Post-Surrender Japanese combat operations in China

Discussions on all aspects of the Japanese Empire, from the capture of Taiwan until the end of the Second World War.
Post Reply
sp560
Member
Posts: 5
Joined: 19 Aug 2018, 07:57
Location: Tokyo, Japan

Post-Surrender Japanese combat operations in China

#1

Post by sp560 » 19 Aug 2018, 08:13

I am a currently conducting research in Japan on the demobilization and repatriation of Japanese armed forces following Japan's surrender. Over the past year I have uncovered documents at the Japanese SDF research room at Ichigaya and at the National Diet Library that describe considerable fighting between Japanese forces and the 8th Route Army in northern China. To my surprise, somewhere between. 40,000 and perhaps as many as 50,000 Japanese soldiers were killed in action, died from disease, or went missing in action in China between August 1945 and early 1946. I am aware of Japanese language scholarship on the 2,600 soldiers who stayed behind with KMT forces in Shanxi province until 1949.

As far as I can tell, there is little to no serious study of this topic in English or Japanese scholarship. My question to everyone is this: do you know any reputable scholarship in either Japanese or English that discusses Japanese military activity in postwar China?

User avatar
Akira Takizawa
Member
Posts: 3348
Joined: 26 Feb 2006, 18:37
Location: Japan
Contact:

Re: Post-Surrender Japanese combat operations in China

#2

Post by Akira Takizawa » 19 Aug 2018, 10:14

It is a disputing problem in Japan whether they stayed voluntarily or by army order.
http://shanxi.nekoyamada.com/?p=120

Some soldiers brought a suit against Japanese Government, but the Supreme Court rejected their suit in 2005. However, Mr. Yamashita was still inquiring the truth in 2006.
http://www.ohproject.com/ivlist/03/01.html

Why were 50,000 Japanese soldiers killed in China after WWII? The following book answers to this question. Unfortunately, the author died in 2012.
http://amzn.asia/1PRHPnk

Taki


sp560
Member
Posts: 5
Joined: 19 Aug 2018, 07:57
Location: Tokyo, Japan

Re: Post-Surrender Japanese combat operations in China

#3

Post by sp560 » 19 Aug 2018, 12:34

Thank you very much for that informative response! I am particularly interested in understanding how it is that 50,000 soldiers died on northern China after the war's end. General Okamura Yasuji's order that no Japanese troops will surrender territory or weapons to Communist forces seems to be largely responsible for why fighting continued. That said, there is still very little information available regarding the actual battles fought between Japanese units Communist forces. I recently read Japanese documents written by General Okamura and General Imai. They only describe the fighting in very vague language. I've been searching for soldier memoirs that describe this postwar period of fighting. So far I have had no success.

User avatar
DarrenMarshall
Member
Posts: 21
Joined: 04 Mar 2016, 08:56
Location: Rome

Re: Post-Surrender Japanese combat operations in China

#4

Post by DarrenMarshall » 19 Aug 2018, 17:33

Akira Takizawa wrote:
19 Aug 2018, 10:14
It is a disputing problem in Japan whether they stayed voluntarily or by army order.
http://shanxi.nekoyamada.com/?p=120

Some soldiers brought a suit against Japanese Government, but the Supreme Court rejected their suit in 2005. However, Mr. Yamashita was still inquiring the truth in 2006.
http://www.ohproject.com/ivlist/03/01.html

Why were 50,000 Japanese soldiers killed in China after WWII? The following book answers to this question. Unfortunately, the author died in 2012.
http://amzn.asia/1PRHPnk

Taki
Any book in english?

sp560
Member
Posts: 5
Joined: 19 Aug 2018, 07:57
Location: Tokyo, Japan

Re: Post-Surrender Japanese combat operations in China

#5

Post by sp560 » 20 Aug 2018, 12:05

Unfortunately, to the best of my knowledge there are no books or articles in English about this subject. I am in the process of doing research that will hopefully become a book in the next few years. Until then, there really is not much to go off on as far as English language sources are concerned.

User avatar
DarrenMarshall
Member
Posts: 21
Joined: 04 Mar 2016, 08:56
Location: Rome

Re: Post-Surrender Japanese combat operations in China

#6

Post by DarrenMarshall » 20 Aug 2018, 20:11

sp560 wrote:
20 Aug 2018, 12:05
Unfortunately, to the best of my knowledge there are no books or articles in English about this subject. I am in the process of doing research that will hopefully become a book in the next few years. Until then, there really is not much to go off on as far as English language sources are concerned.
I will wait for your book! :)

SBConnor
Member
Posts: 25
Joined: 14 Sep 2015, 10:53
Location: London

Re: Post-Surrender Japanese combat operations in China

#7

Post by SBConnor » 02 Oct 2018, 20:25

Hello,

There photo below shows IJA personnel in China in 1946. Perhaps you know this book: 私は「蟻の兵隊」だった―中国に残された日本兵-岩波ジュニア ('I was an "Ant Soldier"...) I am not sure if the author Mr Okumaura is still alive. I bought the book ten years ago. (He used to have a website: 'arinoheitai.com' but it is not longer up. You might have come across his book by now. If not, here's the link to Amazon Japan:
https://www.amazon.co.jp/私は「蟻の兵隊」だった―中国 ... 005005373/

I researched IJA and IJN personnel repatriation from the British-controlled South-East Asia Command (SEAC) for my PhD. (It is published as MOUNTBATTEN'S SAMURAI.) My intention was also to look at the non-repatriation of IJA personnel from the USSR and China but the project would have become too big. If I remember correctly, in my book I referred to Japanese forces (especially artillery units) being absorbed into the 4th Red Army but it was only a note. The fate of IJA and IJN personnel in Soviet hands was also unpleasant. Most were initially under Chinese control but the Russians shipped some 700,000 to Siberia. There are estimates that 300,000 Japanese were worked to death in the fields and mines of Siberia. The issue is yet another one that has dogged Japan-Russian relations since 1945. The Red Cross tried to get involved but got nowhere. There is not much material available even now and since I don't read Russian or Chinese I limited my study to SEAC (and that took seven years!).

I wish you luck and look forward to your book.
Steve C.
Attachments
蟻の兵隊 Japanese China 46.jpg

User avatar
Akira Takizawa
Member
Posts: 3348
Joined: 26 Feb 2006, 18:37
Location: Japan
Contact:

Re: Post-Surrender Japanese combat operations in China

#8

Post by Akira Takizawa » 03 Oct 2018, 03:13

Mr. Okumaura has gone in 2011.

「蟻の兵隊」became famous by movie in Japan. The preview of the movie is below.
https://youtu.be/wH92AduwJcU

Taki

SBConnor
Member
Posts: 25
Joined: 14 Sep 2015, 10:53
Location: London

Re: Post-Surrender Japanese combat operations in China

#9

Post by SBConnor » 03 Oct 2018, 19:14

That's very interesting, Taki.
Thanks for the link.
I have the DVD of 'Merdeka 1945', a dramatisation of the Japanese fighting in Java post surrender. Hmm...
Steve C

User avatar
DrG
Member
Posts: 1408
Joined: 21 Oct 2003, 23:23
Location: Italia

Re: Post-Surrender Japanese combat operations in China

#10

Post by DrG » 18 Jul 2019, 01:23

sp560, maybe you already know this article, but in case you missed it I suggest it to you: Donald G. Gillin and Charles Etter, "Staying On: Japanese Soldiers and Civilians in China, 1945-1949", The Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 42, No. 3 (May, 1983), pp. 497-518. https://www.jstor.org/stable/2055515

sp560
Member
Posts: 5
Joined: 19 Aug 2018, 07:57
Location: Tokyo, Japan

Re: Post-Surrender Japanese combat operations in China

#11

Post by sp560 » 18 Jul 2019, 04:19

Thank you for mentioning this article. I came upon this about two years ago in my preliminary research. I am still not quite sure what to make of this piece. While there is a lot of good information in this article, I believe Professors Gillin and Etter cite some extremely exaggerated, if not out right incorrect numbers. While there were maybe a hundred thousand Japanese soldiers (perhaps more, perhaps less) assisting KMT forces in northern China (not Manchuria) under proper Japanese command, there is no evidence that I have seen to support the figure of enormous amounts of Japanese soldiers serving essentially as mercenaries for the KMT in Manchuria proper. Amid the chaos of the early postwar months, it is possible that one of the contemporary eyewitnesses (I believe it was an American journalist who did not speak either Chinese or Japanese) either heard this information and accepted it uncritically, or misheard something. Of course, his source, if it was a KMT military source, may have also not been quite truthful.

I should also note that this article's sources inflate by quite a bit the number of Japanese troops in Shanxi province between 1945 and 1949. By the late 1940s, all of my Japanese sources (primary sources and secondary scholarly works from the last few years) state that Japanese troop numbers were something like 2400, with maybe 700 dying in combat (I may have flipped this number as I am writing from memory).


In the end, there is evidence in Japanese archives of military operations carried out by actual Japanese Imperial Army units for the explicit purpose of helping the KMT, preventing Communist takeover of territory before the arrival of KMT occupation forces, and as months passed, for the purpose of assisting the KMT in its own operations against Communist forces. There are at least two memoirs of Japanese veterans which discuss elements of this period and the combat they personally took part in.

User avatar
DrG
Member
Posts: 1408
Joined: 21 Oct 2003, 23:23
Location: Italia

Re: Post-Surrender Japanese combat operations in China

#12

Post by DrG » 18 Jul 2019, 19:19

sp506, thank you for your notes. I have read that article a few years ago but, of course, I wasn't and isn't an expert about this very peculiar and interesting topic.

Edward L. Hsiao
Member
Posts: 2102
Joined: 01 Aug 2003, 09:43
Location: Flagstaff,Arizona

Re: Post-Surrender Japanese combat operations in China

#13

Post by Edward L. Hsiao » 26 Oct 2019, 04:43

The survival of these Japanese soldiers in China must have been pretty low indeed!

Edward L. Hsiao

UncleBourbon
Member
Posts: 82
Joined: 11 Oct 2019, 10:00
Location: United States

Re: Post-Surrender Japanese combat operations in China

#14

Post by UncleBourbon » 18 Dec 2019, 18:35

Have you guys heard of Operation Beleaguer?
It's an obscure post-WWII US Marine operation with the objective of repatriating over 600,000 Japanese and Koreans left behind in China.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Beleaguer

Post Reply

Return to “Japan at War 1895-1945”