World War II in Asia
Japan's invasion of China on July 7, 1937 began the war in the Pacific Theater
Most historians date the beginning of World War II to September 1, 1939, when Nazi Germany invaded Poland, but World War II began earlier on July 7, 1937, when the Japanese Empire launched total war against China.
From the Marco Polo Bridge Incident of July 7 to the eventual surrender of Japan on August 15, 1945, the Second World War ravaged Asia and Europe alike, with bloodshed and bombardment spreading as far as Hawaii in the United States.
Still, many often overlook the complex history and international relations going on in Asia during the time -- even forgetting to attribute Japan to the start of the conflicts that snowballed into the global war.
1937: Japan Starts the War
On July 7, 1937, the Second Sino-Japanese War started with a conflict that later became known as the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, wherein Japan was attacked by Chinese troops while carrying out military training -- because they didn't warn the Chinese they would be shooting gunpowder rounds at the bridge that led to Beijing. This amplified already tense relations in the region, leading to an all-out declaration of war.
From July 25 through 31 of that year, the Japanese launched their first assault with the Battle of Beijing at Tianjin before marching to the Battle of Shanghai on August 13 to November 26, taking huge victories and claiming both cities for Japan, but suffering heavy losses. Meanwhile, in August of that year, Soviets invaded Xinjiang in western China to put down the Uighur uprising that resulted in the massacres of Soviet diplomats and advisors in Xinjiang.
Japan launched another military assault from September 1 through November 9 at the Battle of Taiyuan, wherein they claimed the capital of Shanxi Province and China's arsenal of weapons. From December 9 to 13, the Battle of Nanking resulted in the Chinese provisional capital falling to the Japanese and the Republic of China government fleeing to Wuhan.
From the middle of December in 1937 to the end of January in 1938, Japan furthered tensions in the region by taking part in a month-long siege of Nanjing, killing approximately 300,000 civilians in an event that came to be known as the Nanking Massacre -- or worse, the Rape of Nanking after the raping, looting and murder the Japanese troops committed.
1938: Increased Japan-China Hostilities
The Japanese Imperial Army had begun to take on its own doctrine by this point, ignoring orders from Tokyo to halt southward expansion in the winter and spring of 1938. On February 18 of that year through August 23 of 1943, they launched the Bombing of Chongqing, a years-long of firebombing against Chinese provisional capital, killing 10,000 civilians.
Fought from March 24 to May 1, 1938, the Battle of Xuzhou resulted in Japan capturing the city but losing the Chinese troops, who would later become guerrilla fighters against them, breaking damns along the Yellow River in June of that year, halting Japanese advances but also drowning 1,000,000 Chinese civilians along its banks.
In Wuhan, where the ROC government had relocated the year before, China defended its new capital at the Battle of Wuhan but lost to 350,000 Japanese troops, who only lost 100,000 of their men. In February, Japan seized the strategic Hainan Island launched the Battle of Nanchang from March 17 to May 9 -- which broke Chinese National Revolutionary Army's supply lines and threatened all of southeast China -- in part of an effort to stop foreign aid to China.
1939 to 1940: Turn of the Tide
China celebrated its first victory in the September 13 to October 8, 1939, First Battle of Changsha, where Japan attacked the capital of the Hunan Province, but the Chinese army cut Japanese supply lines and defeated the Imperial Army.
Still, Japan captured the Nanning and Guangxi coast and stopped foreign aid by sea to China after winning the Battle of South Guangxi from November 15, 1939, to November 30, 1940, leaving only Indochina, the Burma Road, and the Hump remaining to conquer of China's vast empire.
China wouldn't go down easy, though, and launched the Winter Offensive from November 1939 to March 1940, a country-wide counteroffensive against Japanese troops. Japan held in most places, but they realized then it would not be easy to win against China's sheer size.
Although China held onto the critical Kunlun Pass in Guangxi that same winter, keeping a supply flow from French Indochina to the Chinese army, the Battle of Zoayang-Yichang from May to June of 1940 saw Japan's success in driving toward the provisional new capital of China at Chongqing.
Firing back, Communist Chinese troops in northern China blew up rail-lines, disrupted Japanese coal supplies, and even made a frontal assault on Imperial Army troops, resulting in a strategic Chinese victory in the August 20 to December 5, 1940, Hundred Regiments Offensive.
As a result, on December 27, 1940, Imperial Japan signed the Tripartite Pact, which aligned it with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy formally with the Axis Powers.
The Effect of Allies on Japanese Conquest of China
Although the Imperial Army and Navy of Japan controlled China's coastline, the Chinese armies simply retreated into the vast interior, making it hard for Japan to dominate the constantly-revolting troops of China because when a Chinese army unit was defeated, its surviving members would carry on as guerrilla fighters.
Plus, China was proving so valuable an ally to the western anti-fascist coalition that the French, British, and Americans were more than willing to send supplies and aid to the Chinese, despite Japan's attempts at a blockade.
Japan needed to cut China off from resupply, while also expanding its own access to key war materials like oil, rubber, and rice. The Showa government decided to drive into British, French, and Dutch colonies in Southeast Asia, rich in all of the necessary supplies -- after knocking out the American Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
Meanwhile, the effects of World War II in Europe were beginning to be felt in western Asia, starting with the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran.
1941: Axis Versus Allies
As early as April 1941, volunteer American pilots called the Flying Tigers begin to fly supplies to Chinese forces from Burma over "the Hump" -- the eastern end of the Himalayas, and in June of that year, combined British, Indian, Australian and Free French troops invaded Syria and Lebanon, held by pro-German Vichy French, who surrendered July 14.
In August of 1941, the United States, which had supplied 80% of Japan's oil, initiates a total oil embargo, forcing Japan to seek new sources to fuel its war effort, and the September 17 Anglo-Soviet Invasion of Iran complicated the matter by deposing the pro-Axis Shah Reza Pahlavi and replacing him with his 22-year-old son to ensure Allies' access to Iranian oil.
The end of 1941 saw an implosion of the Second World War, starting with the December 7 Japanese attack on the U.S. Navy base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii that killed 2,400 American service members and sunk 4 battleships. Simultaneously, Japan initiated the Southern Expansion, launching massive invasion aimed at the Philippines, Guam, Wake Island, Malaya, Hong Kong, Thailand, and Midway Island.
In response, the United States and the United Kingdom formally declared war on Japon on December 8, 1941, while the Kingdom of Thailand surrendered to Japan the same day. Two days later, Japan sunk the British warships H.M.S. Repulse and H.M.S. Prince of Whales off the coast of Malaya and the U.S. base at Guam surrendered to Japan.
Japan forced British colonial forces in Malaya to withdraw up to the Perak River a week later and from December 22 to 23, launched a major invasion of Luzon in the Phillippines, forcing American and Filipino troops to withdraw to Bataan.
The offensive continued from Japan to the United States base at Wake Island surrendering to Japan on December 23 and British Hong Kong surrendering two days later. On December 26, Japanese troops continued to push British forces up the Perak River in Malaya, breaking through their ranks.
1942: More Allies and More Enemies
By the end of February 1942, Japan had continued its assault on Asia, invading the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia), capturing Kuala Lumpur (Malaya), the islands of Java and Bali, and British Singapore, and attacking Burma, Sumatra, Darwin (Australia) -- marking the beginnings of Australia's involvement in the war.
In March and April, the Japanese pushed into central Burma -- a "crown jewel" of British India -- and raided the British colony of Ceylon in modern-day Sri Lanka, with American and Filipino troops surrendering at Bataan, resulting in Japan's Bataan Death March beginning April 18. At the same time, the United States launched the Doolittle Raid, the first bombing raid against Tokyo and other parts of Japanese home islands.
From May 4 to 8, 1942, Australian and American naval forces fended off the Japanese invasion of New Guinea at the Battle of the Coral Sea, but at the May 5 to 6 battle of Corregidor, the Japanese took the island in Manila Bay, completing its conquest of the Philippines. On May 20, the British finished withdrawing from Burma, handing Japan another victory.
However, at the pivotal June 4 to 7 Battle of Midway, American troops maneuvered a huge naval victory over Japan at Midway Atoll, west of Hawaii, with Japan quickly firing back by invading Alaska's Aleutian Island chain. In August of that same year, the Battle of Savo Island saw the U.S. first action in victory and major naval action and the Battle of the Eastern Solomon Islands, an Allied naval victory, in the Guadalcanal campaign.
The Solomons eventually fell to Japan, but the Battle of Guadalcanal in November gave American naval forces a decisive victory in its campaign for the Solomon Islands -- bringing with is 1,700 U.S. and 1,900 Japanese troop casualties as a result.
1943: A Shift in Allies' Favor
From December 1943's Japanese air strikes on Calcutta, India, to its withdrawal from Guadalcanal in February of 1943, the Axis and Allies played a constant tug-of-war with the upper hand in warfare, but supplies and munitions were running low for Japan's already thinly-spread troops. The United Kingdom capitalized on this weakness and launched a counter-offensive against the Japanese in Burma that same month.
In May of 1943, China's National Revolutionary Army made a resurgence, launching an offensive along the Yangtze River and in September Australian troops captured Lae, New Guinea, claiming the region back for Allied powers -- and indeed shifting the tide for all of its forces to begin the counter-offensive that would shape the rest of the war.
By 1944, the tide of war was turning and the Axis Powers, including Japan, were at a stalemate or even on the defensive in many places. The Japanese military found itself over-extended and out-gunned, but many Japanese soldiers and ordinary citizens believed that they were fated to win. Any other outcome was unthinkable.
1944: Allied Domination and a Failing Japan
Continuing from their success along the Yangtze River, China launched another major offensive in northern Burma in January of 1944 in an attempt to reclaim its supply line along the Ledo Road into China. The next month, Japan launched the Second Arakan Offensive in Burma, attempting to drive the Chinese forces back -- but failed.
The United States took both Truk Atoll, Micronesia, and Eniwetok in February and halted Japanese advancement at Tamu, Inda in March. After suffering a defeat at the Battle of Kohima from April to June, the Japanese forces retreated back into Burma, also losing the Battle of Saipan in the Marian Islands later that month.
The biggest blows, though, were yet to come. Starting with the Battle of the Philippine Sea, in July of 1944, a key naval battle that effectively wiped out the Japanese Imperial Navy's carrier fleet, the United States began to push back against Japan in the Philippines. By December 31, and the end of the Battle of Leyte, Americans had mostly succeeded in liberating the Philippines from Japanese occupation.
Late 1944 to 1945: The Nuclear Option and Japan's Surrender
After suffering many losses, Japan refused to surrender to Allied parties -- thus the bombings started to intensify. With the advent of the Nuclear Bomb looming overhead and tensions continuing to mount between the rival armies of the Axis powers and Allied forces, the Second World War came to its climax from 1944 to 1945.
Japan upped its aerial forces in October of 1944, launching its first kamikaze pilot attack against the U.S. Naval fleet at Leyte, and the United States answered back on November 24 with the first B-29 bombing raid against Tokyo.
In the first months of 1945, the United States continued to push into Japanese-controlled territories, landing on Luzon Island in the Philippines in January and won the Battle of Iwo Jima from February to March. Meanwhile, the Allies reopened the Burma Road in February and forced the last Japanese to surrender in Manila on March 3 of that year.
When U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt died on April 12 and was succeeded by Harry S Truman, the already-mounting death-toll of the Nazi regime's Holocaust combined with the bloody war ravaging Europe and Asia was already at its boiling point -- but Japan refused to stop.
On August 6, 1945, the American government decided to implore the nuclear option, conducting atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Japan, committing the first nuclear strike of that size against any major city, any nation in the world. On August 9, just three days later, another atomic bombing was carried out against Nagasaki, Japan. Meanwhile, the Soviet Red Army invaded Japanese-held Manchuria.
Less than a week later on August 15, 1945, the Japanese Emperor Hirohito formally surrendered to Allied troops, ending the Second World War and Asia's bloody 8 year battle in the war that devastated millions of lives around the globe.
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