The Second Sino-Japanese War

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Berichter
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The Second Sino-Japanese War

#1

Post by Berichter » 01 Jun 2004, 13:52

I remember reading that the Japanese considered China to be their main theater of operations. I was wondering: what was the nature of Japanese operations in China once the war expanded in 1941? Did the front in China remain fixed and minor offensives of limited scope mounted, or was it still a fluid environment with major maneuvers? Did Japan ever come close to defeating Chang Kai-shek?

Cordially,

Berichter

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Mait
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#2

Post by Mait » 02 Jun 2004, 19:40

Japanese Army mounted some larger and quite successfull operations (Ichigo) in 1944 and the beginning of 1945. In 1941-43 the theater was "quite" passive and Japanese minor assaults were not very successful.

Best Regards,

Mait.


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#3

Post by daveh » 03 Jun 2004, 21:25

By the end of 1941 the Japanese had severed all sea links between China and the rest of the world. The advance into Burma cut the road access (leading to the construction of the Ledo road and the development of the "Hump" air supply route).

When the Japanese launched its attacks into the Pacific the Japanese forces were too stretched to continue any major operations in China. Given this situation the Japanese strategy in China was basically defensive, the only offensives being designed to clear lines of communication and as spoiling attacks. For example a big offensive was launched to improve the link between the Yellow river and Yangtze Valley in April 1944. In August 1944 a large scale offensive was launched to clear air bases used by US B29s.

The Japanese could concentrate sufficient forces to successfully undertake offensive operations should they wish too. However in general there were few reasons to do so. They were not able to concentrate sufficient forces to completely defat the Chinese. The Chinese could fight well and were successful in both offensive and defensive fighting on occasions. However these successes were strategically very limited and had little overall affect on the Japanese. Hence in general China became a backwater. The August 1944 offensive was undertaken because the air bases attacked could be used to directly attack the Japanese homeland

Did Japan ever come close to defeating Chang Kai-shek? Not really, China was too big to fully occupy, especially once the Japanese turned to operations in the Pacific.

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#4

Post by Goldfish » 09 Jun 2004, 07:50

By 1940, Japan had destroyed many of China's best divisions and secured control over China's economic heartland as well as most access to military aid. However, the Japanese lacked the numbers and logistics to fully occupy all of China despite the fact that they could still move at will within the country.
Japan then tried alternate methods to direct conquest of China. A puppet "Nationalist" regime was created in Nanjing and led by Wang Jingwei, one of Sun Yat-sen's closest followers and a rival of Chiang Kai-shek. This regime then tried to recruit the provincial "governors" (many of them warlords) with a combination of promises of autonomy and access to trade with Japanese-occupied territory and the rest of the world. The Japanese also maximized the existing rivalries within China to keep the Chinese from unifying against them. At the same time, the Japanese pressured foreign governments to cut ties with Chiang's regime and recognize their puppet regimes.
However, the Japanese continued launching low-intensity operations against Nationalist territory. They would regularly launch raids into southeast China to steal the rice crop following harvest. They also launched terror raids on China's major cities.
After Pearl Harbor, Japan tried to limit activity in China, hoping to win in China by winning elsewhere. However, American air units, first the American Volunteer Group and then regular USAAF units, limited Japanese air activity over China's major cities and were beginning to interfere with Japanese lines of communication. The entrance of America and Britain into the war also meant that the Chinese Army would now have access, through Burma, to new weapons, training, and other military aid.
Burma's loss and the subsequent squeeze on supplies caused major divisions among Allied commanders in the new CBI theater that bought the Japanese time. By the end of 1943, though, the Allied effort was making itself felt. The Chinese Army in India (CAI), well-trained and equipped, began pushing across North Burma, defeating the veteran Japanese 18th Division (the conquerors of Singapore). In China, the 14th Air Force was disrupting Japanese supply lines and attacking targets in Taiwan, Indo-China and the South China Sea. The most ominous threat, however, were the preparations for the new B-29's capable of reaching Japan from bases in China.
The Japanese had to react to these threats. In Burma, the Japanese would attack into India, cutting the "Hump" supply line to China and possibly knocking India out of the war. In China, they would overrun the American airfields in East China.
The Japanese offensive in India was disasterous and, coupled with the Allied offensive in North Burma, led to a widening of the supply lines to China. However, the offensive in China (codenamed ICHIGO), was an astonishing success and the last successful offensive the Japanese would launch. The Japanese overran the airfields and very nearly shattered the Nationalist control of China. It also sewed permanent distrust between Nationalist China and the US that carried on into the Civil War and beyond.
1945 would have been the turning point in China. The widening of China's supply lines through Burma caused training and supplying of the Chinese Army to increase rapidly. This, plus the return to China of the veteran divisions of the CAI and the withdrawal of veteran Japanese divisions to the Pacific, shifted the balance of power in China. Japanese puppet troops deserted, morale among Nationalist troops increased, and guerilla activity, Nationalist and Communist, grew rapidly. When Japanese troops launched diversionary attacks to support their withdrawal to North China and the lower Yangtze valley, the attacks were quickly contained and repulsed. Chinese armies were in the opening stages of an offensive towards Ft. Bayard (near Hainan) when the war ended.
The Japanese came closest to unseating Chiang during the ICHIGO offensive. This was primarily the result of Japanese Intelligence, not just military action. The Japanese convinced many of the warlord "governors" in the path of ICHIGO to move out of the way of their armies by telling them that their main objective was the American airfields, not their power bases. The Japanese then spread rumors that they had made the same deal with Chiang, leading to considerable American distrust and talk of attempts to overthrow Chiang's regimes by an alliance of southwestern warlords. These warlords then tried to get American support for their plan. The Japanese had also planted rumors in Chungking that the Americans, led by CBI commander Joseph Stilwell, planned to kill Chiang and take control of China. The combination of all this led to confusion and considerable mistrust and contributed greatly to the success of the Japanese offensive. However, cooler heads eventually prevailed. The Americans replaced the controversial Stilwell and reorganized the theater. Chiang was able to make peace with the warlords and was greatly aided in this by the Japanese defeats in Burma and a halt to Japanese operations as ICHIGO reached the limit of its supply line.
Yours Truly,
Goldfish

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DrG
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#5

Post by DrG » 09 Jun 2004, 15:33

Thank you Goldfish for your info, and welcome to this forum. :)
Do you know more details about the Chinese troops fighting for the Nanjing Govern? And, did troops of Inner Mongolia (ruled by prince Deh) ever fight along with the Japanese?

PS I've found this useful page: http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~asiactr/sino-japanese; there are commented bibliographies of texts, in English, Japanese and Chinese, about the 2nd Sino-Japanese War, and the summaries of some conferences about it.

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#6

Post by Goldfish » 12 Jun 2004, 08:27

Thanks for the welcome!
When you say the Nanjing regime, do you mean Chiang Kai-shek's regime, which had Nanjing as its capital from 1927-37 and from 1945-49, or the Wang Jingwei puppet regime ("Reformed Government") with Nanjing as its capital from 1938-45? Wang's government was formed in 1938 as one of three Japanese puppet governments, excluding Manchukuo, in China. The others were the "Provisional Government" in Beijing (1937) and Inner Mongolia (1935). This was part of Japan's plan to divide China into smaller administrative pieces and to keep the Chinese divided (the British in India and the French in Indochina did the same thing). In 1940, however, all of these regimes were placed under Wang's regime.
These troops were never fully trusted by the Japanese and were mainly used for security details and operations against the communist guerillas in north China. I don't think they were ever very well equipped or trained, but there may have been exceptions.
I don't have much more info than that right now. Phillip Jowett has written a book for the Osprey Men-At-Arms series ("Chinese Civil War Armies 1911-49") that has some info, but not much detail. He has another book coming out soon called "Rays of the Rising Sun: Japan's Asian Allies 1931-45, China and Manchukuo" that should have a lot more detail. I also have a great, well-illustrated Japanese book on the war in China that has a lot of photos of puppet troops. I will try to get the amazon.co.jp link for you.

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DrG
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#7

Post by DrG » 13 Jun 2004, 00:21

Goldfish, thank you for the info. :) I was meaning Wang Jingwei's govern when I wrote "Nanjing Govern". But I'm rather confused by this passage of your explanation: "In 1940, however, all of these regimes were placed under Wang's regime.". In fact, as far as I know, while the Provisional Government of Peking was put under Wang Jingwei's authority in 1940, Inner Mongolia was still independent under its own govern of Prince Teh till the end of the war. I've an Italian atlas of 1942 and a yearbook of 1943 showing it still as an indipendent state. :? (if anybody is interested I can post a couple of maps)
Many thanks for the books that you have suggested, I'll try to find a copy of "Rays of the Rising Sun" when avaible, while I fear it will be impossible for me to find that well illustrated Japanese book in Italy, but I will appreciate a link to amazon.co.jp if possible.
Last edited by DrG on 14 Jun 2004, 01:23, edited 1 time in total.

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Mait
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#8

Post by Mait » 13 Jun 2004, 10:38

I would really appreciate the maps. Could You please post them?

Also, if You have more information about Prince Deh and the Inner Mongolia government, could You post that also? Some time ago I asked about it in a thread about Japanese puppet regimes, but did not get much data about this one.

Best Regards,

Mait.

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DrG
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#9

Post by DrG » 13 Jun 2004, 21:49

I haven't many info about Inner Mongolia (Mengjiang, Meng Kiang), in my books there are only statistical data and a few political info.
You can find info here:
Joint Study of the Sino-Japanese War: Minutes from the June 2002 Conference. Panel 9: Mongolia and Taiwan
http://flagspot.net/flags/cn-inmon.html
About Prince De (or Teh, or De Wang, etc.)
Demchugdongrub
Photos of De Wang:
Demchegdongrov

Prince Teh in Tokyo, 1941
Interview to Prince Teh Wang by Gareth Jones, 14 July 1935
This book is about the travel of Gareth Jones in Far East in 1934-35, there is also a chapter about Inner Mongolia (where he was killed in 1935): http://colley.co.uk/garethjones/manchuk ... ntents.htm.

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DrG
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#10

Post by DrG » 13 Jun 2004, 22:14

My two sources about Inner Mongolia differ about the south-western border of that state. In fact the "Calendario Atlante De Agostini" describes Inner Mongolia as formed by these ex-Chinese provinces: Sui Yuan, Chahar, district of Tatung (formerly part of northern Shansi). Area: 587,000 sq.km, population: 5,800,000 (of them: 600,000 Mongols and 5,200,000 Chinese).
As you can see from this map, the south-western of Meng Kiang (Mengjiang, Inner Mongolia) border is along the Great Wall:
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DrG
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#11

Post by DrG » 13 Jun 2004, 22:20

Instead, according to the atlas of 1942 "L'Europa e il mondo attraverso due guerre. Atlante storico-dimostrativo", Meng Chiang (Mengjiang) had an area of 436,800 sq.km and a population of 5,400,000. Its south-western border of was the Yellow River.
Do you know which atlas is right? :?
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#12

Post by DrG » 13 Jun 2004, 22:33

This is a map of China at the beginnig of 1942, the yellow area is under the control of the Nanking Govern of Wang Jingwei, the pink/brown are under direct Japanese control (as you can see, the southern Chinese ports and Hainan weren't handed over to Wang Jingwei); total: 1,264,000 sq.km and 182,000,000 of people.
China nominally under Chiang Kai-shek (capital: Chung King), but also local warlords and Mao's communists: 6,300,000 sq.km, pop.: 248,000,000.
Tibet: 904,999 sq.km, pop.: 769,000.
Note: the roads shown in the map and coming from Burma are the Burma (south) and Assam (north) roads.
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Goldfish
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#13

Post by Goldfish » 14 Jun 2004, 15:29

The source for my info was Phillip Jowett's book. He says that all puppet regimes were placed under Wang in 1940, but he might have been excluding Inner Mongolia without saying so.
The original intent for these puppet regimes was to split up China into more managable pieces, but this might have become more difficult as the war dragged on and Chiang's regime refused to surrender. I would like to find out if the Communists had been taking advantage of the situation to attack in one puppet regime's territory and then retreat into another's. It is also possible that the regimes began to squabble with each other over borders, etc.
By the way, thanks for the maps!!! They are really interesting.
On a related subject, is there a lot of info in Italy about the Italian aviation schools in China in the 1930's? Have any of those men written any memoirs?

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DrG
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#14

Post by DrG » 14 Jun 2004, 16:17

Thank you for the additional info.
Goldfish wrote:By the way, thanks for the maps!!! They are really interesting.
You are welcome. :) But do you know which border of Inner Mongolia is the correct one? Maybe in Japan there is a good historic atlas or even a contemporary atlas showing it? :?
On a related subject, is there a lot of info in Italy about the Italian aviation schools in China in the 1930's? Have any of those men written any memoirs?
I admit this is a very obscure topic for me. There is a book: S. Scaroni, "Missione militare aeronautica in Cina", USSMA (
http://www.aeronautica.difesa.it/sma/ra ... efault.asp), but I've not read it.

PS Here there is a very good history of the Sino-Japanese Air War: http://www.dalnet.se/~surfcity/sino-japanese.htm.

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#15

Post by asiaticus » 26 Feb 2007, 03:33

Modern Northeastern China-Political 现代中国东北政治 (circa 1935)
http://map.huhai.net/70-71.jpg

Modern Manchuria-Political (Inset-Mukden) 现代满洲-政治(放大图-沈阳) circa 1935
http://map.huhai.net/72.jpg

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