China losses during WWII

[DavidFrankenberg]

Hi,

i wonder how many men died in China during wwii ? Sometimes you heard 10 millions, but i have memories about 50 millions told by chinese sources...

[SVaaka]

Only God knows, cause Communists were killing so much own people - same thing in Russia - neat arrangement during war kill everybody you will and after the war blame the enamy.

[The 51st Division]

cause Communists were killing so much own people

Nah the Nationalist government as well. China back then was a gigantic mess. Communists, Nationalists, local warlords, they all weren't that nice to the common folks. Forced conscription was commonplace, conditions in most Chinese militrary units (except the elite "Central Army") were horrendous, and there were multiple famines (I recommend the Chinese movie Back to 1942, a touching depiction of the 1942 Henan Famine). In 1938, to stop the Japanese advance, the Nationalist government even blew up the Yellow River embankment at Huayuankou, creating the 1938 Yellow River Flood. The flood stopped the Japanese (for a while), but also killed half a million Chinese civilians and created about 3-5 million refugees. Believe it or not, but of all the different players in the war, I'd say the Communists was probably the most humanitarian (obviously the timescope is only limited pre-1949)...

It was a brutal war indeed.