Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945) - SpeedyLook encyclopedia

Name of the Sino-Japanese War

Chinese side

The Second Sino-Japanese war is commonly known in Mandarin under the name of “War anti-Japanese woman” or “ Guerre to resist to the Japanese ” (zh-Hant 抗日戰爭, kàngrì zhànzhēng , abbreviation of zh-Hant 中國抗日戰爭, zhōngguó kàngrì zhànzhēng , “Chinese Wars to resist to the Japanese”), more and more simply shortened in “War of resistance” (zh-Hant 抗戰, kàngzhàn ). However, according to the areas (HongKong, Korea, Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, etc), this term always does not refer to the same conflicts.

In Popular republic of China, this war is also known under the name of the “ Eight years of resistance ” (zh-Hant 八年抗戰, bā nián kàngzhàn ). I.e. the eight years between the Incidental of the bridge Marco Polo the July 7th 1937 and end of the war, the August 15th 1945. Other areas prefer the expression “Fourteen years of resistance” (zh-Hant 十四年抗戰, shí sì nián kàngzhàn ), making go up the beginning of the war with the September 18th 1931 (incidental of September 18th).

Japanese side

With the whole beginning of the conflict, in June 1937, the Sino-Japanese war was baptized under incidental name the “of septentrional China” (ja 北支事変, Hokushi jihen ), term indicating the Incident today bridge Marco Polo. This name changed one month after into “ Incident Chinese ” (ja 支那事変, Shina jihen ) although the press used also sometimes the Sino-Japanese “Incidental” term (ja 日華事変, Nikka jihen). In order to avoid sanctions on behalf of the Western nations, the government preferred to avoid officially the use of the word “war”.

Later, imperial propaganda made conflict a “ Holy war ” (ja 聖戦, Seisen ), which was to be the first stage of the policy of conquest reflected by the slogan Hakkō ichiu (ja 八紘一宇, ironically meaning “universal fraternity”, but taken in its more literal direction “to join together the eight corners of the world under the same roof”). Worked out at the 19th century like a principle having to allow the promotion of civilization and the culture under the banner of the emperor, this concept became during the era Shôwa a justification to promote the " supériorité" " race japonaise" and its right to conquer Asia.

After the Attack on Pearl Harbor the December 7th 1941, the war was officially declared in China and the whole of the conflict took the name of “ Guerre of Large Eastern Asia ” (ja 大東亜戦争, Dai tōa sensō ) which indicates the Campagnes of the Pacific and Southeast Asia, thus amalgamating the Second Sino-Japanese War with the Second world war.

Nowadays, the official term remains Shina jihen , always used by the ministry for Defense, the ministry for Health, Work and the Public property, or in historical annals, or the war memorials. However this term remains prone to polemic and is the subject of critical sharp. As follows:

the word jihen , although often translated by “incident” can cover concepts as strong as those of calamity, disaster, riot or declaration of war. However it is a question of a term rather vague, at the time selected to avoid speaking about “war”, which could at the time leading to reactions on behalf of several countries. Thus the United States, under the terms of the in Neutrality Acts (together of laws voted between 1935 and 1939) could have suspended their steel exports in Japan if the conflict had officially taken the name of “war”. The term jihen thus makes the object of criticism and is often replaced by the word sensō (“war”);
the term Shina - japonisation of a term Sanskrit indicating China - although neutral at the time of the conflict, was perceived more and more by the Chinese like a pejorative term, even racist. As of 1946, China required so that Japan cease using this word which had closely become related to the Japanese invasions and with the war crimes which were committed there. The significance of the character shi (ja 支) - “connects” - although selected only for phonetics, including by the Chinese themselves, is also perceived like an additional insult (image of the Chinese, “connects” minor, servile of the Japanese which form the “trunk”). The use of the term Shina is regarded today in Japan at best as antiquated or poetic, at worst like politically incorrect. With some exceptions, its writing in Kanji is highly criticized, and one prefers to him the form in Katakana .

For these reasons, the Japanese and the Japanese press use more and more the expression “Sino-Japanese War” (ja 日中戦争, Nicchō sensō ), considered as more neutral, to speak about the Second Sino-Japanese War. Not considering that there are strong bonds of cause-consequence between the two Sino-Japanese wars, there exists in Japanese only one “Sino-Japanese war”, the first being known in Manchu Japanese under the name of “war - Japanese” (ja 日清戦争, Nisshin sensō ).

Total sight

The majority of the historians place the beginning of this war with the Incident of the bridge Marco Polo or battles of the bridge Lugou (zh-Hant 盧溝橋), on July 7th, 1937. However, many historians make it start with the Incident Mukden of September 18th, 1931 when the Japanese Armée with Kantôgun invades the north of China and created there the state marionette of the Manzhouguo in February 1932, giving the kickoff to the expansionism of Japan.

In August 1937, the emperor Shōwa authorized the suspension of international conventions on the protection of the prisoners of war. This decision made it possible the imperial forces to progress without having to worry to set up measurements to deal with the prisoners or the civilians of the conquered territories. In November, the Japanese occupied Shanghai after an intensive bombardment campaign having resulted in the death of thousands of civilians. Then, the army showa invades Nankin and the northern part of the implying Shanxi in a campaign approximately: 200000 Japanese soldiers and much more Chinese. It is estimated that between: 65000 and: 115000 Chinese will be killed in the Massacre of Nankin.

The Japanese intended neither nor the capacity to directly manage the part of China which they occupied. Their goal was to set up puppets favorable to the Japanese interests. However the brutality of their methods made them very unpopular and they refused to negotiate as well with the communist Kuomintang as the .

In 1940, the engagements were not any more but of the Guérilla. The nationalist government of Kaï-chek Tchang which had installed its capital with Chongqing, had agreed since 1936 of a truce with the communist forces of Mao Zedong. Tchang sought nevertheless to preserve its army and to avoid a great battle with the Japanese in the hope once beating the Communists the left Japanese. Moreover Tchang could not risk an all-out war against well trained, equipped and organized armies.

The majority of the military analysts provided that the Chinese could not continue the combat whereas most of the military factories of materials were located in the zones under or close to Japanese control. The foreign powers were reticent to provide the least support - unless having strategic reasons - because they estimated that the Chinese were going to lose the war. They feared that least help could harm their relations with the Japanese.

The Germany, until 1939, and the Soviet Union, throughout all war, provided an important customer support to the Chinese forces. The Soviet Union made it to prevent Japan from invading the Siberia, to avoid a war on two faces. Moreover, she hoped that any conflict between Kuomintang and the Japanese would help the Communist party. Joukov attended the Bataille of Tai er zhuang.

In order to support the policy anticommunist of Tchang, Germany provides, until 1939, most of the imports of weapons. The German advisers modernized the equipment and involved the nationalist army. The officers, including the second wire of Tchang, accepted an education and were useful in the German army before the world war.

The other powers did not act that within the framework of the world war. The the United States provided the Flying Tigres then but the enmity between the colonel Joseph Stilwell and Tchang limited collaboration.

In 1942, the Japanese general Yasuji Okamura obtained imperial district-general the authorization to set in motion the operation “kills all, plunders all, burns all” ( sankō sakusen ) which, according to the historian Mitsuyoshi Himeta, the death of approximately 2,7 million Chinese civilians involved. The systematic bombardment campaign against the nationalist capital Chongqing also became extensive, by making the most bombarded city of all the second war and resulting in the death of tens of thousands of civilians.

In 1944, the Japanese situation worsened quickly but their troops launched the Opération Ichigo to take air bases which threatened them what made them occupy the provinces of Hunan, Henan, and Guangxi.

When they transferred their army from Guandong to Japan within the framework of the Sho plan, the Soviets could easily invade after their declaration of war on August 8th, 1945.

The Japanese capitulated to the Alliés on August 14th, 1945 and the Japanese troops in China went on September 9th. According to the provisions of the conference of Cairo of 1943, the ex- Manzhouguo, Taiwan and the Pescadores islands returned to China. However the islands Ryūkyū did not become again independent.

Chemical weapons and bacteriological

As of July 1937, the Empereur Showa authorized the use of gases pollutant against the Chinese soldiers and civil. Each use was specific the directive object (rinsanmei), transmitted by the means of the chief of staff of the Army, in fact the prince Kotohito Kan' in. As from October 1937, these authorizations were granted by the imperial District-general, under the direction of the emperor. The chemical weapons were in particular authorized with 375 recoveries with the autumn 1938 at the time of the invasion of Wuhan, then in 1939 with Guangzhou and 1943 at the time of the Bataille of Changde.

At the time of the lawsuit held by Soviet with Khabarovsk in 1949, of shown as Major Général Kiyashi Kawashima declared that at least 40 members of the Unité 731 had taken part in 1941 and 1942 in operations by which chips contaminated by the Peste had been released with the top of the area of Changde, causing epidemics there.

Evaluation of the victims

The conflict lasted 97 month and 3 days (of 1937 to 1945). Kuomintang fought in 22 major combat (at least a hundred and thousand men on both sides (zh-Hant 會戰)), and more than forty thousand less important. The Japanese entered a million and a hundred and thousand victims including the seriously injureds and the missings.

The Chinese had much more losses, with three million two hundred and twenty thousand soldiers and at least nine million civilians without counting the destruction. On the hundreds of thousands of Chinese soldiers captive facts by the army shōwa during the war, only 68 were slackened alive in 1945. As for the civilians, the work published in 2002 by a committee joint historians joining together Mitsuyoshi Himeta, Zhifen Ju, Toru Kubo and Mark Peattie shows that more than 10 million of them were enlisted of force by Kōa-in (imperial Agency of development of Eastern Asia) for work in the mines and the factories of the Manzhouguo.