Sino Japanese War (1937-1945) The Second Sino-Japanese War was a major invasion of eastern China by Japan preceding and during World War II It ended with the surrender of Japan in In Chinese， the war is known as the War to Resist the Japanese (抗日战争) OverviewMost historians place the beginning of the second Sino-Japanese War on the Battle of Lugou Bridge (Marco Polo Bridge Incident) on July 7， However， Chinese historians place the starting point at the Mukden Incident of September 18， Following the Mukden Incident， the Japanese Guandong army occupied Manchuria and established the puppet state of Manchukuo (February 1932) Japan pressured China into recognising the independence of M China and Japan did not formally declare war against each other until after the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7 Following the Battle of Lugou Bridge in 1937， the Japanese occupied Shanghai， Nanjing and Northern Shanxi as part of campaigns involving approximately 200，000 Japanese soldiers， and considerably more Chinese After the fall of Nanjing， it is estimated that as many as 300，000 people died in the Nanjing M The Japanese had neither the intention or the capability of directly administering C Their goal was to set up friendly puppet governments that would be favorable to Japanese However， the brutality of the Japanese made the governments that they did set up very unpopular， and the Japanese refused to negotiate with either Kuomintang or the Communists， which could have brought By 1940， the fighting had reached a While Japan held most of the eastern coastal areas of China， guerrilla fighting continued in the conquered The Nationalist government of Chiang Kai-shek struggled on from a provisional capital at Chongqing City; however， realizing that he also faced a threat from communist forces of Mao Zedong， he mostly tried to preserve the strength of his army and avoid heavy battle with the Japanese in the hopes of defeating the Communists once the Japanese Moreover， Chiang could not risk an all-out campaign given the well-trained， equipped， and organized Chinese armies and opposition against his leadership within and outside the K Most military analysts predicted that the Chinese could not keep up the fighting with most of the war factories located in the prosperous areas under or near Japanese Other global powers were reluctant to provide any support -- unless supporting an ulterior motive -- because in their opinion the Chinese would eventually lose the They expected any support given to China might worsen their own relationship with the Japanese， who taunted the Kuomintang with the prospect of conquest within 3 Germany and the Soviet Union did provide support to the Chinese before the war escalated to the Asian theatre of World War II The Soviet Union was exploiting the Kuomintang government to hinder the Japanese from invading Siberia， thus saving itself from a two-front Furthermore， the Soviets expected any major conflict between the Japanese and the Chinese to hamper any Kuomintang effort to remove the Communist Party of China (CCP) opposition or， in the best case， hoped to install a friendly Communist government surreptitiously after the dwindling of Kuomintang Soviet technicians upgraded and handled some of the Chinese war-supply Military supplies and advisors arrived， and one Russian named Zhukov witnessed the battle of Tai er Because of Chiang Kai-shek's anti-communist policy and hopes of defeating the CCP， Germany provided the largest proportion of Chinese arms German military advisors modernized and trained the Chinese armies; Chinese officers (including Chiang's second son) were educated in and served in the German army before World War II Nevertheless the proposed 30 new divisions equipped with all German arms did not materialize as the Germans sided with the Japanese later in World War II Other prominent powers， including the United States of America， Britain and France， only officially assisted in war supply contracts up to the attack on Pearl Harbor in late 1941， when major influx of trained military personnels and supplies boosted Chinese chance of keeping up the Unofficially， public opinion in the United States was becoming favorable to C At the start of the 1930's， public opinion in the United States had tended to support the J However， reports of Japanese brutality added to Japanese actions such as the attack on the USS Panay swung public opinion sharply against J By the start of 1941， the United States had begun to sponsor the American Volunteer Group otherwise known as the Flying Tigers to boost Chinese air In addition， the United States began an oil and steel embargo which made it impossible for Japan to continue operations in China without another source of oil from Southeast A This set the stage for the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December With that attack， both the United States and China officially declared war against J Chiang Kai-shek received some supplies from the United States once the conflict was escalated to the Asian theatre of WWII， and he was appointed Commander-in-chief of the China war zone by the Allies in Notorious poor relations between Colonel Joseph Stilwell and Chiang led to Stilwell's devious criticism and his minimizing of the Chinese contribution in World War II in the American media and to President Franklin R The Allies thus underestimated the Chinese need for supplies and trained Stilwell also incited power struggles within the Kuomintang which eventually contributed to the rise of the CCP Both sides fought to a stalemate after 1941， mainly owing to the dispersion of Japanese forces through vast areas of China - Japan could not concentrate its superior armor and Guerilla activities behind the frontlines also meant constantly deploying stationary Japanese forces in major cities and at road and rail Control over the countryside and villages gradually swung towards the CCP and K The United States saw the Chinese theater as a means to tie up a large number of Japanese troops， as well as being a possible location for American In 1944， as the Japanese position in the Pacific was deteriorating fast， they launched Operation Ichigo to attack the airbases which had begun to This brought the Hubei， Henan， and Guangxi provinces under Japanese Nevertheless their prospect of tranferring their troops to fight the Americans was in vain and they only committed the Guandong Army from Manchuria in their "Sho plan"， which later facilitated the Soviet advancement after the war declaration on August 8 As of Summer 1945， all sides expected the war to continue for at least another However it was suddenly ended by the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and N Japan capitulated to the allies on August 14， The Japanese troops in China formally surrendered on September 9， 1945 and by the provisions of the Cairo Conference of 1943 the lands of Manchuria， Taiwan and the Pescadores Islands reverted to C However the Ryukyu islands have not regained their Casualties AssessmentThe conflict lasted for 97 months and 3 days (measured from 1937 to 1945) The Kuomintang fought in 22 major engagements， each of which involved at least one hundred thousand troops from both sides， and in just over 40，000 The CCP fought in 111，500 engagements of various The Japanese recorded around 1 million military casualties， wounded and The Chinese suffered much worse， losing approximately 22 million 13 million civilians died in crossfire， and another 4 million as non-military Property loss of the Chinese worthed up to 383，3 million US dollars according to the currency exchange rate in July 1937， roughly 50 times of the GDP of Japan (770 million US dollars)
