On 7th July 1937 Japan invaded China. This conflict lasted until 9th September 1945 and cost China almost 10 million life’s, both military and civilian. With this action China joined many countries in WWII and they were part of the allied forces during this conflict with Japan part of the Axis forces.
Although the total cost of human life in China during the second world war was to say the least vast they seem not to get as much press as other countries that were involved.
The conflict in China started on the Marco Polo Bridge, see map below, poor quality which I am sorry for ( screenshot stopped working)
The Japanese and Chinese soldiers were having some kind of dispute which quickly turned into full scale war, a war which would span across the Pacific.
The invasion of China by the Japanese was, as you can see, quite vast, shown here in the map below, red parts shown occupied areas:
The Japanese starting landing troops near Shanghai in 1937
The battle for Shanghai followed, bombing, street fighting as seen below
In 1943 the allied forces held a conference in Cairo, Egypt, pictured below are Chiang Kai-Shek, Franklin D Roosevelt and Winston Churchill during that conference
Chiang Kai-Shek was the commander in chief of the allied forces in China, pictured below in military uniform
The conflict in China ended on 3rd September 1945 with victory parades across the country, just as they did across the world in other countries that were involved, see picture below
This whole conflict could have turned out differently if Adolf Hitler had decided to side with China, however, Hitler felt that the Chinese would in fact loose the war against Japan. Prior to the war breaking out, one the richest men in China Dr Kung, met with Hitler in an attempt to build up their military with the aid of Germany, this of course failed.
One of the reasons I love history is due to the fact there is always something new to learn, I for one didn’t know about this meeting…
Part 2 coming shortly, my nine (9) month stay/visit to China…..
Good research, Stephen.
When WWII ended, China’s ‘civil’ war began and our Marines were caught in the middle while trying to repatriate the Japanese.
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Hitler was favorable towards China for some time. I think his advisors and the Japanese prevailed on him to back Japan against China after 1937.
One thing we never see in the mainstream “official” history texts is that it was only the Imperial Japanese Army that kept China from going communist. Mao’s forces let the nationalists in the south do most of the fighting. Mao wanted the nationalists to be weakened by fighting the Japanese. The rest is history as they say. Make no mistake, Mao and his communist schemes killed many times more Chinese (and Tibetans) than were killed in the Second World War. In fact, the outcome of the war in 1945 served to make large areas of the globe safe for communism.
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Hey, you make some very good points here….
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But let’s not forget that China is still a communist country, even today… with many leaning towards western culture, as a person who lived there for 9 months, I saw and witnessed many Chinese wanting and going to great lengths to learn from the west……
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