Anti-Japanese War of Resistance (抗日战争) 
- World War II Chinese Theater

(Photo links at the end of this page)

The 3rd of September is the Victory Day of Anti-Japanese War of Resistance (抗日战争) in China, marking the 60th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese people and the Allies against the Imperial Japanese Military and the final end of the World War II.

July 7, 1937, the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) launched attacked against Chinese army stationed north of Beijing, starting the Sino-Japanese War, which is commonly referred to as Anti-Japanese War of Resistance (抗日战争) in China. The Anti-Japanese War of Resistance (抗日战争) later became part of the Aliies' war against the Fascists Axis, and in fact was the beginning of the World war II in the Asia/Pacific region.

During the eight years of Anti-Japanese War of Resistance, the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) suffered 1.1 million military casualties, killed, wounded and missing in China. The Chinese lost approximately 3.22 million soldiers. 9.13 million civilians died in crossfire, and another 8.4 million as non-military casualties. Property loss of the Chinese valued up to 383,301.3 million US dollars according to the currency exchange rate in July 1937, roughly 50 times of the GDP of Japan at that time (770 million US dollars).

With such great sacrifice, the Chinese people greatly contributed to the just cause against the Fascists Axis. In fact, over 90% of the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) was tied in the China theater that Japan could not offer effective resistance against American and other ally troops in the Pacific war. The following are the statistics of number of troops involved (Wikipedia):

Chinese side

• The KMT Army had approximately 4,300,000 regulars.
• The number of those on the CCP side, due to their guerilla status, is difficult to say, though estimates place the total number of the Eighth Route Army, New Fourth Army, and irregulars at 1,300,000.

Japanese side

• The IJA had 2,000,000 regulars.
• The Collaborationist Chinese Army (zh:僞軍) formed approximate 2,100,000.

Military Operations of Chinese Forces against IJA:

• The Kuomintang [Note: the central Nationalist government] fought in 22 major battles, each of which involved at least one hundred thousand troops from both sides, and in just over 40,000 skirmishes.
• The Kuomintang (governmental) troops also formed an expeditionary army to fight side-by-side with American and British armies against the Japanese in Burma. 
• The CCP [Note: Chinese Communist Party] mostly fought guerilla attacks in rural area in North China. It would later give them credence to win them support in the Chinese Civil War. [Personal note: it was a tragedy that the two major parties of war-time allies in China later turned weapons against each other and resolved their pursuit of power in the form of a civil war, which created today's division of one country into two parts: Chinese Mainland ("People's Republic of China") and Chinese Taiwan ("Republic of China")]

Remarks of Ally leaders on the Chinese resistance against Japanese invasion and its contribution to the Anti-Fascist War (Translated from Chinese sources):

President Roosevelt praised the Chinese War against Japanese Invasion: "If there were no China, or if China had been defeated, you can imagine how many divisions of IJA would have been deployed to other fronts. They could have conquered Australia, India, ..."

In his Sate of the Union January 6, 1942, President Roosevelt praised that "tens of millions of Chinese people endured bombing and hunger, dealt blows to the Japanese with weapons and equipments that are inferior to the Japanese." One month later, in one of his Fireplace Talks, President Roosevelt said, "We must help China to continue their effective resistance now and in the future counter-aggression, because that [Chinese war against Japanese invasion] is an important factor in defeating Japan."

Churchill remarked: "If Japan marched westward to the Indian Ocean, all our defense in the Middle East would collapse. The only factor that could prevent that from happening is China."

Stalin of Soviet Union: "Only when the Japanese invaders have their hands tied up [in China] could we avoid fighting on two fronts [in the west against Nazi Germany and in the east against Imperial Japan]."

The WWII has ended 60 years. We should never forget how the war was started - by countries ruled by war-like military factions who brain-washed their people to invade other countries. We should never forget the painful history so that it will never be repeated.

Let us safeguard peace and freedom so that those who died in the just cause of anti-Fascist wars will not die in vain.

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