Second Sino-Japanese War 1937–45, conflict between Japanese and Chinese forces for control of the Chinese mainland. The war sapped the Nationalist government's strength while allowing the Communists to gain control over large areas through organization of guerrilla units. Thus, it was an important factor in the eventual Communist defeat of the Nationalist forces in 1949. In its early stage, the war was often called the China Incident.

Origins

Following the Manchurian Incident (Sept., 1931), the Japanese Kwantung army occupied Manchuria and established the puppet state of Manchukuo (Feb., 1932). Japan pressed China to recognize the independence of Manchukuo, suppress anti-Japanese activities, and form autonomous regional governments in N China. The Japanese were partially successful in 1933 and 1935 when they forced China to form two demilitarized autonomous zones bordering Manchuria.

Outbreak of War

Growing domestic opposition to the Nationalist government's policy of self-strengthening before counterattacking in N China and Manchuria led to the kidnapping of Chiang Kai-shek was kidnapped at Xi'an in Dec., 1936, by Chang Hsüeh-liang . Chiang was forced to agree to a united anti-Japanese front with the Communists as a condition for his release. The situation was tense, and in 1937 full war commenced. A clash (July, 1937) between soldiers of the Japanese garrison at Beijing and Chinese forces at the Marco Polo Bridge was the pretext for Japanese occupation at Beijing and Tianjin. Chiang Kai-shek refused to negotiate an end to hostilities on Japanese terms and placed crack troops outside the Japanese settlement at Shanghai. After a protracted struggle Shanghai and the national capital, Nanjing, fell to the Japanese. The Chinese broke the Huang He dikes (June, 1938) to slow the enemy advance. In late 1938, Hankou and Guangzhou were taken.

Japanese strategy was aimed at taking the cities, the roads, and the railroads, thereby gaining a net of control. Thus, although the Japanese by 1940 had swept over the eastern coastal area, guerrilla fighting still went on in the conquered regions. The Nationalist government, driven back to a temporary capital at Chongqing, struggled on with little help from outside. Chinese resources were inadequate, and the supplies sent over the Burma Road were far from sufficient. The Chinese cause continued to decline despite vast resistance and bloody fighting. Dubious of China's ability to sustain a protracted war, Wang Ching-wei broke with Chiang Kai-shek and established a collaborationist regime at Nanjing (1940).

World War II

The Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor brought the United States into the war and merged the Sino-Japanese War into World War II as China declared war on Japan, Germany, and Italy. American and British loans and supplies, the establishment of military air bases in China, and the aid of an increasing number of U.S. and British advisers helped relieve China as Japan diverted armies elsewhere. Nevertheless, China's military position continued to deteriorate until Apr., 1945. In May the Chinese launched a successful offensive at Zhijiang (Chihkiang) that lasted until Japanese capitulation on Aug. 14. The Japanese troops in China formally surrendered Sept. 9, 1945. By the provisions of the Cairo Declaration, Manchuria, Taiwan, and the Pescadores were restored to China.

Bibliography

See H. Feis, The China Tangle (1953); F. C. Jones, Japan's New Order in East Asia (1954); D. J. Lu, From the Marco Polo Bridge to Pearl Harbor (1961); J. H. Boyle, China and Japan at War, 1937–1945 (1972); L. Li, The Japanese Army in North China (1975).

Sino-Japanese War (1937–45) Although the Japanese had occupied Manchuria since 1931 and created the colony of Manchukuo there, the attention of the National Government under Chiang Kai-shek had been diverted by its attempt to overcome the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Chiang was eventually forced by his own generals (led by Chang Hsüeh-liang) at Xi'an to declare a truce with the Communists and form a United Front against the Japanese. The Marco Polo Bridge Incident of 1937 provided the trigger for hostilities, leading to the rapid advance of the well-equipped Guandong Army. Within six months, the Japanese had taken most of the Yangtze Valley, Guangzhou (Canton), and the capital of the National Government, Nanjing (Nanking). Chiang recognized, however, that ultimately the Japanese lacked the numbers to conquer the whole of China, and by 1939 their advance had halted. Chiang's National Republican Army engaged the Japanese in open warfare, while Mao Zedong's Communist Red Army weakened the Japanese through guerrilla attacks. War was formally declared only after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Thereafter, the Japanese were diverted in military operations throughout the Pacific and south-eastern Asia, while Chiang received some US aid. The Japanese were eventually defeated in World War II. The main significance of the war for China lay in the reversal of relative strength between Communist and Nationalist forces. While the Communists grew in strength through peasant support, secured through effective administration and land reforms, the Nationalists' strength declined rapidly during the war through heavy losses incurred in frontal assaults against the Japanese. In this sense, it served as a prelude to the Communist victory in the Chinese Civil War (1946–9).

Yan'an

Sino-Japanese War (1937–45) A conflict on the Chinese mainland between combined nationalist and communist Chinese forces and Japan. China had been the target of Japanese expansionism since the late 19th century, and after the MUKDEN INCIDENT of 1931 full-scale war was only a matter of time. Hostilities broke out, without any formal declaration of war by either side, after a clash near the Marco Polo bridge just west of Beijing in 1937. The Japanese overran northern China, penetrating up the Yangtze and along the railway lines, capturing Shanghai, Nanjing, Guangzhou, and Hankou by the end of 1938. In the ‘Rape of Nanjing’, over 100,000 civilians were massacred by Japanese troops. The invaders were resisted by both the KUOMINTANG army of the nationalist leader CHIANG KAI-SHEK and the communist 8th Route Army, the former being supplied after 1941 by Britain and the USA. By the time the conflict had been absorbed into World War II, the Sino-Japanese War had reached a state of near stalemate, Japanese military and aerial superiority being insufficient to overcome tenacious Chinese resistance and the problems posed by massive distances and poor communications. The Chinese kept over a million Japanese troops tied down for the entire war, inflicting a heavy defeat upon them at Jiangxi in 1942 and successfully repelling a final series of offensives in 1944 and 1945. The Japanese finally surrendered to Chiang Kai-shek on 9 September 1945, leaving him to contest the control of China with MAO ZEDONG's communist forces.

First Sino-Japanese War 1894–95, conflict between China and Japan for control of Korea in the late 19th cent. The Li-lto Convention of 1885 provided for mutual troop withdrawals and advance notification of any new troop movements into Korea. Accordingly, when a Korean revolt erupted in 1894, both countries sent troops. However, after the insurrection had been suppressed, Japan refused to withdraw its troops and induced the Korean court to abrogate its agreement with China. The fighting that ensued between Chinese and Japanese forces ended with an easy victory for the more modern Japanese army.

The Treaty of Shimonoseki (1895) declared Korea independent and provided for the cession of Taiwan, the Pescadores, and the Liaodong peninsula by China to Japan. China also had to pay a large indemnity. Within a week of the treaty signing, however, the diplomatic intervention of Russia, France, and Germany forced Japan to return the Liaodong peninsula to China. Under a subsidiary commercial treaty (1896), China yielded to Japanese nationals the right to open factories and engage in manufacturing in the trade ports. This right was automatically extended to the Western maritime powers under the most-favored-nation clause .

Bibliography: See T. Takeuchi, War and Diplomacy in the Japanese Empire (1935, repr. 1966); F. H. Conroy, The Japanese Seizure of Korea,1868–1910 (1960).

SINO-JAPANESE WAR

SINO-JAPANESE WAR. The eruption of war between China and Japan in 1894 did not directly involve the United States, but the resulting regional instability spurred the Cleveland administration to intervene diplomatically. Although it would not formulate the Open Door policy until 1899, Washington feared European powers would exploit for their own economic benefit the instability caused by the Sino-Japanese rivalry. Thus, the United States had rejected British overtures for foreign intervention to prevent the war. Once hostilities began, however, Washington advised Japan to moderate its ambitions in Asia or face international condemnation. In 1895 the Cleveland administration's efforts succeeded in bringing Japan and China to the peace table.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Beisner Robert L. From the Old Diplomacy to the New, 1865–1900. New York: Crowell, 1975.

McCormick, Thomas J. China Market: America's Quest for Informal Empire, 1893–1901. Chicago: Quadrangle Books, 1967.

Foster RheaDulles/a. g.

See alsoChina, Relations with ; Diplomatic Missions ; Japan, Relations with ; Trade, Foreign .

Sino-Japanese War (1894–95) War fought between China and Japan. After Korea was opened to Japanese trade in 1876, it rapidly became an arena for rivalry between the expanding Japanese state and neighbouring China, of which Korea had been a vassal state since the 17th century. A rebellion in 1894 provided a pretext for both sides to send troops to Korea, but the Chinese were rapidly overwhelmed by superior Japanese troops, organization, and equipment. After the Beiyang fleet, one of the most important projects of the SELF-STRENGTHENING MOVEMENT, was defeated at the battle of the Yellow Sea and Port Arthur (now Lüshun) captured, the Chinese found their capital Beijing menaced by advancing Japanese forces. They were forced to sign the Treaty of SHIMONOSEKI, granting Korean independence and making a series of commercial and territorial concessions which opened the way for a Japanese confrontation with Russia, the other expansionist power in north-east Asia.

Sino-Japanese Wars Two wars between China and Japan, marking the beginning and end of Japanese imperial expansion on the Asian mainland. The first (1894–95) arose from rivalry for control of Korea. In 1894, Japanese influence helped to provoke a rebellion in Korea. Both states intervened, and Japanese troops swiftly defeated the Chinese. China was forced to accept Korean independence, and ceded territory including Taiwan and the Liaotung peninsula. The latter was returned after European pressure. The second war (1937–45) developed from Japan's seizure of Manchuria (1931), where it set up the puppet state of Manchukuo. Further Japanese aggression led to war, in which the Japanese swiftly conquered e China, driving the government out of Peking (Beijing). The US and UK despatched aid to China (1938), and the conflict merged into World War 2, ending with the final defeat of Japan in 1945.

Sino-Japanese War a conflict between China and Japan in 1894–95 over sovereignty in Korea. Japan's unexpected victory marked its emergence as a world power. As a result of the war Korea, formerly a client state of China, was recognized as independent, and China ceded some possessions to Japan.