CHINA AND JAPAN AT WAR 221
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Luoyang Zhengzhou
While bitter fighting had raged between Chinese and Japanese
forces since 1937, after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in
December 1941 the conflict became incorporated into the larger
war that erupted in the Pacific. The US provided air and military
support from India for the Nationalists, who managed to inflict
several defeats on the Japanese, but the aid was never enough to
turn the tide of the war in favor of the Chinese. Japan’s offensives
in the months following Pearl Harbor were sporadic, with attacks
on US air bases in the south of China as well as the massacre of
250,000 civilians using biological agents such as cholera and typhoid.
Further offensives in 1943 were also accompanied by chemical
weapons. It was not until 1944 that Japan launched a huge offensive,
Operation Ichigo, in which 500,000 troops attempted to carve out
a path to Japanese-occupied Indochina and remove the threat from
the US air bases used to bomb Japanese cities. The campaign was
a success, and the Japanese largely kept the gains from Operation
Ichigo until the end of the war.
CHINA AND
JAPAN AT WAR
Despite a truce between China’s Nationalist and
Communist factions following the Japanese invasion
in 1937, wartime China remained bitterly divided. Japan
sought to capitalize on this, stretching its resources
across China to wage an eight-year expansionist war.
“The Greater East Asian War was justified
and righteous.”
HIDEKI TOJO, FORMER JAPANESE PRIME MINISTER, 1946
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1
TIMELINE
1940 1941 1942
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JAPANESE CHINA
By 1941, Japan controlled much of
northern and eastern China. After
sporadic fighting between Japanese and
Nationalist Chinese, the Japanese made
advances in the south and center during
Operation Ichigo in 1944, with both
sides suffering major casualties.
1943 1944 1945
FLYING THE HUMP
A US Army transport
flies over the Himalayas
Japan and its territories by 1941
Japanese gains in China 1941–1942
Other regions under Japanese control 1941–1942
Battle site
Japanese advances in Zhejiang–Jiangxi
EARLY JAPANESE OFFENSIVES
DECEMBER 1941–SEPTEMBER 1942
The first major Japanese attack in China after Pearl
Harbor began in late December 1941 and resulted
in defeat at the hands of the Nationalists at
Changsha. In May 1942, the Japanese launched an
offensive in the provinces of Zhejiang and Jiangxi
aimed at destroying US air bases and punishing the
Chinese who supported US activity. More than
250,000 Chinese civilians were killed by Japanese
biological weapons.
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In 1942, the US set up an air route
from Assam in India to supply
Nationalist Chinese forces across
the country. Nicknamed “The
Hump” by pilots, it passed over
the eastern end of the Himalayas,
and was extremely dangerous
due to consistently poor weather
and a lack of charts and radio
navigation aids. By August 1945,
more than 728,000 tons
(660,000 metric tons) of materiel
had been flown in to China, with
a great loss of Allied aircraft.
STALEMATE JUNE 1942–DECEMBER 1943
Little action took place in China after mid-1942 as
the Japanese focused on other goals in the Pacific. In
1943 they launched a series of “rice offensives”—
attacks designed to battle-harden their new troops
and to seize food supplies from the starving
Chinese. However, with US help the Chinese
managed to fight the Japanese to a stalemate at
Changde, a battle in which the Japanese continued
to use chemical weapons, including mustard gas.
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Battle site
OPERATION ICHIGO
APRIL 19–DECEMBER 31, 1944
In 1944 Japan launched its largest campaign in China
to create a land bridge between its conquests in
the east of the country and its gains in Indochina,
and to eradicate the US air bases supporting B-29
Superfortress bombers. The Japanese fought three
major battles with the Chinese. Losses were huge,
with the Chinese suffering up to 700,000 casualties.
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Battle sites
Captured US air bases
Territory held by
the Japanese after
Operation Ichigo
US_220-221_China_and_japan_at_war.indd 221 19/03/19 7:35 PM