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Second Sino-Japanese War 抗日戰爭 (1937–45)

On July 7, 1937, Chinese and Japanese troops exchanged fire at Lugou (Marco Polo) Bridge, a crucial access route to Beijing. What began as confused, sporadic skirmishing soon escalated into a full-scale battle, in which Beijing and its port city of Tianjin fell to Japanese forces and the Second Sino-Japanese War began.

Chiang Kai-shek mobilized the army and air force to repulse the Japanese attack on Shanghai of August 13, 1937, but after more than three months of intense fighting, Shanghai fell. 

Rape of Nanking

In December, the Imperial Japanese Army captured the KMT capital city of Nanking. Historians estimate up to 300,000 Chinese were raped, tortured and murdered in what became known as the Rape of Nanking, six weeks of carnage from December 13, 1937 to late January 1938, though some Japanese deny that the massacre occurred. 

Chiang hunkers down in Sichuan

At the start of 1938, the leadership in Tokyo still hoped to limit the scope of the conflict to occupy areas around Shanghai, Nanjing and northern China to preserve strength for an anticipated showdown with the Soviet Union, but by now the Japanese government had effectively lost control of the notorious Kwantung Army in China. Chiang adopted the strategy of "trading space for time." In order to allow professionals and key industries to retreat west into Chongqing, Chiang delayed the Japanese advance by breaking dams and levees to slow the Japanese, flooding many Chinese villages, leaving millions dead, injured, and homeless. The Japanese captured Wuhan on October 27, 1938, forcing Chiang to retreat to Chungking, where he remained until Japan’s defeat in 1945.

Japan attempted to break Chinese resistance by ordering massive air raids on civilian targets. Japanese bombers hit the KMT's newly established provisional capital of Chungking and other major cities in unoccupied China, leaving millions more dead, injured, and homeless.

On 30 March 1940 the Japanese created a puppet government favorable to Japanese interests in the territories conquered, headed by former KMT premier Wang Jingwei. By late 1940, the war had descended into stalemate.

On 15 April 1941, FDR authorized the creation of the American Volunteer Group (Flying Tigers), to replace the withdrawn Soviet volunteers and aircraft. Led by Claire Lee Chennault, their early combat success of 300 kills against a loss of 12 of their shark-painted P-40 fighters earned them wide recognition at a time when the Allies were suffering heavy losses, and soon their dog-fighting tactics would be adopted by the US Army Air Forces.

On 21 July 1941 Japan occupied French Indochina, contravening a 1940 "Gentlemen's Agreement" and threatening British and Dutch colonies. On 24 July Roosevelt demanded Japan withdraw all its forces from Indochina. Two days later the US and the UK began an oil embargo; two days after that the Netherlands joined them. The loss of oil imports made it impossible for Japan to continue operations in China on a long term basis and set the stage for Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

Chiang Kai-shek continued to receive supplies from the United States as the Chinese conflict was merged into the Asian theatre of World War II. Sea routes to China and the Yunnan–Vietnam Railway had been closed since 1940, so, between the closing of the Burma Road in 1942 and its re-opening as the Ledo Road in 1945, foreign aid was largely limited to what could be flown in over "The Hump" (the Himalayas). American general Joseph Stilwell served for a time as Chiang's chief of staff, while simultaneously commanding American forces in the China-Burma-India Theater. Relations between Stilwell and Chiang soon broke down, largely due to the corruption and inefficiency of the KMT government, but also because Stilwell had a strong desire to assume total control of Chinese troops and pursue an aggressive strategy, while Chiang preferred to wait out the Japanese, since he believed that Japan would eventually capitulate in the face of America's overwhelming industrial output. The Allies gradually began to lose confidence in Chiang’s willingness to conduct offensive operations from the Asian mainland, and instead concentrated their efforts against the Japanese in the Pacific, employing an island-hopping strategy — bypassing heavily fortified Japanese positions and concentrating on securing strategically important small, less-defended islands.

The US and the Soviet Union put an end to the Sino-Japanese War (and World War II) by attacking the Japanese with a new weapon (on America's part) and an incursion into Manchuria (on the Soviet part). On August 6, an American B-29 bomber, the Enola Gay, dropped “Little Boy,” the first atomic bomb used in combat on Hiroshima, killing tens of thousands and leveling the city. On August 9, the Soviet Union renounced its non-aggression pact with Japan and attacked the Japanese in Manchuria, fulfilling its Yalta Conference pledge to attack the Japanese within three months of the end of the war in Europe. The attack was made by three Soviet army groups. On that same day, “Fat Man,” a second atomic bomb was dropped by the US on Nagasaki.

In less than two weeks the Kwantung Army, which was the primary Japanese fighting force, consisting of over a million men but lacking adequate armor, artillery, or air support, had been destroyed by the Soviets. Japanese Emperor Hirohito officially capitulated to the Allies on August 15, 1945.

After the Allied victory in the Pacific, General Douglas MacArthur ordered all Japanese forces within China (excluding Manchuria), Formosa and French Indochina north of 16° north latitude to surrender to Chiang Kai-shek, and the Japanese troops in China formally surrendered on September 9, 1945.

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