Memorial Museum of the Chinese People's War against Japan. Posts from This Journal by “Sino-Japanese War” Tag Japanese-Chinese War 1937 1945 briefly

The history of Japanese aggression in China is briefly outlined on stone barrels near the walls of the Wanping Fortress at the Marco Polo Bridge

The Sino-Japanese War (July 7, 1937 – September 9, 1945) was a war between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan that began before World War II and continued until its end.

Despite the fact that both states had been engaged in periodic hostilities since 1931, a full-scale war broke out in 1937 and ended with the surrender of Japan in 1945. The war was a consequence of Japan's decades-long imperialist course for political and military dominance in China in order to seize huge raw materials. reserves and other resources. At the same time, growing Chinese nationalism and increasingly widespread ideas of self-determination (both Chinese and other peoples of the former Qing Empire) made a military clash inevitable. Until 1937, the sides clashed in sporadic fighting, so-called "incidents", as both sides, for many reasons, refrained from starting an all-out war. In 1931, the invasion of Manchuria (also known as the Mukden Incident) occurred. The last such incident was the Lugouqiao incident, the Japanese shelling of the Marco Polo Bridge on July 7, 1937, which marked the official start of a full-scale war between the two countries.

From 1937 to 1941, China fought with the help of the United States and the USSR, who were interested in dragging Japan into the “swamp” of the war in China. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the Second Sino-Japanese War became part of World War II.

Name options

In the Russian historiographical tradition, the most common name is “The Japanese-Chinese War of 1937-1945.” In sources in the West, the name “Second Sino-Japanese War” is more often used. At the same time, some Chinese historians use the name “Eight Years' War of Resistance against Japan” (or simply “War of Resistance against Japan”), which is widely used in China.

Background to the conflict

The roots of the conflict lie in the industrial revolution that began in Japan in the second half of the 19th century. The development of the capitalist economy quickly exhausted the resources of the Japanese economy itself; there was an urgent need for new markets and raw material appendages. The first military actions took place at the end of the 19th century, when during the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, China, which was part of the Manchu Qing Empire, was defeated by Japan and forced to give up Taiwan and recognize the independence (renounce the protectorate) of Korea under the Treaty of Shimonoseki.

The Qing Empire was on the verge of collapse due to internal revolutionary uprisings and the expansion of foreign imperialism, while Japan became a great power thanks to effective modernization measures. The Republic of China was proclaimed in 1912 as a result of the Xinhai Revolution, which destroyed the Qing Empire. However, the nascent republic was even weaker than before - this dates back to the period of militaristic wars. The prospects for uniting the nation and repelling the imperialist threat looked very remote. Some military leaders even teamed up with various foreign forces in attempts at mutual destruction. For example, the ruler of Manchuria, Zhang Zuolin, adhered to military and economic cooperation with the Japanese. Thus, Japan was the main foreign threat to China during the early republic.

In 1915, Japan published the Twenty-One Demands, promoting its political and commercial interests in China. After World War I, Japan acquired the German sphere of influence in Shandong. China, under the government in Beijing, was in a state of fragmentation and could not resist foreign invasions until the Northern Expedition of 1926-1928, organized by the Kuomintang (Chinese Nationalist Party), which competed with the government based in Guangzhou. The Northern Expedition passed through China, suppressing competing forces, until it was stopped in Shandong by the forces of the Beijing regime, which was supported by the Japanese, who tried to prevent the Kuomintang army from uniting China under its rule. These events culminated in the Jinan Incident in 1928, in which the Kuomintang army and the Japanese were involved in a brief military conflict. That same year, the ruler of Manchuria, Zhang Zuolin, was assassinated due to weakening cooperation with the Japanese. Following these events, the Kuomintang government of Chiang Kai-shek achieved its final goal - the unification of China. This happened in 1928.

Numerous conflicts between China and Japan continued to exist due to the rise of Chinese nationalism and because one of the ultimate goals of Sun Yat-sen's political philosophy (the Three Principles of the People) was to rid China of foreign imperialism. However, the Northern Expedition united China only nominally - civil wars between former military leaders and rival Kuomintang factions fractured this unity. In addition, the Chinese communists rebelled against the central government, demanding a purge of its composition. As a result, the Chinese central government was distracted by civil wars and followed a policy of prioritizing internal pacification over resistance to external enemies. This situation resulted in little resistance to ongoing Japanese aggression. In 1931, immediately after the Mukden Incident, Japan invaded Manchuria. After five months of struggle, in 1932, a pro-Japanese puppet regime was established in Manchuria - the state of Manchukuo. It was recognized by the last emperor of China, Pu Yi, who, with the support of the Japanese, was placed at its head. Unable to challenge Japan directly, China asked the League of Nations for help. The League conducted an investigation, after which it condemned Japan for the invasion of Manchuria and forced Japan to withdraw from the League of Nations. From the second half of the 1920s and throughout the 1930s, peacekeeping was the basis of the policy of the world community, and no state was willing to voluntarily take a more active position than diplomatic protests. The Japanese side saw Manchuria as a source of primary raw materials and a buffer state, separating the lands it had seized from the Soviet Union.

The Mukden Incident was followed by ongoing conflicts. In 1932, Chinese and Japanese soldiers fought a short war called the January 28 Incident. This war led to the demilitarization of Shanghai, in which the Chinese were prohibited from stationing their armed forces. In Manchukuo there was a long campaign to combat the anti-Japanese volunteer armies, which arose out of popular disappointment in the policy of non-resistance to the Japanese. In 1933, the Japanese attacked the Great Wall area, leading to an armistice that gave the Japanese control of Rehe Province and created a demilitarized zone between the Great Wall and the Beijing-Tianjin area. The Japanese goal was to create another buffer zone, this time between Manchukuo and the Chinese Nationalist government, whose capital was Nanjing.

On top of this, Japan continued to use internal conflicts between Chinese political factions to weaken them mutually. This confronted the Nanjing government with a fact: for several years after the Northern Expedition, the political power of the Nationalist government extended only to the areas around the Yangtze River Delta, while other regions of China were essentially held in the hands of regional authorities. Thus, Japan often paid off or created special ties with these regional powers to undermine the central Nationalist government's efforts to unify China. To accomplish this, Japan sought out various Chinese traitors to interact with and assist these people heading some Japanese-friendly autonomous governments. This policy was called the "specialization" of North China and was also known as the "North China Autonomy Movement." Specialization affected the northern provinces of Chahar, Suiyuan, Hebei, Shanxi and Shandong.

Under pressure from Japan, in 1935, China signed the Japanese Conditions for Normalization in Northern China, which banned the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from party activities in Hebei and effectively ended Chinese control of Northern China. That same year, an agreement was concluded between the Chinese authorities in the Mongolian province of Chahar and the Japanese to demilitarize the eastern part of the province and remove its governor, which expelled the CCP from Chahar. Thus, by the end of 1935, the Chinese central government had effectively abandoned Northern China. Accordingly, Japanese-backed authorities were established on its territory (Mengjiang and the Anti-Communist Autonomous Government of Eastern Ji).

Causes of the war

Each of the states involved in the war had its own motives, goals and reasons for participating in it. To understand the objective causes of the conflict, it is important to consider all participants separately.

Empire of Japan: Imperialist Japan went to war in an attempt to destroy the Chinese Kuomintang central government and install puppet regimes following Japanese interests. However, Japan's failure to bring the war in China to its desired end, coupled with increasingly unfavorable Western trade restrictions in response to ongoing actions in China, resulted in Japan's greater need for natural resources that were available in British-controlled Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines. , the Netherlands and the USA respectively. The Japanese strategy of acquiring these inaccessible resources led to the attack on Pearl Harbor and the opening of the Pacific Theater of World War II.

Republic of China (under Kuomintang): Before full-scale hostilities began, Nationalist China focused on modernizing its military and building a viable defense industry to increase its combat power as a counterweight to Japan. Since China was united under the rule of the Kuomintang only formally, it was in a constant state of struggle with the communists and various militaristic associations. However, since war with Japan became inevitable, there was nowhere to retreat, even despite China's complete unpreparedness to fight a vastly superior enemy. In general, China pursued the following goals: to resist Japanese aggression, to unite China under the central government, to free the country from foreign imperialism, to achieve victory over communism and to be reborn as a strong state. Essentially, this war looked like a war for the revival of the nation. In modern Taiwanese military historical studies, there is a tendency to overestimate the role of the NRA in this war, although in general the level of combat effectiveness of the National Revolutionary Army was quite low.

China (under Chinese Communist Party): The Chinese Communists feared a large-scale war against the Japanese, leading guerrilla movements and political activity in the occupied territories to expand their controlled lands. The Communist Party avoided direct combat against the Japanese, while competing with the Nationalists for influence with the goal of remaining the main political force in the country after the conflict was resolved.

Soviet Union: The USSR, due to the aggravation of the situation in the West, was interested in peace with Japan in the east in order to avoid being drawn into a war on two fronts in the event of a possible conflict. In this regard, China seemed to be a good buffer zone between the spheres of interest of the USSR and Japan. It was beneficial for the USSR to support any central government in China so that it would organize a rebuff to Japanese intervention as effectively as possible, diverting Japanese aggression from Soviet territory.

UK: During the 1920s and 1930s, the British position towards Japan was peaceful. Thus, both states were part of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance. Many in the British community in China supported Japan's actions to weaken the Nationalist Chinese government. This was due to the Chinese Nationalists canceling most foreign concessions and restoring the right to set their own taxes and tariffs, without British influence. All this had a negative impact on British economic interests. With the outbreak of World War II, Great Britain fought Germany in Europe, hoping at the same time that the situation on the Sino-Japanese front would be in a stalemate. This would buy time for the return of the Pacific colonies in Hong Kong, Malaysia, Burma and Singapore. Most of the British armed forces were occupied with the war in Europe and could devote only very little attention to the war in the Pacific theater.

USA: The USA followed a policy of isolationism until the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, but helped China with volunteers and diplomatic measures, but at the same time supplied Japan with resources, equipment, machinery and oil until July 25, 1941 until 1940. The United States also imposed a steel trade embargo (July 1940) against Japan, demanding the withdrawal of its troops from China. With the US being drawn into World War II, particularly the war against Japan, China became a natural ally for the United States. There was American assistance to this country in its fight against Japan.

Vichy France: The main supply routes for American military aid ran through the Chinese province of Yunnan and Tonkin, the northern region of French Indochina, so Japan wanted to block the Sino-Indochina border. In 1940, after France's defeat in the European War and the establishment of the Vichy puppet regime, Japan invaded French Indochina. In March 1941, the Japanese finally ousted the French from Indochina, proclaiming their own colonies there.

Free France: In December 1941, following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Free French leader Charles de Gaulle declared war on Japan. The French acted on the basis of all-Allied interests, as well as in order to keep the Asian colonies of France under their control.

In general, all allies of Nationalist China had their own goals and objectives, often very different from the Chinese. This must be taken into account when considering the reasons for certain actions of different states.

Strengths of the parties

Empire of Japan

The Japanese army, allocated for combat operations in China, had 12 divisions, numbering 240-300 thousand soldiers and officers, 700 aircraft, about 450 tanks and armored vehicles, more than 1.5 thousand artillery pieces. The operational reserve consisted of units of the Kwantung Army and 7 divisions stationed in the metropolis. In addition, there were about 150 thousand Manchu and Mongol soldiers serving under Japanese officers. Significant naval forces were allocated to support the actions of the ground forces from the sea. The Japanese troops were well trained and equipped.

Republic of China

By the beginning of the conflict in China there were 1,900,000 soldiers and officers, 500 aircraft (according to other sources, in the summer of 1937, the Chinese Air Force had about 600 combat aircraft, of which 305 were fighters, but no more than half were combat-ready), 70 tanks, 1,000 artillery guns At the same time, only 300 thousand were directly subordinate to the commander-in-chief of the NRA, Chiang Kai-shek, and in total there were approximately 1 million people under the control of the Nanjing government, while the rest of the troops represented the forces of local militarists. Additionally, the fight against the Japanese was nominally supported by the Communists, who had a guerrilla army of approximately 150,000 men in northwestern China. The Kuomintang formed the 8th Army from 45 thousand of these partisans under the command of Zhu De. Chinese aviation consisted of outdated aircraft with inexperienced Chinese or hired foreign crews. There were no trained reserves. Chinese industry was not prepared to fight a major war.

In general, the Chinese armed forces were superior in numbers to the Japanese, but were significantly inferior in technical equipment, training, morale, and most importantly, in their organization.

Plans of the parties

Empire of Japan

The Japanese Empire aimed to retain Chinese territory by creating various structures in the rear that made it possible to control the occupied lands as effectively as possible. The army had to act with the support of the fleet. Naval landings were actively used to quickly capture populated areas without the need for a frontal attack on distant approaches. In general, the army enjoyed advantages in weapons, organization and mobility, superiority in the air and at sea.

Republic of China

China had a poorly armed and poorly organized army. Thus, many military units and even formations had absolutely no operational mobility, being tied to their places of deployment. In this regard, China's defensive strategy was based on tough defense, local offensive counter-operations, and the deployment of guerrilla warfare behind enemy lines. The nature of military operations was also influenced by the political disunity of the country. The communists and nationalists, while nominally presenting a united front in the fight against the Japanese, poorly coordinated their actions and often found themselves embroiled in internecine strife. Having a very small air force with poorly trained crews and outdated equipment, China resorted to assistance from the USSR (at an early stage) and the United States, which was expressed in the supply of aircraft equipment and materials, sending volunteer specialists to participate in military operations and training Chinese pilots.

In general, both nationalists and communists planned to provide only passive resistance to Japanese aggression (especially after the entry of the United States and Great Britain into the war against Japan), hoping for the defeat of the Japanese by allied forces and making efforts to create and strengthen the basis for a future war for power among themselves (creation of combat-ready troops and underground, strengthening control over unoccupied areas of the country, propaganda, etc.).

Beginning of the war

Most historians date the beginning of the Sino-Japanese War to the incident on the Lugouqiao Bridge (otherwise known as the Marco Polo Bridge), which occurred on July 7, 1937, but some Chinese historians set the starting point of the war at September 18, 1931, when the Mukden Incident occurred, during which the Kwantung The army, under the pretext of protecting the railway connecting Port Arthur with Mukden from possible sabotage actions of the Chinese during “night exercises,” captured the Mukden arsenal and nearby towns. Chinese forces were forced to retreat, and continued aggression left all of Manchuria in Japanese hands by February 1932. After this, until the official start of the Sino-Japanese War, there were constant Japanese seizures of territories in Northern China and battles of varying scale with the Chinese army. On the other hand, the Nationalist government of Chiang Kai-shek carried out a number of operations to combat separatist militarists and communists.

On July 7, 1937, Japanese troops clashed with Chinese troops at the Lugouqiao Bridge near Beijing. A Japanese soldier disappeared during a “night exercise.” The Japanese issued an ultimatum demanding that the Chinese hand over the soldier or open the gates of the fortified city of Wanping to search for him. The refusal of the Chinese authorities led to a shootout between the Japanese company and the Chinese infantry regiment. It came to the use of not only small arms, but also artillery. This served as a pretext for a full-scale invasion of China. In Japanese historiography, this war is traditionally called the “Chinese incident”, since initially the Japanese did not plan large-scale hostilities with China.

After a series of unsuccessful negotiations between the Chinese and Japanese sides on a peaceful resolution of the conflict, on July 26, 1937, Japan switched to full-scale military operations north of the Yellow River with the forces of 3 divisions and 2 brigades (about 40 thousand people with 120 guns, 150 tanks and armored vehicles, 6 armored trains and support for up to 150 aircraft). Japanese troops quickly captured Beijing (Beiping) (28 July) and Tianjin (30 July). Over the next few months, the Japanese advanced south and west against little resistance, capturing Chahar Province and part of Suiyuan Province, reaching the upper bend of the Yellow River at Baoding. But by September, due to the increased combat effectiveness of the Chinese army, the growth of the partisan movement and supply problems, the offensive slowed down, and in order to expand the scale of the offensive, the Japanese were forced to transfer up to 300 thousand soldiers and officers to Northern China by September.

On August 8 - November 8, the Second Battle of Shanghai unfolded, during which numerous Japanese landings as part of Matsui's 3rd Expeditionary Force, with intensive support from the sea and air, managed to capture the city of Shanghai, despite strong resistance from the Chinese; A pro-Japanese puppet government was formed in Shanghai. At this time, the Japanese 5th Itagaki Division was ambushed and defeated in the north of Shanxi by the 115th Division (under the command of Nie Rongzhen) from the 8th Army. The Japanese lost 3 thousand people and their main weapons. The Battle of Pingxinguan had great propaganda significance in China and became the largest battle between the communist army and the Japanese during the entire course of the war.

In November - December 1937, the Japanese army launched an attack on Nanjing along the Yangtze River without encountering strong resistance. On December 12, 1937, Japanese aircraft carried out an unprovoked raid on British and American ships stationed near Nanjing. As a result, the gunboat Panay was sunk. However, the conflict was avoided through diplomatic measures. On December 13, Nanjing fell and the government evacuated to the city of Hankou. The Japanese army carried out a bloody massacre of civilians in the city for 5 days, as a result of which 200 thousand people died. As a result of the battles for Nanjing, the Chinese army lost all tanks, artillery, aviation and navy. On December 14, 1937, the creation of the Provisional Government of the Republic of China, controlled by the Japanese, was proclaimed in Beijing.

In January - April 1938, the Japanese offensive in the north resumed. In January the conquest of Shandong was completed. Japanese troops faced a strong guerrilla movement and were unable to effectively control the captured territory. In March - April 1938, the Battle of Taierzhuang unfolded, during which a 200,000-strong group of regular troops and partisans under the overall command of General Li Zongren cut off and surrounded a 60,000-strong group of Japanese, who ultimately managed to break out of the ring, losing 20,000 people killed and a large amount of military equipment. On March 28, 1938, in the occupied territory of central China, the Japanese proclaimed the creation of the so-called “Reformed Government of the Republic of China” in Nanjing.

In May - June 1938, the Japanese regrouped, concentrating more than 200 thousand soldiers and officers and about 400 tanks against 400 thousand poorly armed Chinese, practically devoid of military equipment, and continued the offensive, as a result of which Xuzhou (May 20) and Kaifeng (6 June). In these battles, the Japanese used chemical and bacteriological weapons.

In May 1938, the New 4th Army was created under the command of Ye Ting, formed from communists and stationed mainly in the Japanese rear south of the middle reaches of the Yangtze.

In June - July 1938, the Chinese stopped the Japanese strategic offensive on Hankou through Zhengzhou by destroying the dams that prevented the Yellow River from overflowing and flooding the surrounding area. At the same time, many Japanese soldiers died, a large number of tanks, trucks and guns ended up under water or stuck in the mud. But many Chinese civilians also died.

Changing the direction of attack to a more southern one, the Japanese captured Hankow (October 25) during long, grueling battles. Chiang Kai-shek decided to leave the Wuhan Tricity and moved his capital to Chongqing.

On October 22, 1938, a Japanese naval landing force, delivered on 12 transport ships under the cover of 1 cruiser, 1 destroyer, 2 gunboats and 3 minesweepers, landed on both sides of the Humen Strait and stormed the Chinese forts guarding the passage to Canton. On the same day, Chinese units of the 12th Army left the city without a fight. Japanese troops of the 21st Army entered the city, seizing warehouses with weapons, ammunition, equipment and food.

In general, during the first period of the war, the Japanese army, despite partial successes, was unable to achieve the main strategic goal - the destruction of the Chinese army. At the same time, the stretch of the front, the isolation of troops from supply bases and the growing Chinese partisan movement worsened the position of the Japanese.

Japan, due to the emerging acute shortage of resources, decided to change the strategy of active struggle to a strategy of attrition. Japan is limited to only local operations at the front and is moving on to intensifying political struggle. This was caused by excessive tension and problems of control over the hostile population of the occupied territories. With most of the ports captured by the Japanese army, China was left with only three routes to obtain aid from the Allies - the narrow gauge road to Kunming from Haiphong in French Indochina; the winding Burma Road, which ran to Kunming through British Burma and, finally, the Xinjiang Highway, which ran from the Soviet-Chinese border through Xinjiang and Gansu Province.

On November 1, 1938, Chiang Kai-shek appealed to the Chinese people to continue the war of resistance against Japan to a victorious end. The Chinese Communist Party approved the speech during a meeting of Chongqing youth organizations. In the same month, Japanese troops managed to take the cities of Fuxin and Fuzhou with the help of amphibious assaults.

Japan makes peace proposals to the Kuomintang government on some terms favorable to Japan. This strengthens the internal party contradictions of the Chinese nationalists. As a consequence of this, there followed the betrayal of Chinese Vice-Premier Wang Jingwei, who fled to Shanghai captured by the Japanese.

In February 1939, during the Hainan landing operation, the Japanese army, under the cover of ships of the Japanese 2nd Fleet, captured the cities of Junzhou and Haikou, losing two transport ships and a barge with troops.

From March 13 to April 3, 1939, the Nanchang Operation unfolded, during which Japanese troops consisting of the 101st and 106th Infantry Divisions, with the support of a Marine landing and the massive use of aviation and gunboats, managed to occupy the city of Nanchang and a number of other cities. At the end of April, the Chinese launched a successful counterattack on Nanchang and liberated the city of Hoan. However, then Japanese troops launched a local attack in the direction of the city of Ichang. Japanese troops entered Nanchang again on August 29.

In June 1939, the Chinese cities of Shantou (June 21) and Fuzhou (June 27) were taken by amphibious assault.

In September 1939, Chinese troops managed to stop the Japanese offensive 18 km north of the city of Changsha. On October 10, they launched a counteroffensive against units of the 11th Army in the direction of Nanchang, which they managed to occupy on October 10. During the operation, the Japanese lost up to 25 thousand people and more than 20 landing craft.

From November 14 to 25, the Japanese launched a landing of a 12,000-strong military group in the Pan Khoi area. During the Pankhoi landing operation and the subsequent offensive, the Japanese managed to capture the cities of Pankhoi, Qinzhou, Dantong and, finally, on November 24, after fierce fighting, Nanying. However, the advance on Lanzhou was stopped by a counterattack by General Bai Chongxi's 24th Army, and Japanese aircraft began bombing the city. On December 8, Chinese troops, with the assistance of the Zhongjin air group of Soviet Major S. Suprun, stopped the Japanese offensive from the Nanying area at the Kunlunguang line, after which (December 16, 1939) with the forces of the 86th and 10th armies, the Chinese began an offensive with the aim of encircling the Wuhan group of Japanese troops. The operation was supported from the flanks by the 21st and 50th armies. On the first day of the operation, the Japanese defense was broken through, but the further course of events led to a halt in the offensive, a retreat to their original positions and a transition to defensive actions. The Wuhan operation failed due to shortcomings in the Chinese army's command and control system.

In March 1940, Japan formed a puppet government in Nanjing in order to obtain political and military support in the fight against partisans in the rear. It was headed by former Vice-Premier of China Wang Jingwei, who defected to the Japanese.

In June-July, the successes of Japanese diplomacy in negotiations with Great Britain and France led to the cessation of military supplies to China through Burma and Indochina. On June 20, an Anglo-Japanese agreement was concluded on joint actions against violators of the order and security of Japanese military forces in China, according to which, in particular, Chinese silver worth $40 million, stored in the English and French missions in Tianjin, was transferred to Japan.

On August 20, 1940, a joint large-scale (up to 400 thousand people participated) offensive of the Chinese 4th, 8th Army (formed from communists) and partisan detachments of the Communist Party of China began against Japanese troops in the provinces of Shanxi, Chahar, Hubei and Henan, known as “ Battle of a Hundred Regiments. In Jiangsu province, there were a number of clashes between communist army units and the Kuomintang partisan detachments of Governor H. Deqin, as a result of which the latter were defeated. The result of the Chinese offensive was the liberation of a territory with a population of more than 5 million people and 73 large settlements. The personnel losses on both sides were approximately equal (about 20 thousand people on each side).

On October 18, 1940, Winston Churchill decided to reopen the Burma Road. This was done with the approval of the United States, which intended to carry out military supplies to China under Lend-Lease.

During 1940, Japanese troops limited themselves to only one offensive operation in the lower Hanshui River basin and successfully carried it out, capturing the city of Yichang.

In January 1941, in Anhui province, Kuomintang military formations attacked units of the 4th Army of the Communist Party. Its commander Ye Ting, who arrived at the headquarters of the Kuomintang troops for negotiations, was arrested by deception. This was caused by Ye Ting's disregard of Chiang Kai-shek's orders to attack the Japanese, which resulted in the latter being court-martialed. Relations between communists and nationalists deteriorated. Meanwhile, the 50,000-strong Japanese army carried out an unsuccessful offensive in the provinces of Hubei and Henan in order to connect the Central and Northern fronts.

By March 1941, two large operational groups of the Kuomintang government were concentrated against areas controlled by the Communist Party of China (hereinafter referred to as the CCP): in the northwest, the 34th Army Group of General Hu Zongnan (16 infantry and 3 cavalry divisions) and in the provinces Anhui and Jiangsu - General Liu Pingxiang's 21st Army Group and General Tang Enbo's 31st Army Group (15 infantry and 2 cavalry divisions). On March 2, the CCP put forward a new "Twelve Demands" to the Chinese government to reach an agreement between the Communists and the Nationalists.

On April 13, the Soviet-Japanese Treaty of Neutrality was signed, guaranteeing the USSR that Japan would not enter the war in the Soviet Far East if Germany nevertheless started a war with the Soviet Union.

A series of offensives undertaken by the Japanese army during 1941 (the Yichang Operation, the Fujian Landing Operation, the offensive in Shanxi Province, the Yichang Operation and the Second Changshai Operation) and the air offensive on Chongqing, the capital of Kuomintang China, did not produce any particular results and did not lead to a change in the balance of forces. in China.

On December 7, 1941, Japan attacked the colonies of the United States, Great Britain, and the Netherlands in Southeast Asia, which changed the balance of opposing forces in the Asia-Pacific region. Already on December 8, the Japanese began bombing British Hong Kong and advancing with the 38th Infantry Division. On December 9, Chiang Kai-shek’s government declared war on the “Axis countries”: Germany and Italy, and on December 10 - on Japan (the war had gone on without a formal declaration until that time).

On December 24, the Japanese launched the third counter-offensive of the war on Changsha, and on December 25, units of the 38th Infantry Division of the Imperial Japanese Army took Hong Kong, forcing the remnants of the British garrison (12 thousand people) to surrender, while the losses of Japanese troops during the battles for The island consisted of 3 thousand people. The Third Changshai Operation was unsuccessful and ended on January 15, 1942 with the withdrawal of Japanese units of the 11th Army to their original positions.

On December 26, an agreement on a military alliance was concluded between China, Great Britain and the United States. A coalition command was also created to coordinate the military actions of the allies, who opposed the Japanese as a united front. So, in March 1942, Chinese troops in the 5th and 6th armies under the overall command of the American General Stilwell (Chief of the General Staff of the Chinese Army Chiang Kai-shek) arrived from China to British Burma along the Burma Road to fight the Japanese invasion.

In May-June, the Japanese carried out the Zhejiang-Jiangxi offensive operation, taking several cities, the Lishui air force base and the Zhejiang-Hunan railway. Several Chinese units were surrounded (units of the 88th and 9th armies).

Throughout the period 1941-1943, the Japanese also carried out punitive operations against communist forces. This was caused by the need to combat the ever-increasing partisan movement. Thus, within a year (from the summer of 1941 to the summer of 1942), as a result of the punitive operations of the Japanese troops, the territory of the partisan regions of the CPC was halved. During this time, units of the 8th Army and the New 4th Army of the CPC lost up to 150 thousand soldiers in battles with the Japanese.

In July-December 1942, local battles took place, as well as several local offensives by both Chinese and Japanese troops, which did not particularly affect the overall course of military operations.

Due to the Japanese capture of Burma, supplies of goods to China were reduced even more, and an acute shortage of weapons and ammunition began to be felt in parts of the Chinese army. In response, the British begin to build the Ledo Road from the Indian city of Assam to the Burma Road, bypassing Japanese-occupied territory.

In 1943, China, which found itself in practical isolation, was very weakened. Japan, on the other hand, used the tactics of small local operations, the so-called “rice offensives,” aimed at exhausting the Chinese army, seizing provisions in the newly occupied territories and depriving their already starving enemy. During this period, the Chinese air group of Brigadier General Claire Chennault, formed from the Flying Tigers volunteer group, which had been operating in China since 1941, was active.

On January 9, 1943, the Nanjing puppet government in China declared war on Great Britain and the United States.

The beginning of the year was characterized by local battles between the Japanese and Chinese armies. In March, the Japanese unsuccessfully tried to encircle the Chinese group in the Huaiyin-Yangchenghu area in Jiangsu Province (Huaiyin-Yancheng Operation).

In May - June, the Japanese 11th Army went on the offensive from a bridgehead on the Yichang River in the direction of the Chinese capital, Chongqing, but was counterattacked by Chinese units and retreated to their original positions (Chongqing Operation).

At the end of 1943, the Chinese army successfully repelled one of the Japanese “rice offensives” in Hunan Province, winning the Battle of Changde (November 23 - December 10).

In 1944-1945, a de facto truce was established between the Japanese and Chinese communists. The Japanese completely stopped punitive raids against the communists. This was beneficial to both sides - the Communists were able to consolidate control over Northwestern China, and the Japanese freed up forces for the war in the south.

The beginning of 1944 was characterized by offensive operations of a local nature.

On April 14, 1944, units of the 12th Japanese Army of the Northern Front went on the offensive against the Chinese troops of the 1st Military Region (VR) in the direction of the city. Zhengzhou, Queshan, breaking through Chinese defenses with armored vehicles. This marked the beginning of the Beijing-Hankous operation; a day later, units of the 11th Army of the Central Front moved towards them from the Xinyang area, going on the offensive against the 5th Chinese VR with the aim of encircling the Chinese group in the valley of the river. Huaihe. 148 thousand Japanese soldiers and officers were involved in this operation in the main directions. The offensive was successfully completed by May 9. Units of both armies united in the area of the city of Queshan. During the operation, the Japanese captured the strategically important city of Zhengzhou (April 19), as well as Luoyang (May 25). Most of the territory of Henan Province and the entire railway line from Beijing to Hankou were in the hands of the Japanese.

A further development of active offensive combat operations of the Japanese army was the Hunan-Guilin operation of the 23rd Army against the Chinese troops of the 4th VR in the direction of Liuzhou.

In May - September 1944, the Japanese continued to conduct offensive operations in a southern direction. Japanese activity led to the fall of Changsha and Henyang. The Chinese fought stubbornly for Hengyang and counterattacked the enemy in a number of places, while Changsha was left without a fight.

At the same time, the Chinese launched an offensive in Yunnan Province with Group Y forces. The troops advanced in two columns, crossing the Salween River. The southern column encircled the Japanese at Longlin, but was driven back after a series of Japanese counterattacks. The northern column advanced more successfully, capturing the city of Tengchong with the support of the American 14th Air Force.

On December 20, Japanese troops advancing from the north, from the Guangzhou area and from Indochina, united in the city of Nanlu, establishing a through railway connection across all of China from Korea to Indochina.

At the end of the year, American aircraft transferred two Chinese divisions from Burma to China.

The year 1944 was also characterized by successful operations of the American submarine fleet off the Chinese coast.

On January 10, 1945, parts of the group of troops of General Wei Lihuang liberated the city of Wanting and crossed the Chinese-Burmese border, entering the territory of Burma, and on January 11, the troops of the 6th Front of the Japanese went on the offensive against the Chinese 9th BP in the direction of the cities of Ganzhou and Yizhang , Shaoguan.

In January - February, the Japanese army resumed its offensive in Southeast China, occupying vast territories in the coastal provinces - between Wuhan and the border of French Indochina. Three more air bases of the American 14th Air Force Chennault were captured.

In March 1945, the Japanese launched another offensive to seize crops in Central China. The forces of the 39th Infantry Division of the 11th Army struck in the direction of the city of Gucheng (Henan-Hubei operation). In March - April, the Japanese also managed to take two American air bases in China - Laohotou and Laohekou.

On April 5, the USSR unilaterally denounced the neutrality pact with Japan in connection with the commitments of the Soviet leadership, given at the Yalta Conference in February 1945, to enter the war against Japan three months after the victory over Germany, which at that time was already close.

Realizing that his forces were too stretched, General Yasuji Okamura, in an effort to strengthen the Kwantung Army stationed in Manchuria, which was threatened by the entry of the USSR into the war, began to transfer troops to the north.

As a result of the Chinese counteroffensive, by May 30, the corridor leading to Indochina was cut. By July 1, the 100,000-strong Japanese group was surrounded in Canton, and about 100,000 more returned to Northern China under the attacks of the American 10th and 14th Air Armies. On July 27, they abandoned one of the previously captured American air bases in Guilin.

In May, Chinese troops of the 3rd VR attacked Fuzhou and managed to liberate the city from the Japanese. Active Japanese operations both here and in other areas were generally curtailed, and the army went on the defensive.

In June and July, the Japanese and Chinese nationalists carried out a series of punitive operations against the communist Special Region and parts of the CCP.

On August 8, 1945, the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR officially joined the Potsdam Declaration of the USA, Great Britain and China and declared war on Japan. By this time, Japan was already drained of blood and its ability to continue the war was minimal.

Soviet troops, taking advantage of the quantitative and qualitative superiority of troops, launched a decisive offensive in Northeast China and quickly crushed the Japanese defenses. (See: Soviet-Japanese War).

At the same time, a struggle developed between the Chinese Nationalists and Communists for political influence. On August 10, the commander-in-chief of the CPC troops, Zhu De, gave the order for the communist troops to go on the offensive against the Japanese along the entire front, and on August 11, Chiang Kai-shek gave a similar order for all Chinese troops to go on the offensive, but it was specifically stipulated that the communists should not take part in this. -I and 8th armies. Despite this, the communists went on the offensive. Both communists and nationalists were now primarily concerned with establishing their power in the country after the victory over Japan, which was rapidly losing to its allies. At the same time, the USSR secretly supported primarily the communists, and the USA - the nationalists.

The entry of the USSR into the war and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki accelerated the final defeat and defeat of Japan.

On August 14, when it became clear that the Kwantung Army had suffered a crushing defeat, the Japanese Emperor announced Japan's surrender.

On August 14-15, a ceasefire was declared. But despite this decision, individual Japanese units continued desperate resistance throughout the entire theater of military operations until September 7-8, 1945.

On September 2, 1945, in Tokyo Bay, on board the American battleship Missouri, representatives of the United States, Great Britain, the USSR, France and Japan signed the act of surrender of the Japanese armed forces. On September 9, 1945, He Yingqin, representing both the government of the Republic of China and the Allied Command in Southeast Asia, accepted the surrender from the commander of Japanese forces in China, General Okamura Yasuji. Thus ended the Second World War in Asia.

Blitzkrieg in Soviet style.

Use of chemical weapons

The army of the Empire of Japan used chemical weapons against Chinese troops, which, with their massive use and the almost complete absence of chemical protection and chemical reconnaissance of the Chinese troops, led to large losses in their ranks.

Foreign aid to China

Military, diplomatic and economic assistance to the USSR

In the 1930s, the USSR systematically pursued a course of political support for China as a victim of Japanese aggression. Thanks to close contacts with the Communist Party of China and the difficult situation in which Chiang Kai-shek was placed by the rapid military actions of Japanese troops, the USSR became an active diplomatic force in rallying the forces of the Kuomintang government and the Communist Party of China.

In August 1937, a non-aggression pact was signed between China and the USSR, and the Nanjing government turned to the latter with a request for material assistance. On March 1, 1938, a Soviet-Chinese agreement was signed, according to which the USSR provided China with a loan of $50 million for the purchase of Soviet goods, as well as for their delivery to Chinese territory, and the loan and interest on it were to be repaid by supplies of Chinese goods. On June 13, 1939, a bilateral agreement was concluded on a new Soviet loan to China in the amount of $150 million for a period of 10 years.

China's almost complete loss of opportunities for permanent relations with the outside world has given the province of Xinjiang paramount importance as one of the country's most important land connections with the USSR and Europe. Therefore, in 1937, the Chinese government turned to the USSR with a request for assistance in creating the Sary-Ozek - Urumqi - Lanzhou highway for the delivery of weapons, aircraft, ammunition, etc. to China from the USSR. The Soviet government agreed and the road was built.

From 1937 to 1941, the USSR regularly supplied weapons, ammunition, etc. to China by sea and through the Xinjiang province. The first batches of weapons and military equipment went by sea (from November 1937 to February 1938) from Odessa, since this route was more convenient - one ship carried 10 thousand tons of cargo, and one car only 1 ton (in addition, for each the truck required another 15 camels to transport fuel). But after the Japanese established a naval blockade of the Chinese coast, the land route became a priority. To ensure transportation of fuel, in 1938 an agreement was concluded between the authorities of the USSR, China and the province of Xinjiang on the construction of an oil refinery in Tushangzi, which began operation in 1939 (after Soviet geologists were convinced of the presence of oil in the area).

On June 16, 1939, the Soviet-Chinese trade agreement was signed, concerning the trading activities of both states. In 1937-1940, over 300 Soviet military advisers worked in China. In total, over 5 thousand Soviet citizens worked there during these years, including A. Vlasov and V.I. Chuikov, who left memoirs published later under the title “Mission in China.” Among them were volunteer pilots, teachers and instructors, aircraft and tank assembly workers, aviation specialists, road and bridge specialists, transport workers, doctors and, finally, military advisers.

By the beginning of 1939, thanks to the efforts of military specialists from the USSR, losses in the Chinese army dropped sharply. If in the first year of the war the Chinese losses in killed and wounded were 800 thousand people (5:1 to the Japanese losses), then in the second year they were equal to the Japanese (300 thousand).

On September 1, 1940, the first stage of a new aircraft assembly plant built by Soviet specialists was launched in Urumqi.

In total, during the period 1937-1941, the USSR supplied China with: 1285 aircraft (of which 777 fighters, 408 bombers, 100 training aircraft), 1600 guns of various calibers, 82 T-26 light tanks, heavy and light machine guns - 14 thousand, cars and tractors - 1850..

In 1942 - 1943, due to the deterioration of relations, Soviet enterprises in Xinjiang (oil refinery and aircraft assembly plants (No. 600)) were dismantled, and their equipment was exported to the USSR.

Combat actions of Soviet pilots

The Chinese Air Force had about 100 aircraft. Japan had a tenfold superiority in aviation. One of the largest Japanese air bases was located in Taiwan, near Taipei.

By the beginning of 1938, a batch of new SB bombers arrived from the USSR to China as part of Operation Zet. The chief military adviser for the Air Force, brigade commander P.V. Rychagov and air attache P.F. Zhigarev (future commander-in-chief of the USSR Air Force) developed a bold operation. 12 SB bombers under the command of Colonel F.P. Polynin were to take part in it. The raid took place on February 23, 1938. The target was successfully hit, and all bombers returned to base.

Fragment of the monument to Soviet volunteer pilots in Wuhan

End of cooperation

The German attack on the Soviet Union and the deployment of allied military operations in the Pacific theater led to a deterioration in Soviet-Chinese relations, since the Chinese leadership did not believe in the victory of the USSR over Germany and, on the other hand, reoriented its policy towards rapprochement with the West. In 1942-1943, economic ties between both states weakened sharply.

In March 1942, the USSR was forced to begin recalling its military advisers due to anti-Soviet sentiment in the Chinese provinces.

In May 1943, the Soviet government was forced, after declaring a strong protest in connection with the excesses of the Xinjiang Kuomintang authorities, to close all trade organizations and recall its trade representatives and specialists.

Military, diplomatic and economic assistance from the United States and its allies

Since December 1937, a series of events (the attack on the American gunboat Penei, the Nanjing massacre, etc.) turned public opinion in the USA, France and Great Britain against Japan and aroused certain fears regarding Japanese expansion. This prompted the governments of these countries to begin providing the Kuomintang with loans for military needs. In addition, Australia did not allow one of the Japanese companies to purchase an iron ore mine on its territory, and in 1938 it banned the export of iron ore to Japan. Japan responded by invading Indochina in 1940, cutting off the Sino-Vietnamese Railway, through which China imported weapons, fuel, and 10,000 tons of materials from Western allies every month.

In mid-1941, the US government funded the creation of the American Volunteer Group, led by Claire Lee Chennault, to replace Soviet aircraft and volunteers who had left China. The successful combat operations of this group caused a wide public outcry against the backdrop of the difficult situation on other fronts, and the combat experience acquired by the pilots was used in all theaters of military operations. In 1943, on the basis of this group, the 14th US Air Force was created, which also fought in Chinese skies until the end of the war.

To put pressure on the Japanese army in China, the US, UK and the Netherlands established an embargo on oil and steel trade with Japan. The loss of oil imports made it impossible for Japan to continue the war in China. This pushed Japan to forcefully resolve the supply issue, which was marked by the attack of the Imperial Japanese Navy on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

Military, diplomatic and economic assistance to Germany

In the pre-war period, Germany and China cooperated closely in the economic and military spheres. Germany helped China modernize its industry and army in exchange for supplies of Chinese raw materials. More than half of German exports of military equipment and materials during the German rearmament period in the 1930s went to China. The 30 new Chinese divisions that were planned to be equipped and trained with German help were never created due to Adolf Hitler's refusal to further support China. By 1938 these plans had not been implemented. This decision was largely due to the reorientation of German policy towards concluding an alliance with Japan. German policy especially shifted towards cooperation with Japan after the signing of the Anti-Comintern Pact.

Foreign aid to Japan

In 1937-1939, the United States sold Japan military materials and raw materials in the amount of $511 million.

The fighting in the Khalkhin Gol area coincided with negotiations between Japanese Foreign Minister Hachiro Arita and the British Ambassador in Tokyo Robert Craigie. In July 1939, an agreement was concluded between England and Japan, according to which Great Britain recognized the Japanese seizures in China (thus providing diplomatic support for aggression against the Mongolian People's Republic and its ally, the USSR). At the same time, the US government extended the previously canceled trade agreement with Japan for six months, and then completely restored it. As part of the agreement, Japan purchased trucks for the Kwantung Army, machine tools for aircraft factories for $3 million, strategic materials (until 10/16/1940 - steel and iron scrap, until 07/26/1941 - gasoline and petroleum products), etc. A new embargo was imposed only on July 26 1941.

Results

The main reason for Japan's defeat in World War II was the victories of the American and British armed forces at sea and in the air, and the defeat of the largest Japanese land army, the Kwantung Army, by Soviet troops in August-September 1945, which allowed the liberation of Chinese territory.

Despite their numerical superiority over the Japanese, the effectiveness and combat effectiveness of the Chinese troops was very low, largely due to the more backward weapons of the Chinese army, which suffered 8.4 times more casualties than the Japanese.

The actions of the armed forces of the Western Allies, as well as the armed forces of the USSR, saved China from complete defeat.

Japanese troops in China formally surrendered on September 9, 1945. The Sino-Japanese War, and with it the Second World War in Asia, ended with the complete surrender of Japan to the Allies.

Territorial changes

According to the decisions of the Cairo Conference (1943), the territories of Manchuria and the Pescadores Islands were transferred to China. The Ryukyu Islands were recognized as Japanese territory.

Losses of the parties

Chinese sources cite a figure of 35 million - the total number of losses in killed and wounded (armed forces and civilians).

According to Rudolf Rummel, the total losses amounted to more than 19 million people, including more than 12 million civilians.

The situation in the Japanese-occupied territories

Terror tactics were used against the local population.

War crimes

Nanjing massacre of 1937.

Inhumane experiments on prisoners of war and civilians during the creation of bacteriological weapons (Unit 731).

Cruel treatment and execution of prisoners of war.

Midway Aleutian Islands Andaman Islands Gilbert and Marshall Islands Burma Philippines (1944–1945) Mariana Islands Borneo Ryukyu Manchuria

Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945)
Background to the conflict Manchuria (1931-1932) (Mukden - Battle on the Nunjiang River - Qiqihar - Jinzhou - Harbin)- Shanghai (1932) - Manchukuo - Zhehe - Wall - Inner Mongolia - (Suiyuan) Lugouqiao Bridge - Beijing-Tianjin - Chahar - Shanghai (1937) (Sykhan Warehouses)- Beiping-Hankou Railway - Tianjin-Pukou Railway - Taiyuan - Pingxinguan - Xinkou- Nanjing - Xuzhou- Taierzhuang - North-East Henan - (Langfeng) - Amoy - Chongqing - Wuhan- (Wanjialin) - Canton Second period of the war (October 1938 - December 1941) (Hainan) - Nanchang- (Shushui River) - Suizhou- (Shantou) - Changsha (1939) - Yu Guangxi - (Kunlun Gorge)- Winter Offensive - (Wuyuan) - Zaoyang and Yichang - Battle of a Hundred Regiments- S. Vietnam - C. Hubei - Yu Henan- Z. Hubei (1941) - Shangao - South Shanxi - Changsha (1941) Third period of the war (December 1941 - August 1945) Changsha (1942)- Burma Road - (Taungoo) - (Yenangyaung) - Zhejiang-Jiangxi- Chongqing Campaign - Z. Hubei (1943)- S.Burma-W.Yunnan - Changde - "Ichi-Go"- C. Henan - Changsha (1944) - Guilin-Liuzhou - Henan-Hubei - Z.Henan- Guangxi (1945) Soviet-Japanese War

Sino-Japanese War(July 7 - September 9) - the war between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan, which began in the period before World War II and continued during it.

Although both states had been engaged in periodic hostilities since 1931, full-scale war broke out in 1937 and ended with the surrender of Japan in 1937. The war was a consequence of Japan's imperialist course of political and military dominance in China for several decades in order to seize huge reserves of raw materials and other resources. At the same time, growing Chinese nationalism and increasingly widespread ideas of self-determination made a military response inevitable. Until 1937, the sides clashed in sporadic fighting, so-called "incidents", as both sides, for many reasons, refrained from starting an all-out war. In 1931, the invasion of Manchuria (also known as the Mukden Incident) occurred. The last such incident was the Lugouqiao incident, the Japanese shelling of the Marco Polo Bridge on July 7, 1937, which marked the official start of a full-scale war between the two countries.

Name options

The Qing dynasty was on the verge of collapse due to internal revolutionary uprisings and the expansion of foreign imperialism, while Japan became a great power thanks to effective measures in the course of modernization. The Republic of China was proclaimed in 1912 as a result of the Xinhai Revolution, which overthrew the Qing dynasty. However, the nascent republic was even weaker than before - this dates back to the period of militaristic wars. The prospects for uniting the nation and repelling the imperialist threat looked very remote. Some military leaders even teamed up with various foreign forces in attempts at mutual destruction. For example, the ruler of Manchuria, Zhang Zuolin, adhered to military and economic cooperation with the Japanese. Thus, Japan posed the main foreign threat to China during the early Republic.

The Mukden Incident was followed by ongoing conflicts. In 1932, Chinese and Japanese soldiers fought a short war called the January 28 Incident. This war led to the demilitarization of Shanghai, in which the Chinese were prohibited from stationing their armed forces. In Manchukuo there was a long campaign to combat the anti-Japanese volunteer armies, which arose out of popular disappointment in the policy of non-resistance to the Japanese. In 1933, the Japanese attacked the Great Wall of China area, leading to an armistice that gave the Japanese control of Rehe Province and created a demilitarized zone between the Great Wall and the Beijing–Tianjin area. The Japanese goal was to create another buffer zone, this time between Manchukuo and the Chinese Nationalist government, whose capital was Nanjing.

On top of this, Japan continued to exploit internal conflicts between Chinese political factions to reduce their power. This confronted the Nanjing government with a fact - for several years after the Northern Expedition, the political power of the Nationalist government extended only to the areas around the Yangtze River Delta, while other regions of China were essentially held in the hands of regional authorities. Thus, Japan often paid off or created special ties with these regional powers to undermine the central Nationalist government's efforts to unify China. To accomplish this, Japan sought out various Chinese traitors to interact with and assist these people heading some Japanese-friendly "autonomous" governments. This policy was called the "specialization" of North China and was also known as the "North China Autonomy Movement." Specialization affected the northern provinces of Chahar, Suiyuan, Hebei, Shanxi and Shandong.

Vichy France: The main supply routes for American military aid ran through the Chinese province of Yunnan and Tonkin, the northern region of French Indochina, so Japan wanted to block the Sino-Indochinese border. After France's defeat in the European War and the establishment of the Vichy puppet regime, Japan invaded Indochina. In March 1945, the Japanese finally ousted the French from Indochina, proclaiming their own colonies there.

Free France: In December 1941, after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the leader of the Free French movement, Charles de Gaulle, declared war on Japan. The French acted on the basis of all-Allied interests, as well as in order to keep the Asian colonies of France under their control.

Strengths of the parties

Empire of Japan

Republic of China

By the beginning of the conflict, China had 1,900 thousand soldiers and officers, 500 aircraft (according to other sources, in the summer of 1937, the Chinese Air Force had about 600 combat aircraft, of which 305 were fighters, but no more than half were combat-ready), 70 tanks, 1,000 artillery pieces . At the same time, only 300 thousand were directly subordinate to the commander-in-chief of the NRA, Chiang Kai-shek, and in total there were approximately 1 million people under the control of the Nanjing government, while the rest of the troops represented the forces of local militarists. Additionally, the fight against the Japanese was nominally supported by the Communists, who had a guerrilla army of approximately 150,000 men in northwestern China. The Kuomintang formed the 8th March Army from 45 thousand of these partisans under the command of Zhu De. Chinese aviation consisted of outdated aircraft with inexperienced Chinese or hired foreign crews. There were no trained reserves. Chinese industry was not prepared to fight a major war.

In general, the Chinese armed forces were superior in numbers to the Japanese, but were significantly inferior in technical equipment, training, morale, and most importantly, in their organization.

The Chinese fleet consisted of 10 cruisers, 15 patrol and torpedo boats.

Plans of the parties

Empire of Japan

Republic of China

China had a poorly armed and poorly organized army. Thus, many troops had absolutely no operational mobility, being tied to their places of deployment. In this regard, China's defensive strategy was based on tough defense, local offensive counter-operations, and the deployment of guerrilla warfare behind enemy lines. The nature of military operations was influenced by the political disunity of the country. The communists and nationalists, while nominally presenting a united front in the fight against the Japanese, poorly coordinated their actions and often found themselves embroiled in internecine strife. Having a very small air force with poorly trained crews and outdated equipment, China resorted to assistance from the USSR (at an early stage) and the United States, which was expressed in the supply of aircraft equipment and materials, sending volunteer specialists to participate in military operations and training Chinese pilots.

In general, both nationalists and communists planned to provide only passive resistance to Japanese aggression (especially after the United States and Great Britain entered the war against Japan), hoping for the defeat of the Japanese by the Allied forces and making efforts to create and strengthen the basis for a future war for power among themselves (creation of combat-ready troops and underground, strengthening control over unoccupied areas of the country, propaganda, etc.).

Beginning of the war

Most historians date the beginning of the Sino-Japanese War to the incident on the Lugouqiao Bridge (otherwise known as the Marco Polo Bridge), which occurred on July 7, but some Chinese historians set the starting point of the war at September 18, when the Mukden Incident occurred, during which the Kwantung Army under the pretext of protecting the railway connecting Port Arthur with Mukden from possible sabotage actions of the Chinese during “night exercises”, it captured the Mukden arsenal and nearby towns. Chinese forces were forced to retreat, and continued aggression left all of Manchuria in Japanese hands by February 1932. After this, until the official start of the Sino-Japanese War, there were constant Japanese seizures of territories in Northern China and battles of varying scale with the Chinese army. On the other hand, the Nationalist government of Chiang Kai-shek carried out a number of operations to combat separatist militarists and communists.

First period of the war (July 1937 - October 1938)

After a series of unsuccessful negotiations between the Chinese and Japanese sides on a peaceful resolution of the conflict, on July 26, 1937, Japan switched to full-scale military operations north of the Yellow River with the forces of 3 divisions and 2 brigades (about 40 thousand people with 120 guns, 150 tanks and armored vehicles, 6 armored trains and support for up to 150 aircraft). Japanese troops quickly captured Beijing (Beiping) (28 July) and Tianjin (30 July). Over the next few months, the Japanese advanced south and west against little resistance, capturing Chahar Province and part of Suiyuan Province, reaching the upper bend of the Yellow River at Baoding. But by September, due to the increased combat effectiveness of the Chinese army, the growth of the partisan movement and supply problems, the offensive slowed down, and in order to expand the scale of the offensive, by September the Japanese were forced to transfer up to 300 thousand soldiers and officers to Northern China.

On August 8 - November 8, the Second Battle of Shanghai unfolded, during which numerous Japanese landings as part of Matsui's 3rd Expeditionary Force, with intensive support from the sea and air, managed to capture the city, despite strong resistance from the Chinese. At this time, the Japanese 5th Itagaki Division was ambushed and defeated in the north of Shanxi by the 115th Division (under the command of Nie Rongzhen) from the 8th March Army. The Japanese lost 3 thousand people and their main weapons. The Battle of Pingxinguan had great propaganda significance in China and became the largest battle between the communist army and the Japanese during the entire course of the war.

In May - June 1939, the Japanese regrouped, concentrating more than 200 thousand soldiers and officers and about 400 tanks against 400 thousand poorly armed Chinese, practically devoid of military equipment, and continued the offensive, as a result of which Xuzhou (May 20) and Kaifeng (June 6) were taken ). In these battles, the Japanese used chemical and bacteriological weapons.

Second period of the war (November 1938 - December 1941)

Japan decided to change the strategy of active struggle to a strategy of attrition. Japan is limited to only local operations at the front and is moving on to intensifying political struggle. This was caused by excessive tension and problems of control over the hostile population of the occupied territories. With most of the ports captured by the Japanese army, China was left with only three routes to obtain aid from the Allies - the narrow gauge road to Kunming from Haiphong in French Indochina; the winding Burma Road, which ran to Kunming through British Burma, and finally the Xinjiang Highway, which ran from the Sino-Soviet border through Xinjiang and Gansu Province.

Japan makes peace proposals to the Kuomintang government on some terms favorable to Japan. This strengthens the internal party contradictions of the Chinese nationalists. As a consequence of this, there followed the betrayal of Chinese Vice Premier Wang Jingwei, who fled to Shanghai captured by the Japanese.

In June 1939, the Chinese cities of Shantou (June 21) and Fuzhou (June 27) were taken by amphibious assault.

In September 1939, Chinese troops managed to stop the Japanese offensive 18 km north of the city of Changsha. On October 10, they launched a successful counteroffensive against units of the 11th Army in the direction of Nanchang, which they managed to occupy on October 10. During the operation, the Japanese lost up to 25 thousand people and more than 20 landing craft.

Japanese occupation of China

On August 20, 1940, a joint large-scale (up to 400 thousand people participated) offensive of the 4th, 8th Chinese Army (formed from communists) and guerrilla detachments of the Communist Party of China began against Japanese troops in the provinces of Shanxi, Chahar, Hubei and Henan, known as “ Battle of a Hundred Regiments. In Jiangsu province, there were a number of clashes between communist army units and the Kuomintang partisan detachments of Governor H. Deqin, as a result of which the latter were defeated. The result of the Chinese offensive was the liberation of a territory with a population of more than 5 million people and 73 large settlements. The personnel losses of the parties were approximately equal (about 20 thousand people on each side).

During 1940, Japanese troops limited themselves to only one offensive operation in the lower Hanshui River basin and successfully carried it out, capturing the city of Yichang.

The beginning of 1944 was characterized by offensive operations of a local nature.

On October 4, the city of Fuzhou was captured by a Japanese naval landing. In the same place, the evacuation of troops of the 4th VR of China from the cities of Guilin, Liuzhou and Nanying begins; on November 10, the 31st Army of this VR was forced to capitulate to the 11th Army of Japan in the city of Guilin.

At the end of the year, American aircraft transferred two Chinese divisions from Burma to China.

The year 1944 was also characterized by successful operations of the American submarine fleet off the Chinese coast.

On January 10, 1945, parts of a group of troops of General Wei Lihuang liberated the city of Wanting and crossed the Chinese-Burmese border, entering the territory of Burma, and on the 11th, troops of the 6th Front of the Japanese went on the offensive against the Chinese 9th BP in the direction of the cities of Ganzhou and Yizhang , Shaoguan.

In June and July, the Japanese and Chinese nationalists carried out a series of punitive operations against the communist Special Region and parts of the CCP.

Fourth period of the war (August 1945 - September 1945)

At the same time, a struggle developed between the Chinese nationalists and communists for political influence. On August 10, the commander-in-chief of the CPC troops, Zhu De, gave the order for the communist troops to go on the offensive against the Japanese along the entire front, and on August 11, Chiang Kai-shek gave a similar order for all Chinese troops to go on the offensive, but it was specifically stipulated that the communists should not take part in this. -I and 8th armies. Despite this, the communists went on the offensive. Both communists and nationalists were now primarily concerned with establishing their power in the country after the victory over Japan, which was rapidly losing to its allies. At the same time, the USSR secretly supported primarily the communists, and the USA - the nationalists.

On September 2, in Tokyo Bay, on board the American battleship Missouri, representatives of the USA, Great Britain, the USSR, France and Japan signed the act of surrender of the Japanese armed forces. Thus ended the Second World War in Asia.

Military, diplomatic and economic assistance from the USSR to China

In August 1937, a non-aggression pact was signed between China and the USSR, and the Nanjing government turned to the latter with a request for material assistance.

China's almost complete loss of opportunities for constant relations with the outside world has given the province of Xinjiang paramount importance as one of the country's most important land connections with the USSR and Europe. Therefore, in 1937, the Chinese government turned to the USSR with a request to provide assistance in creating the Sary-Ozek - Urumqi - Lanzhou highway for the delivery of weapons, aircraft, ammunition, etc. to China and the USSR. The Soviet government agreed.

From 1937 to 1941, the USSR regularly supplied weapons, ammunition, etc. to China by sea and through the province of Xinjiang, while the second route was a priority due to the naval blockade of the Chinese coast. The USSR concluded several loan agreements and contracts with China for the supply of Soviet weapons. On June 16, 1939, the Soviet-Chinese trade agreement was signed, concerning the trading activities of both states. In 1937-1940, over 300 Soviet military advisers worked in China. In total, over 5 thousand Soviet citizens worked there during these years. Among them were volunteer pilots, teachers and instructors, aircraft and tank assembly workers, aviation specialists, road and bridge specialists, transport workers, doctors and, finally, military advisers.

By the beginning of 1939, thanks to the efforts of military specialists from the USSR, losses in the Chinese army dropped sharply. If in the first years of the war the Chinese losses in killed and wounded were 800 thousand people (5:1 to the Japanese losses), then in the second year they were equal to the Japanese (300 thousand).

The war between China and the Empire of Japan that began before and continued during World War II. Background to the conflict, causes of the war, forces and plans of the parties; chronology of events. Military, diplomatic and economic assistance from the USSR and allies to China.

Sino-Japanese War (1937--1945)

Plan

Introduction

1. Causes of the war, forces and plans of the parties

Conclusion

Bibliography

Introduction

This is a war between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan that began before and continued through World War II.

Although both states had engaged in periodic hostilities since 1931, full-scale war broke out in 1937 and ended with the surrender of Japan in 1945. The war was a consequence of Japan's decades-long imperialist policy of political and military dominance in China in order to seize huge raw material reserves and other resources. At the same time, growing Chinese nationalism and increasingly widespread ideas of self-determination (both Chinese and other peoples of the former Qing Empire) made a military clash inevitable. Until 1937, the sides clashed in sporadic fighting, so-called "incidents", as both sides, for many reasons, refrained from starting an all-out war. In 1931, the invasion of Manchuria (also known as the Mukden Incident) occurred. The last such incident was the Lugouqiao incident, the Japanese shelling of the Marco Polo Bridge on July 7, 1937, which marked the official beginning of a full-scale war between the two countries.

1. Causes of the war, forces and plans of the parties

Empire of Japan: Imperialist Japan went to war in an attempt to destroy the Chinese Kuomintang central government and install puppet regimes following Japanese interests. However, Japan's failure to bring the war in China to its desired end, coupled with increasingly unfavorable Western trade restrictions in response to ongoing actions in China, resulted in Japan's greater need for natural resources that were available in British-controlled Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines. , the Netherlands and the USA respectively. The Japanese strategy of acquiring these forbidden resources led to the attack on Pearl Harbor and the opening of the Pacific Theater of World War II.

Republic of China (under Kuomintang): Before full-scale hostilities began, Nationalist China focused on modernizing its military and building a viable defense industry to increase its combat power as a counterweight to Japan. Since China was united under the rule of the Kuomintang only formally, it was in a constant state of struggle with the communists and various militaristic associations. However, since war with Japan became inevitable, there was nowhere to retreat, even despite China's complete unpreparedness to fight a vastly superior opponent. In general, China pursued the following goals: to resist Japanese aggression, to unite China under the central government, to free the country from foreign imperialism, to achieve victory over communism and to be reborn as a strong state. Essentially, this war looked like a war for the revival of the nation. In modern Taiwanese military historical studies, there is a tendency to overestimate the role of the NRA in this war. Although in general the level of combat effectiveness of the National Revolutionary Army was quite low.

USA: The USA maintained a policy of isolationism until the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, but helped China through volunteers and diplomatic measures. The United States also imposed an embargo on oil and steel trade against Japan, demanding the withdrawal of its troops from China. With the US being drawn into World War II, particularly the war against Japan, China became a natural ally for the United States. There was American assistance to this country in its fight against Japan.

By the beginning of the conflict, China had 1,900 thousand soldiers and officers, 500 aircraft (according to other sources, in the summer of 1937, the Chinese Air Force had about 600 combat aircraft, of which 305 were fighters, but no more than half were combat-ready), 70 tanks, 1,000 artillery pieces . At the same time, only 300 thousand were directly subordinate to the commander-in-chief of the NRA, Chiang Kai-shek, and in total there were approximately 1 million people under the control of the Nanjing government, while the rest of the troops represented the forces of local militarists. Additionally, the fight against the Japanese was nominally supported by the Communists, who had a guerrilla army of approximately 150,000 men in northwestern China. The Kuomintang formed the 8th Army from 45 thousand of these partisans under the command of Zhu De. Chinese aviation consisted of outdated aircraft with inexperienced Chinese or hired foreign crews. There were no trained reserves. Chinese industry was not prepared to fight a major war.

In general, the Chinese armed forces were superior in numbers to the Japanese, but were significantly inferior in technical equipment, training, morale, and most importantly, in their organization.

Most historians date the beginning of the Sino-Japanese War to the incident on the Lugouqiao Bridge (otherwise known as the Marco Polo Bridge), which occurred on July 7, 1937, but some Chinese historians set the starting point of the war at September 18, 1931, when the Mukden Incident occurred, during in which the Kwantung Army, under the pretext of protecting the railway connecting Port Arthur with Mukden from possible sabotage actions of the Chinese during “night exercises,” captured the Mukden arsenal and nearby towns. Chinese forces were forced to retreat, and continued aggression left all of Manchuria in Japanese hands by February 1932. After this, until the official start of the Sino-Japanese War, there were constant Japanese seizures of territories in Northern China and battles of varying scale with the Chinese army. On the other hand, the Nationalist government of Chiang Kai-shek carried out a number of operations to combat separatist militarists and communists.

On July 7, 1937, Japanese troops clashed with Chinese troops at the Lugouqiao Bridge near Beijing. A Japanese soldier disappeared during a “night exercise.” The Japanese issued an ultimatum demanding that the Chinese hand over the soldier or open the gates of the fortified city of Wanping to search for him. The refusal of the Chinese authorities led to a shootout between the Japanese company and the Chinese infantry regiment. It came to the use of not only small arms, but also artillery. This served as a pretext for a full-scale invasion of China. In Japanese historiography, this war is traditionally called the “Chinese incident”, because Initially, the Japanese did not plan large-scale military operations with China, preparing for a big war with the USSR.

After a series of unsuccessful negotiations between the Chinese and Japanese sides on a peaceful resolution of the conflict, on July 26, 1937, Japan switched to full-scale military operations north of the Yellow River with the forces of 3 divisions and 2 brigades (about 40 thousand people with 120 guns, 150 tanks and armored vehicles, 6 armored trains and support for up to 150 aircraft). Japanese troops quickly captured Beijing (Beiping) (28 July) and Tianjin (30 July). Over the next few months, the Japanese advanced south and west against little resistance, capturing Chahar Province and part of Suiyuan Province, reaching the upper bend of the Yellow River at Baoding. But by September, due to the increased combat effectiveness of the Chinese army, the growth of the partisan movement and supply problems, the offensive slowed down, and in order to expand the scale of the offensive, by September the Japanese were forced to transfer up to 300 thousand soldiers and officers to Northern China.

On August 8-November 8, the Second Battle of Shanghai unfolded, during which numerous Japanese landings as part of Matsui's 3rd Expeditionary Force, with intensive support from the sea and air, managed to capture the city of Shanghai, despite strong resistance from the Chinese; A pro-Japanese puppet government was formed in Shanghai. At this time, the Japanese 5th Itagaki Division was ambushed and defeated in the north of Shanxi by the 115th Division (under the command of Nie Rongzhen) from the 8th Army. The Japanese lost 3 thousand people and their main weapons. The Battle of Pingxinguan had great propaganda significance in China and became the largest battle between the communist army and the Japanese during the entire course of the war.

In November-December 1937, the Japanese army launched an attack on Nanjing along the Yangtze River without encountering strong resistance. On December 12, 1937, Japanese aircraft carried out an unprovoked raid on British and American ships stationed near Nanjing. As a result, the gunboat Panay was sunk. However, the conflict was avoided through diplomatic measures. On December 13, Nanjing fell and the government evacuated to the city of Hankou. The Japanese army carried out a bloody massacre of civilians in the city for 5 days, as a result of which 200 thousand people died. As a result of the battles for Nanjing, the Chinese army lost all tanks, artillery, aviation and navy. On December 14, 1937, the creation of the Provisional Government of the Republic of China, controlled by the Japanese, was proclaimed in Beijing.

In January-April 1938, the Japanese offensive in the north resumed. In January the conquest of Shandong was completed. Japanese troops faced a strong guerrilla movement and were unable to effectively control the captured territory. In March-April 1938, the Battle of Taierzhuang unfolded, during which a 200,000-strong group of regular troops and partisans under the overall command of General Li Zongren cut off and surrounded a 60,000-strong group of Japanese, who ultimately managed to break out of the ring, losing 20,000 people killed and a large amount of military equipment. On March 28, 1938, in the occupied territory of central China, the Japanese proclaimed in Nanjing the creation of the so-called. "Reformed Government of the Republic of China"

In May-June 1938, the Japanese regrouped, concentrating more than 200 thousand soldiers and officers and about 400 tanks against 400 thousand poorly armed Chinese, practically devoid of military equipment, and continued the offensive, as a result of which Xuzhou (May 20) and Kaifeng (June 6) were taken ). In these battles, the Japanese used chemical and bacteriological weapons.

In May 1938, the New 4th Army was created under the command of Ye Ting, formed from communists and stationed mainly in the Japanese rear south of the middle reaches of the Yangtze.

In June-July 1938, the Chinese stopped the Japanese strategic offensive on Hankou through Zhengzhou by destroying the dams that prevented the Yellow River from overflowing and flooding the surrounding area. At the same time, many Japanese soldiers died, a large number of tanks, trucks and guns ended up under water or stuck in the mud.

Japan decided to change the strategy of active struggle to a strategy of attrition. Japan is limited to only local operations at the front and is moving on to intensifying political struggle. This was caused by excessive tension and problems of control over the hostile population of the occupied territories. With most of the ports captured by the Japanese army, China was left with only three routes to obtain aid from the Allies - the narrow-gauge road to Kunming from Haiphong in French Indochina; the winding Burma Road, which ran to Kunming through British Burma and, finally, the Xinjiang Highway, which ran from the Soviet-Chinese border through Xinjiang and Gansu Province.

In June 1939, the Chinese cities of Shantou (June 21) and Fuzhou (June 27) were taken by amphibious assault.

On October 18, 1940, Winston Churchill decided to reopen the Burma Road. This was done with the approval of the United States, which intended to carry out military supplies to China under Lend-Lease.

During 1940, Japanese troops limited themselves to only one offensive operation in the lower Hanshui River basin and successfully carried it out, capturing the city of Yichang.

By March 1941, two large operational groups of the Kuomintang government concentrated against areas controlled by the Communist Party of China (hereinafter referred to as the CCP): in the northwest, the 34th Army Group of General Hu Zongnan (16 infantry and 3 cavalry divisions) and in the area Anhui and Jiangsu provinces - the 21st Army Group of General Liu Pingxiang and the 31st Army Group of General Tang Enbo (15 infantry and 2 cavalry divisions). On March 2, the CCP put forward a new "Twelve Demands" to the Chinese government to reach an agreement between the Communists and the Nationalists.

On April 13, the Soviet-Japanese Treaty of Neutrality was signed, guaranteeing the USSR that Japan would not enter the war in the Soviet Far East if Germany did start a war with Russia.

A series of Japanese offensives undertaken during 1941 (the Yichang Operation, the Fujian Landing Operation, the Shanxi Offensive, the Yichang Operation and the Second Changshai Operation) and the air offensive on Chongqing, the capital of Kuomintang China, did not produce any particular results and did not lead to change. balance of power in China.

china japanese war ally

On December 7, 1941, Japan attacked the United States, Great Britain, and the Netherlands, which changed the balance of opposing forces in the Asia-Pacific region. Already on December 8, the Japanese began bombing British Hong Kong and advancing with the 38th Infantry Division.

On December 9, Chiang Kai-shek's government declared war on Germany and Italy, and on December 10, on Japan (the war had gone on without a formal declaration until that time).

On December 24, the Japanese launched their third counteroffensive of the war on Changsha, and on the 25th, units of the 38th Infantry Division took Hong Kong, forcing the remnants of the British garrison to surrender (12 thousand people). The Japanese lost 3 thousand people during the battles for the island. The Third Changshai Operation was not successful and ended on January 15, 1942 with the withdrawal of Japanese units of the 11th Army to their original positions.

Throughout the entire period 1941-1943. The Japanese also carried out punitive operations against communist forces. This was caused by the need to combat the ever-increasing partisan movement. Thus, within a year (from the summer of 1941 to the summer of 1942), as a result of the punitive operations of the Japanese troops, the territory of the partisan regions of the CPC was halved. During this time, units of the 8th Army and the New 4th Army of the CPC lost up to 150 thousand soldiers in battles with the Japanese.

In July-December 1942, local battles took place, as well as several local offensives by both Chinese and Japanese troops, which did not particularly affect the overall course of military operations.

Due to the Japanese capture of Burma, supplies of goods to China were reduced even more, and the shortage of weapons and ammunition in the units was very obvious. The Allies began building the Ledo Road from the Indian city of Assam to the Burma Road.

On January 9, 1943, the Nanjing puppet government in China declared war on Great Britain and the United States.

The beginning of the year was characterized by local battles between the Japanese and Chinese armies. In March, the Japanese tried without success to encircle the Chinese group in the Huaiyin-Yangcheng region in Jiangsu Province (Huaiyin-Yancheng Operation).

In May-June, the Japanese 11th Army went on the offensive from a bridgehead on the Yichang River in the direction of the Chinese capital, Chongqing, but was counterattacked by Chinese units and retreated to their original positions (Chongqing Operation).

At the end of 1943, the Chinese army successfully repelled one of the Japanese “rice offensives” in Hunan Province, winning the Battle of Changde (November 23-December 10).

The beginning of 1944 was characterized by offensive operations of a local nature.

A further development of active offensive combat operations of the Japanese army was the Hunan-Guilin operation of the 23rd Army against the Chinese troops of the 4th VR in the direction of Liuzhou.

In May-September 1944, the Japanese continued to conduct offensive operations in a southern direction. Japanese activity led to the fall of Changsha and Henyang. The Chinese fought stubbornly for Hengyang and counterattacked the enemy in a number of places, while Changsha was left without a fight.

On October 4, the city of Fuzhou was captured by a Japanese landing force from the sea. In the same place, the evacuation of troops of the 4th VR of China from the cities of Guilin, Liuzhou and Nanying begins; on November 10, the 31st Army of this VR was forced to capitulate to the 11th Army of Japan in the city of Guilin. On December 20, Japanese troops advancing from the north, from the Guangzhou area and from Indochina, united in the city of Nanlu, establishing a through railway connection across all of China from Korea to Indochina.

At the end of the year, American aircraft transferred two Chinese divisions from Burma to China.

The year 1944 was also characterized by successful operations of the American submarine fleet off the Chinese coast.

In January-February, the Japanese army resumed its offensive in Southeast China, occupying vast territories in the coastal provinces between Wuhan and the border of French Indochina. Three more air bases of the American 14th Air Force Chennault were captured.

In March 1945, the Japanese launched another offensive to seize crops in Central China. The forces of the 39th Infantry Division of the 11th Army struck in the direction of the city of Gucheng (Henan-Hubei operation). In March and April, the Japanese also managed to take two American air bases in China - Laohotou and Laohekou.

In June and July, the Japanese and Chinese nationalists carried out a series of punitive operations against the communist Special Region and parts of the CCP.

The entry of the USSR into the war and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki accelerated the final defeat and defeat of Japan.

On August 14, when it became clear that the Kwantung Army had suffered a crushing defeat, the Japanese Emperor announced Japan's surrender.

On August 14-15, a ceasefire was declared. But despite this decision, individual Japanese units continued desperate resistance throughout the entire theater of operations until September 7-8, 1945.

In August 1937, a non-aggression pact was signed between China and the USSR, and the Nanjing government turned to the latter with a request for material assistance.

China's almost complete loss of opportunities for constant relations with the outside world has given the province of Xinjiang paramount importance as one of the country's most important land connections with the USSR and Europe. Therefore, in 1937, the Chinese government turned to the USSR with a request for assistance in creating the Sary-Ozek - Urumqi - Lanzhou highway for the delivery of weapons, aircraft, ammunition, etc. to China from the USSR. The Soviet government agreed.

From 1937 to 1941, the USSR regularly supplied weapons, ammunition, etc. to China by sea and through the province of Xinjiang, while the second route was a priority due to the naval blockade of the Chinese coast. The USSR concluded several loan agreements and contracts with China for the supply of Soviet weapons. On June 16, 1939, the Soviet-Chinese trade agreement was signed, concerning the trading activities of both states. In 1937-1940, over 300 Soviet military advisers worked in China. In total, over 5 thousand Soviet citizens worked there during these years, including A. Vlasov. Among them were volunteer pilots, teachers and instructors, aircraft and tank assembly workers, aviation specialists, road and bridge specialists, transport workers, doctors and, finally, military advisers.

By the beginning of 1939, thanks to the efforts of military specialists from the USSR, losses in the Chinese army dropped sharply. If in the first years of the war the Chinese losses in killed and wounded were 800 thousand people (5:1 to the losses of the Japanese), then in the second year they were equal to the Japanese (300 thousand).

On September 1, 1940, the first stage of a new aircraft assembly plant built by Soviet specialists was launched in Urumqi.

In total, during the period 1937-1941, the USSR supplied China with: 1285 aircraft (of which 777 fighters, 408 bombers, 100 training aircraft), 1600 guns of various calibers, 82 medium tanks, heavy machine guns and manual - 14 thousand, cars and tractors - 1850.

The Chinese Air Force had about 100 aircraft. Japan had a tenfold superiority in aviation. One of the largest Japanese air bases was located in Taiwan, near Taipei.

By the beginning of 1938, a batch of new SB bombers arrived from the USSR to China as part of Operation Zet. Chief military adviser for the Air Force, brigade commander P.V. Rychagov and air attaché P.F. Zhigarev (the future commander-in-chief of the USSR Air Force) developed a bold operation. 12 SB bombers under the command of Colonel F.P. were to take part in it. Polynina. The raid took place on February 23, 1938. The target was successfully hit, and all bombers returned to base.

Later, a group of twelve SBs under the command of T.T. Khryukin sank the Japanese aircraft carrier Yamato-maru.

In March 1942, the USSR was forced to begin recalling its military advisers due to anti-Soviet sentiment in the Chinese provinces.

From December 1937, a series of events, such as the attack on the US gunboat Panay and the Nanjing massacre, turned public opinion in the United States, France, and Great Britain against Japan and aroused certain fears of Japanese expansion. This prompted the governments of these countries to begin providing the Kuomintang with loans for military needs. In addition, Australia did not allow a Japanese company to acquire an iron ore mine on its territory, and also banned the export of iron ore in 1938. Japan responded by invading Indochina in 1940, cutting the Sino-Vietnamese Railway, through which it imported weapons, fuel, and also 10,000 tons of materials from the Western allies every month.

To put pressure on the Japanese and the army in China, the US, UK and the Netherlands established an embargo on oil and/or steel trade with Japan. The loss of oil imports made it impossible for Japan to continue the war in China. This pushed Japan to forcefully resolve the supply issue, which was marked by the attack of the Imperial Japanese Navy on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

In the pre-war period, Germany and China cooperated closely in the economic and military spheres. Germany helped China modernize its industry and army in exchange for supplies of Chinese raw materials. More than half of German exports of military equipment and materials during the German rearmament period in the 1930s went to China. However, the 30 new Chinese divisions that were planned to be equipped and trained with German help were never created due to Adolf Hitler's refusal to further support China in 1938; these plans were never implemented. This decision was largely due to the reorientation of German policy towards concluding an alliance with Japan. German policy especially shifted towards cooperation with Japan after the signing of the Anti-Comintern Pact.

Conclusion

The main reason for Japan's defeat in World War II were the victories of the American and British armed forces at sea and in the air, and the defeat of the largest Japanese land army, the Kwantung Army, by Soviet troops in August-September 1945, which allowed the liberation of Chinese territory.

Despite the numerical superiority over the Japanese, the effectiveness and combat effectiveness of the Chinese troops was very low, the Chinese army suffered 8.4 times more casualties than the Japanese.

The actions of the armed forces of the Western Allies, as well as the armed forces of the USSR, saved China from complete defeat.

Japanese troops in China formally surrendered on September 9, 1945. The Sino-Japanese War, like the Second World War in Asia, ended due to the complete surrender of Japan to the Allies.

According to the decisions of the Cairo Conference (1943), the territories of Manchuria, Taiwan and the Pescadores Islands were transferred to China. The Ryukyu Islands were recognized as Japanese territory.

Bibliography

1. Horikoshi D., Okumiya M., Kaidin M. “Zero!” (Japanese aviation in World War II) - M: ACT, 2001

2. Chennault K.L. The way of the fighter. American aviation in the Pacific War (memoir)

3. J. Fenby “Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek and the China he lost” - Moscow, AST, Guardian, 2006

4. Chudodeev Yu.V. On the roads of China. 1937--1945. - M.: “Science”, 1989 (collection of memoirs).

5. In the skies of China. 1937--1940. - M.: Nauka, 1986. (collection of memoirs).

6. Chuikov V.I. Mission to China.

Memorial Museum of the Chinese People's War against Japan. Posts from This Journal by “Sino-Japanese War” Tag Japanese-Chinese War 1937 1945 briefly

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Strengths of the parties

Empire of Japan

Republic of China

Plans of the parties

Empire of Japan

Republic of China

Beginning of the war

First period of the war (July 1937 - October 1938)

Second period of the war (November 1938 - December 1941)

Fourth period of the war (August 1945 - September 1945)

Military, diplomatic and economic assistance from the USSR to China

The war between China and the Empire of Japan that began before and continued during World War II. Background to the conflict, causes of the war, forces and plans of the parties; chronology of events. Military, diplomatic and economic assistance from the USSR and allies to China.

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