Conflict between China and Japan Pacific War

chinese casualties of mass panic during june 1941 japanese aerial bombing of chongqing

by 1937, japan controlled manchuria , ready move deeper china. marco polo bridge incident on 7 july 1937 provoked full-scale war between china , japan. nationalist , communist chinese suspended civil war form nominal alliance against japan, , soviet union lent support providing large amount of materiel chinese troops. in august 1937, generalissimo chiang kai-shek deployed best army fight 300,000 japanese troops in shanghai, but, after 3 months of fighting, shanghai fell. japanese continued push chinese forces back, capturing capital nanking in december 1937 , committed known nanking massacre. in march 1938, nationalist forces won first victory @ taierzhuang. city of xuzhou taken japanese in may. in june 1938, japan deployed 350,000 troops invade wuhan , captured in october. japanese achieved major military victories, world opinion—in particular in united states—condemned japan, after panay incident.

in 1939, japanese forces tried push soviet far east manchuria. soundly defeated in battle of khalkhin gol mixed soviet , mongolian force led georgy zhukov. stopped japanese expansion north, , soviet aid china ended result of signing of soviet–japanese neutrality pact @ beginning of war against nazi germany.

in september 1940, japan decided cut china s land line outside world seizing indochina, controlled @ time vichy france. japanese forces broke agreement vichy administration , fighting broke out, ending in japanese victory. on 27 september japan signed military alliance germany , italy, becoming 1 of 3 axis powers. in practice, there little coordination between japan , germany until 1944, time deciphering secret diplomatic correspondence.

the war entered new phase unprecedented defeat of japanese @ battle of suixian–zaoyang , 1st battle of changsha. after these victories, chinese nationalist forces launched large-scale counter-offensive in 1940; however, due low military-industrial capacity, repulsed imperial japanese army in late march 1940. in august 1940, chinese communists launched offensive in central china; in retaliation, japan instituted 3 alls policy ( kill all, burn all, loot ) in occupied areas reduce human , material resources communists.

by 1941 conflict had become stalemate. although japan had occupied of northern, central, , coastal china, nationalist government had retreated interior provisional capital set @ chungking while chinese communists remained in control of base areas in shaanxi. in addition, japanese control of northern , central china tenuous, in japan able control railroads , major cities ( points , lines ), did not have major military or administrative presence in vast chinese countryside. japanese found aggression against retreating , regrouping chinese army stalled mountainous terrain in southwestern china while communists organised widespread guerrilla , saboteur activities in northern , eastern china behind japanese front line.

japan sponsored several puppet governments, 1 of headed wang jingwei. however, policies of brutality toward chinese population, of not yielding real power these regimes, , of supporting several rival governments failed make of them viable alternative nationalist government led chiang kai-shek. conflicts between chinese communist , nationalist forces vying territory control behind enemy lines culminated in major armed clash in january 1941, ending co-operation.

japanese strategic bombing efforts targeted large chinese cities such shanghai, wuhan, , chongqing, around 5,000 raids february 1938 august 1943 in later case. japan s strategic bombing campaigns devastated chinese cities extensively, killing 260,000–350,934 non-combatants.