China in 1942. Part of the country occupied by the Japanese army. Its
economy and military deteriorating. Its very future existence as an independent nation
uncertain. Three years later: China is the largest power of East Asia and
is recognized as one of the five major world powers. The question is how did this happen?
Well, it was connected to the strategies both China and Japan had adopted in this war.
After the initial invasion of China in 1937 the war became a stalemate. Japan did not have enough
manpower to continue the expansion and China could not push the Japanese back because of the lack of
modern weapons. But in 1941 Japan went to war with the Western Powers and both sides acquired new
strategies. China's strategy would be to receive a lot of modern weapons from the Western Powers,
use them to build up its army and finally drive the Japanese out of the country.
Japan's first goal was to defeat the Western Powers.
This would free up much of its troops, which could then be used to fully defeat China.
Japan began by attacking the Western Powers in the Pacific. These included the United States, the
Netherlands and Great Britain. Due to the Western Powers being distracted by the ongoing Second
World War, the Japanese forces in the Pacific were much stronger. The Japanese crippled the American
fleet by a surprise attack at Pearl Harbor. Without a strong Allied fleet in the area the
Japanese quickly captured the Allied strongholds of the Philippines and Singapore. After that they
occupied the resource rich Dutch East Indies, which completed the Allied defeat in the Pacific.
Japan also invaded the British colony of Burma. This area was critical to China's strategy,
because here lay the only connection, through which the Allies could send supplies to China.
China therefore sent its best forces to defend Burma. The Japanese had the advantage
and after several battles the Allied forces suffered a defeat and had to abandon Burma.
By the middle of 1942 Japan seemed to have finished its goal of defeating the Western Powers
and made preparations to proceed with the attack on China's capital.
But then, a wrench was thrown into the Japanese plans.
The United States launched a small retaliation raid against Japan.
Their bombers took off from an aircraft carrier in the Pacific. After executing the air attack
against Japan, these planes headed for safety to the nearest Allied controlled territory in China.
Japan was dead set on stopping any further attacks on its home islands. The Japanese army moved into
the territories, where the Americans had landed to make these areas unsuitable to be used for future
air attacks against Japan. Then it withdrew. In order to neutralize the origin point of
the attacks the Japanese sent their fleet to occupy Midway, the westernmost island of the
Hawaiian archipelago. However the American navy ambushed the Japanese fleet. As a result Japan
lost most of its largest aircraft carriers. This was the turning point of the war in the Pacific.
Without the Japanese fleet to defend its positions Japan had to send more and more of its troops to
defend against the American counteroffensive in the South Pacific. The American forces
achieved success and set out to eventually reach and attack the Japanese home islands.
In this situation the Japanese could not launch a major offensive against the Chinse capital
and the smaller attacks they undertook did not cause China much damage.
Meanwhile China continued with carrying out its own strategy. It had been cut off from the land
supply route, but it had the Allies establish an airlift and began getting some supplies by air.
However, it was a very small amount, not enough to equip a large part of its army with Allied
supplies. So China had to modify its strategy. It used a small part of supplies to equip a minor
part of its army. But most of the equipment was used in building up the Allied air force in China,
which could deliver damage to Japan with less supplies than the army.
As the war entered the year 1944 the Japanese situation in the Pacific had deteriorated further,
so they decided to change their strategy.
At first controlling China was an important objective for Japan,
but now Japan needed to use all of its resources to stop the United States in the Pacific.
Therefore it conceded many areas in North China to the Chinese Communists and pulled its garrisons
out from these territories. Japan prepared to launch a major offensive against the Chinese army.
But how would the offensive in China help the Japanese in the Pacific? Well, we'll get to that.
China's strategy was focused on getting more Allied supplies and for this reason its best
units were in Burma and could not defend against the Japanese offensive. The Allied air forces in
China could not stop the Japanese land offensive. Meanwhile the largest part of China's ground
forces had not received Allied supplies and was in the weakest shape it had ever been in the war.
As the first step the Japanese cleared the railway heading south.
Some time later the Japanese extended their defensive perimeter further
to neutralize an Allied airfield. The Japanese advance continued south of Wuhan. Their target
was the city of Changsha. The Chinese had previously had some success defending the town,
but this time the Japanese defeated them with an overwhelming attack on a broad front
and captured Changsha. They then proceeded along the railway towards the next Chinese position at
Hengyang. The Japanese had overextended their supply lines and it took them considerable time
and casualties to overcome the Chinese defense. The Chinese prepared to make another determined
stand at Guilin. But the Japanese were joined by their troops in their enclave in the South
and this led to the defense of Guilin failing. After that the Chinese resistance collapsed and
the Japanese easily established the connection with their lands in Indochina and also captured
the railway leading to Guangzhou. With that the Japanese offensive had achieved its goals.
Japan undertook this offensive to support the Japanese forces operating in the Pacific.
But how could the success in China achieve that? Japan needed to use its merchant fleet
to transport the war materials to Japan, then turn them into military equipment and send them to the
forces fighting against the United States. But the Americans were sinking a lot of Japanese shipping,
which weakened the Japanese ability to resist the American offensive. Part of the sinking was
done by the Allied air forces operating from China. As a result of the recent offensive
the Japanese had occupied the air bases in the area, and had thus seriously reduced the danger
coming from this direction. In order to lessen the danger from the American submarines the Japanese
opened a land route to Southeast Asia, which made this traffic immune from the submarine threat.
Despite the success Japan had in China its situation in the Pacific continued to deteriorate.
Meanwhile China continued to carry out its strategy. It needed access to more
Allied supplies and for this reason it sent its best, Allied equipped units to Burma.
These forces would attack and clear a route to send the supplies to China overland.
The terrain in Burma was jungle and this offered the Japanese a good prospect for defense.
But due to the difficult Japanese situation in the Pacific they attempted a risky offensive in this
region. But it failed and depleted the Japanese forces. The British and the Chinese used the
weakening of the Japanese to go on the offensive. It took around a year, but the Chinese were able
to occupy the road they needed to transport the supplies to China. China gained access to a large
amount of supplies and started equipping a large part of its army with Allied weapons.
This was appropriate timing, because by the middle of 1945
the Americans were approaching the Japanese home islands and the Allies were preparing
to launch the final offensive to bring about the ultimate downfall of Japan.
It consisted of the Chinese attacking from the south, the Soviet Union from the north
and the Americans landing on the Japanese home islands.
Faced with this danger Japan decided to abandon Southern China and prepared for the worst.
By mid 1945 China had a sizable force equipped with Allied weapons and it could finally begin
driving Japan out of China. The Japanese attacked an Allied air base. The Chinese deployed their new
forces and successfully defeated the Japanese attack. Then the Japanese began carrying out
their withdrawal from Southern China. The Chinese forces now moved in to inflict a major defeat on
the Japanese by capturing the important port of Guangzhou. But they were not to carry it out,
because the Chinese operations had been overshadowed by that of the other Allies.
More than a million Soviet soldiers had invaded the Japanese possessions in Northern China
and the Japanese forces were unable to stop the Red Army. Even more dangerous for Japan were the
two million American soldiers getting ready to land on Japan proper. As part of the preparations
for the landings the Americans dropped two atomic bombs on Japan with unprecedented
destrucive ability. Faced with these odds Japan decided to end further resistance and surrendered
unconditionally to the Allies, ending both the Second Sino Japanese war and the Second World War.
As part of the surrender the Japanese forces left China and Japan also
returned the areas it had captured from China in the earlier wars. The United
Nations security council was established to help maintain peace in the post war world.
The United States, Soviet Union, Great Britain and France became the council's permanent members.
In order for it to take care of East Asian affairs the fifth place was given to China.
However this new high status would not determine China's future. Its future would be instead
shaped by the divided nature of its government. The Nationalist government was opposed by the
Chinese Communists, who had taken control over much of the territory behind the Japanese lines.
Their differences would soon prove to be irreconcilable and would have to be settled
in a new war, a civil war between the two Chinese factions. But that is a story for another time.