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War in Asia and the Pacific
December 4, 2009 | | Leave a Comment
Its fair to say that China and Japan had the largest Asian influence on World War II. China began experiencing the war two years before it even became a world war in 1937. That is two years before the German Nazis had invaded Poland and the rest of western Europe.
Nationalist China’s leader, Chiang Kai-shek(1887-1975) was busy fighting small warlords and dealing with smaller communist movements. He chased the communists out of Shanghai in 1927, he continued to force them to leave the mountain strongholds they had been occupying until 1931. “The Long March” then ensued, referring to the 90,000(give or take) comunist troups who went over 6,000 miles north to flee Chiang’s pursuit. Only around 20,000 of the communist soldiers survived. Mao Zedong was one of those survivors.
Zedong, with a campaign based on revolution calling on the Peasants and resisting the Japanese invasion in China, won leadership of the Party. (Zedong is a commie o_o)
In the mid 1930s, Nationalists still controlled the majority of China, but the Japanese invaders were becoming more and more aggressive. Chiang didn’t have much choice other than to unite with communist Zedong to fight the Japanese invaders. In 1937, the Japanese and the Chinese duked it out outside Beijing. However, the Chinese were not successful. Japan had control of Beijing, Shanghai, and Nanjing(capital) by the end of the year. Chiang was forced to retreat west, therefore making Chungking the new Chinese capital. The Japanese however, controlled the most populous parts of China, which is also where most of the nationalists were. Chiang was losing credibility as a nationalist leader.
The United States, in 1941, was advising and offering(military help) Chiang in the conflict, however he was not willing to fight the Japanese. Chiang made the decision to hold out until the war was over so he could preserve his supplies and troops for the war against communism. Zedong, hoewver, still attacking the Japanese, winning peasant favor over Chiang for taking action against the Japanese. Zedong was also taking efforts to increase literacy and making agricultural advancements. Zedong was, in essence, leading the peasants to believe that “Mao’s communists were the true Chinese nationalists.”
It is a well known fact that Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, sparking the US involvement in the war.
The Japanese were allied with the Germans and Italians, and were also neutral with Russia due to a treaty signed by both nations in 1941. However, the Japanese were not just flying across the Pacific ocean. Once France surrendered and Britain was significantly weakened, they occupied French Indochina and began harassing Indonesia and British Malaya. Because of Japan’s invasion of western Europe, the United States ceased all assets being provided to the Japanese, essentially cutting off all supplies going into Japan. Britain and the Netherlands soon followed suit.
General Hideki Tojo (1885 – 1948) was the one who decided that a decisive strike against the US would allow them enough time to secure the Indonesian oil and the rubber and tin from Malaya.
Returning to 7 December, 1941, the Japanese Kamikaze had flown over the pacific ocean and attacked Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, a devastating loss for the United States. Many ships and aircraft were destroyed. However, there were also many aircraft carriers that were still out at sea and were spared from the Japanese attack. This meant that the US still had the assets to go to war with strategically important vessels and aircraft. The Japanese, however, were aware they they could not win an all out war against the Americans. A quick decisive attack was all they could hope to do. Now that the US was aware, the military was on the move.
Three days after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Hitler and Mussolini of Germany and China respectively declared war against the United States. Once several of the Latin American countries declared their alliance with the Allies, “The war had truly gained global proportions.”
The Japanese, however, put up a good fight in Western Europe and the pacific islands. Their presence was difficult to eradicate even in the Latin American countries. They were also running rampant in China and southern Asian countries. However, in May of 1942, the United States was able to effectively fight back and slow their advancement. In June, the tide was shifting, putting the Americans on the offense in an aircraft battle against the Japanese in the middle of the pacific ocean near Midway Island. The Americans were able to destroy several Japanese aircraft carriers, finally forcing the Japanese to take a defensive stance.
