[12]
#6:
Zhejiang-Jiangxi (May 15 – September 4, 1942)
This
campaign was also a punitive expedition. Zhejiang Province lay along China’s
eastern coastline, and was where Doolittle’s bombers bailed after bombing
Tokyo. The Japanese, irate at the attack on their homeland, launched an 180,000
man offensive. Their military objectives were the airfields. The Chinese force
in this area was of poor quality and soundly beaten. The real victims were the
civilians. Any civilian, or entire village, suspected of harboring one of
Doolittle’s pilots was executed, often after rape and torture. Scientists from
Unit 731, the infamous biological research station, used the cover of the campaign
to test out the various pathogens and diseases they had cooked up in their
labs. These were carried through tainted food and infected fleas (thousands of
Japanese soldiers were accidentally infected as well).[13],[14]
An estimated 250,000 civilians lost their lives. The commanding Japanese
General, Shunroku Hata, was later sentenced to life imprisonment for the
biological warfare committed under his watch, Like many Japanese war criminals he got an early release from prison.[15]
#7:
4th Changsha (May –June 18 1944)
In
April of 1944 the Japanese launched Operation Ichi-Go. It was the largest
Japanese offensive of the war. The goal was to establish a strong link between
occupied portions of China and Indochina while depriving American bombers of
their air bases. Many of these bases were stationed around the city of Changsha,
and from them the Americans had successfully harassed Japanese targets in
China, Formosa (Taiwan), and Japan itself. Learning from their three previous Changsha
failures, the Japanese assembled their largest force yet of 360,000 men, giving
them near parity with Chinese forces. The Chinese themselves were weakened by
years of corruption, logistical failures, and the diversion of many of its best
troops to the Burma campaign in South Asia. Rather than attacking the city
head-on, the Japanese took out and captured Chinese positions around the city.
This successfully cut off aid to Changsha and left it vulnerable.
Controversially, Chinese General Zhang Deneng abandoned his post and prompted a
disorganized withdrawal, placing the important city in enemy hands without a
proper fight.[16]
Casualties were enormous for both sides, the Chinese losing near 90,000 and the
Japanese over 60,000.
#8:
Henyang (June 22 – August 8, 1944)
After taking Changsha, the Japanese rolled on towards Henyang. By this point Chinese forces were spread thin while the Japanese were amassing their largest forces. 17,000 Chinese under General Fang Xianjue had to hold out against 110,000 Japanese. It proved to be one of the great defensive stands of World War II. The Japanese commander promised to take the city in two days. Instead it turned into a weeks-long battle. By July the dogged Chinese were running low on ammunition and primarily fought with hand grenades. The Japanese themselves were desperate. Running low on ladders, they used piles of dead soldiers to climb the defensive cliffs around Henyang. Eventually the Chinese surrendered, but the Japanese expended much fuel and ammunition.[17] The long battle had such an effect on Japanese morale back home, combined with military disasters in the Central Pacific, that Hideki Tojo’s war cabinet was removed from power.[18] Aside from Henyang, Operation Ichi-Go was a large tactical success. It successfully removed American air bases and linked Japanese forces from northern China to Indochina. However, American victories in the Pacific rendered many of Operation Ichi-Go’s successes moot as they acquired islands within striking distance of Japan. On the Chinese front, the failure of the Nationalists to halt Operation Ichi-Go led to disillusionment with Chiang’s government. This would in turn bolster civilian support for Mao’s communists in the coming years.[19]
#9:
Mount Song (June 4 – September 7, 1944)
The
Battle of Mount Song was actually part of the Burma Campaign. Chinese forces in
the region were operating to liberate their southern neighbor and reopen land
supply lines. Since seizing the area in 1942, the Japanese had turned Mount
Song into a fortress, building extensive tunnels and bunkers. The Chinese quickly
surrounded the mountain, but found themselves bogged down in a three month
siege. In terms of numbers the battle was comparatively small, with 20,000
Chinese assaulting 1,300 Japanese defenders. Frontal attacks on the defenses
were thrown back. The Chinese then dug trenches towards the enemy
fortifications, hoping to get in range for a more successful assault. They were
still unable to take the mountain and resorted to digging tunnels. Digging past
the Japanese tunnels, they used American-provided TNT to blow up the mountain
from inside. This enabled them to get inside, where fighting continued for
weeks more. At the end, with the Japanese garrison almost entirely wiped out,
the Burma Road was open for business.[20],[21]
#10:
West Hunan (April 6 – June 9, 1945)
Even
in the last months of the war the Japanese continued to launch offensives on
the Chinese mainland. The last significant one was carried into West Hunan. At first
the attacking force drove off weak Chinese resistance, but then it reached the
mountains. The well positioned Nationalist forces used mortar fire to bring the
offensive to a halt. Also by this point the Chinese finally had air superiority
thanks to the Americans. The Japanese could only move safely under the cover of
darkness. The Chinese counterattack, supported by extensive partisan activity,
drove the Japanese far back, even further then their starting positions. The
Nationalist Army, finally backed by overland supply routes from South Asia, was
at this point starting to win a lot more battles. Japan was losing significant
ground in China. Chinese and American commanders considered a major offensive
towards east China’s coast, but the following month Japan surrendered after
atomic bombs hit the home islands and the Soviet Union invaded their colony in
Manchuria.[22],[23]
[1] Peter Harmsen, Shanghai 1937: Stalingrad on the Yangtze,
(Casemate Publishers, 2013), 75-78, 122-124.
[2] Harmsen, 2013, 221-223.
[3] Chen, Peter C., “Second Battle
of Shanghai,” https://ww2db.com/battle_spec.php?battle_id=85
[4] Rana Mitter, Forgotten Ally: China’s World War II,
1937-1945, (Mariner Books, 2013), 151-153.
[5] Peter Harmsen, War in the Far East: Storm Clouds over the
Pacific, 1931-.1941, (Casemate Publishers: 2018),72
[6] Schaedler, L., http://www.zora.uzh.ch/17710/3/Angry_Monk_Dissertation.pdf,
518.
[7] Harmsen, 2018, 103.
[8] Michael Neiberg, https://www.historynet.com/controlling-changsha-controlling-china.htm
[9] Dick Wilson, When Tigers Fight: The Story of the Sino-Japanese
War, 193-1945, (New York: Viking Press, 1982), 163-164.
[11] Van Slyke, Lyman P. van Slyke,
"The Battle of the Hundred Regiments: Problems of Coordination and Control
during the Sino-Japanese War," (Modern Asian Studies 30, no. 4,
1996), 984, 1001.
[12] Tetsuya Kataoka, Resistance and Revolution in China: The Communists
and the Second United Front, (Berkeley: University of California Press,
1974), 130-131.
[13] James Scott, “The Untold Story
of the Vengeful Japanese Attack After the Doolittle Raid,” https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/untold-story-vengeful-japanese-attack-doolittle-raid-180955001/
[14] Tsuneishi Keiichi, “Unit 731 and
the Japanese Imperial Army’s Biological Warfare Program” in Japan's Wartime Medical Atrocities : Comparative Inquiries in Science,
History, and Ethics, (London: Taylor & Francis Group, 2010 ), 28.
[15]“Hata Shunroku (1879-1962)” http://pwencycl.kgbudge.com/H/a/Hata_Shunroku.htm
[17] Wilson, 239-240.
[19] Mitter, 324-326.
[20] Montsma, Lieuwe, “Songshan and
the 1944 Battle for Huitong Bridge,” https://www.gokunming.com/en/blog/item/3029/songshan-and-the-1944-battle-for-huitong-bridge
[21] Wilson, 228.
[22] Wilson, 248-249.
[23] Philip Jowett. China and Japan at War, 1937–1945: Rare
Photographs From Wartime Archives, (Havertown: Pen & Sword Books, 2016),
235.
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