User:Blueshirts/Notes

I write notes here to help me organize my thoughts.

Pre-war outline
This should be the "main article" that covers sections 01~03 of the main war outline.

Sino-Japanese War outline
The Second Sino-Japanese War article is a mess, especially its structure. The article is not based on timeline, jumps all over the place, lacks significant information about military aspect of the war and resulting territorial changes, places too much emphasis on stalemate and foreign aid, and such. The article needs much more information on the ROC, its conflict with warlords, communists, and resurgent warlords, political and economic developments, and guerilla warfare (including the KMT's military zones). The Sino-Japanese war should eventually become a part of the History of the Republic of China series. They're inseparable, as the war happened during the growing stages of the republic.

I therefore propose the following order:

00). Introduction
 * General idea of what the war was about. Some background, timeframe, costs, and result.

01). Background (1895-late 1920s):
 * Information on the First Sino-Japanese War, conflict between China and Japan.
 * The weak central KMT government, various forces (Northern factions, social-liberals, communists, right/left wings of the Kuomintang).
 * Japan's "Mainland Policy," economic and military
 * Japan's conflicting strategy over China, 126 Incident, military junta. Choice between Manchuria and all of China, total war and puppets.
 * Manchuria (Zhang Xueliang), integration back into the ROC, unification of China -> hastened mukden incident.

02). ROC internal politics/economy (1920-1930)
 * The status of the Nationalist Nanjing government after unification through the Northern Expedition.
 * Anti-Chiang movements after unification, factions within the Kuomintang, communist insurrection.
 * KMT's two front war against Japan and internal enemies.
 * KMT's policy towards Japan, including anti-anti-japanese suppressions, anti-communist suppressions
 * 1930 War with resurgent warlords -> reasons of Chiang's distrust of former warlord armies, distinction between Chiang's Central Army and "other" armies -> basis of Stilwell's criticism of Chiang.

03). Regional Resistance (early 1930s)
 * Mukden Incident, League of Nations investigation, founding of Manchukuo, including the much derided policy of non-resistance, and reasons for it.
 * Battle of Shanghai, Great Wall, Wei-nei, further partitioning of northern China into Manchukuo.
 * Northeast Volunteer Army.
 * "Specialization" of northern China, independence of several puppet states from KMT control (regions near Manchukuo, inner mongolia).
 * KMT's policy of avoiding full-fledged war, while actively upgrading and training the military for eventual showdown, include some facts about war production and personnel training here.
 * KMT's suppression of CCP, reasons, public opinion (very unfavorable), include Chiang's famous quote here.

04). Formation of the United Front (1936-1937)
 * Xian Incident, conditions for Chiang's release, end of anti-communist suppressions.
 * CCP forces integrated into the NRA. Chiang's reservations and conflict with KMT leftists.
 * Hastened the war.

05). The War Begins and Early Stages (1937-1940)
 * Comparison of the Chinese military, economy, industry, with that of Japan. China obviously ten times worse.
 * Strategy: Space for time.
 * Marco Polo Bridge War: small flare-up that wasn't supported by Manchukuo strategists. Strategic error by Japan.
 * Battle of Shanghai: Chiang's strategy was to show off to foreign interests. The plan backfired as his a third of his best men got wasted and US/UK didn't do squat to help China. The battle took over three months, Japan's goal of a quick war shattered.
 * Battle of Nanjing: Tang Shenzhi's inept defense of Nanjing, Nanjing massacre.
 * Xuzhou, taierzuang..etc.
 * Japan conquered most coastal areas, but ran into trouble as they moved inland, end with battle of wuhan. Essentially the Japanese lost momentum.

06). Collaborationists and occupied territories (1937-1945)
 * Wang Jinwei and various puppets of northern China.
 * KMT and CCP behind enemy lines. Expansion of CCP base of operations.
 * war crimes by Japan.
 * guerilla warfare.

07). Homefront (1937-1945)
 * Chongqing, industries, bombing.
 * War culture (movies, radio etc).
 * Overseas Chinese contributions.

08). The War Continues and the China Warzone (1941-1944)
 * Changsha battles, Changde, chinese gains.
 * more major engagements here.
 * western embargo, oil in indochina. Japan attacks the USA to get out of the china quagmire.
 * pearl harbor, formation of the ABCD defense line and the China Warzone (including southeast asia).

09). KMT/CCP (1937-1945)
 * new fourth army incident,
 * fighting together to fighting separately.

10). ROC and foreign relations (early 1930s-1945)
 * with the soviet union, military aid, soviet union reining in CCP, soviet union's non-aggression pact with Japan, operation zet
 * with germany, military advisers forced to leave china by japan, recognition of wang's government.
 * with the USA, soong meiling, monetary aid, flying tigers, conflict with stilwell,
 * with the UK, churchill is a fatty, closure of the burmese road by the brits, british loss to japan,, indian/vietnamese independence movement, new 1st army deployed in indochina, saved brits, wasting time in the jungle away from china.

11). Later stages of the war (1944)
 * operation ichigo to link up southeast asian theater with the china theater. Explainations of china's previous success against japan and near loss toward the end of 1944.
 * chinese counteroffensive to retake occupied territories.
 * last major engagements.

12). End of war (1945)
 * cairo, potsdam conferences.
 * yalta conference sold China out. Soviet union agreed to fight japan for interests in manchuria, ccp strengthens.
 * china retakes guangxi and other areas.
 * atomic bombing, soviet entry into the war, atomic bombing. Japan surrenders.

13). Aftermath
 * Death toll and economic devastation.
 * ROC and Japan appraisals.
 * Cancellation of all unequal treaties, the ROC became the founding member of the UN
 * ROC's dubious economic policy, and general weird stuff that allowed the CCP to come to power.
 * tokyo trial, chiang's favorable treatment of japanese pows.
 * pyrrhic ROC victory essentially wasted the KMT and made the CCP stronger.

14). Legacy
 * pretty much what the current article features.
 * current politics. ROC desinicization, PRC liers, japanese deniers.

15). Who fought the war
 * the current article has a good assessment on it.

16). Lists
 * incidents before 7-7-1937
 * battles
 * individuals, generals, politicians,
 * war crimes, more organized into types

17) References
 * more books needed. Almost all the books I've read are chinese sources published in taiwan, and most are neutral (i.e. the criticisms of Chiang is a sure sign of neutrality).

Chinese military divisions at the outbreak of the war, 1937

 * Chiang's crack divisions: 10
 * Chiang's regular divisions: 21
 * Northeastern:18
 * Feng Yu-hsiang's Kuominchun faction: 12
 * Yen Hsi-shan's Shanxi faction: 8
 * Li Tsun-jen's Guangxi faction: 6
 * Guangdong faction:15
 * Hunan:12
 * Southwest Yunnan-Kweichow:9
 * Southwest Sczechuan: 27
 * Other northern provincial armies:30
 * Other southern provincial armies:8
 * total: 176

General note

 * A regular Japanese divisions had 24 tanks, 266 trucks, 555 horse-draawn vehicles, while a Chinese division had none. One Japanese division had the firepower of three Chinese divisions. If logistics, supplies, intelligence, medical services, air/naval/armor/artillery supports, and other aspects are factored in, then a Chinese division usually had the strength of a tenth of a Japanese division.

History of the Republic of China

 * The History of the Republic of China article looks really comprehensive. If I get a chance to edit I'll probably work on the warlord era, northern expedition, and then 1930 anti-Chiang military campaigns. Note that most of these anti-Chiang generals became Chiang's subordinates just prior to the Sino-Japanese War.


 * I need to find some books detailing the economic development of Taiwan. Both relevant sections of History of Taiwan and History of the Republic of China lack significant details about 375 rent reduction, public construction projects, small business/mediume business promotion programs and related topics. The current sections seem like mirror-copies of each other, offering very little. The KMT article is mostly about party assets. This is really difficult to organize as the history of roc, taiwan, kmt is so intertwined. So the priority would be to treat the history of post-1945 roc and history of taiwan equally; maybe copy or link one over the other. The history of the kmt should focus more on party dynamics.


 * Sun Yat-sen distrusted China's small capitalist class. Sun wrote, "if you do not use state power to build up these enterprises, but leave them in [private] hands, the result will simply be the expansion of private capital and the emergence of a great wealthy class with the consequent inequalities in society" (Three People's Principles I). The KMT under Chiang vieweed the capitalists as a source of wealth, not a source of natoinal development. Chiang wanted the "vital industries" of heavy machinery, communications, transportation, to be put under state control, much to the chagrin of TV Soong, who wanted them in private control.


 * Tu-li p'ing-lun (Independent Critic), founded May 1932, including many intellectuals like Hu Shih. Urged redefining the strategy of nation-building to make the ultimate resistance to Japan feasible. "To fight Japan now, without adequate preparations in the military, economic, and diplomatic areas, is worse than useless," said Chiang T'ing Fu (TLPL no. 41, Mar 12 1933). Hu Shih said China might need fifty years to reclaim all the lost territories, and Ting Wen-chiang said China should conclude a Brest-Litovsk-type treaty with Japan to buy the time to build up the capacity for resistance. That capacity is indusrial, "iron and steel".

ROC political divisions
List of leaders of the Republic of China
 * 1912-1928 Beiyang Government was the official government of the ROC. During this time, there were several competing governments:
 * Sun Yat-sen's Nanking Provisional Government (Jan-Mar 1912), this one ended when Sun (1st provisional president) agreed to move the government to Beijing, and Yuan Shikai became the 2nd provisional president.
 * Guangzhou Military Government (KMT) (Sept 1917 - June 1925),
 * KMT Government (1925 Guangzhou, 1927 Nanking, 1928 Unification).


 * 1928 Northern Expedition unified China, destroyed warlords, but KMT itself was fragmented, compounded by the japanese threat.
 * 1929-1930 War, fought over which clique gets axed through military reduction, because 85% of ROC budget was on the military. Lee Tsung-jen lost. Zhang Xueliang supported Nanking and ended the war.
 * 1931 Guanzhou self-government, by Hu Hanming, ended during the manchurian incident.
 * 1936 Guanzhou self-government again.
 * 1931-37 Japanese puppet governments in Manchuria, Jehol/Chachar/Suiyuang, Inner Mongolia. These were the Huabei (north china) self-governing governments.
 * 1940 Wang Jingwei's Nanking puppet government.

Northern Expedition
These were the main factions remaining in the KMT after the Northern Expedition which wiped out the warlords:
 * 1st Army Group: Chiang Kai-shek. Whampoa Clique (Nanking), pro-Chiang
 * 2nd Army Group: Feng Yu-hsiang. Feng Clique, anti-Chiang
 * 3rd Army Group: Yen Hsi-shan. Yen Clique (Shanxi), anti-Chiang
 * 4th Army Group: Li Tsung-ren. Guei Clique (Guanxi), anti-Chiang
 * Northeast Army Group: Zhang Xueliang (Manchuria), pro-Chiang

Nanjing Decade

 * Sun Yat-sen's national reconstruction called for the improvement of people's livelihood, then political rights, then national equality, and finally independence (from foreign powers). Chiang Kai-shek's objective was destroying unequal treaties first, and diminished the role of political rights and national equality. His aim was to militarize the society so it can develop a strong modern army with the capability to destroy imperialism. Chiang therefore shied away from mass mobilization and much of the revolutionary momentum he had sustained in the Northern Expedition. The militarization of society meant a return to traditional chinese values (new life movement), authoritarian political system, and hierarchial social structure.
 * During this period the most successful of Kuomintang's Nanjing Decade policy was in the areas of building the state's infrastructure, such as industry and railroads, and less so in social/political issues.

Internal pacification before foreign aggression

 * "The hypothesis of every reorganization of any army is, first of all, peace on the outer borders. That means several years of external peace and state of political stability... Before these conditions are achieved, a successful military reorganization cannot be accomplished. Success cannot be attained while you are in a continued state of war," Hans von Seeckt to Chiang.
 * Some scholars, such as Hsi-sheng Chi, believe that this strategy obviously did not work as well as intended, since Japan was encouraged to invade more territories and specialize areas north of the Great Wall and even the Hebei province. In addition, the Kuomintang could have used nationalistic sentiments to lead the revolutionary resistance against Japan, but instead became villified for non-resistance and let the CCP took the forefront, even though the CCP did not and could not have done anything differently. Other scholars, including those of the national government such as Hu Shih, believe that full-scale war would only mean total subjugation of China.
 * The German-trained units are not as prepared as one might think. China was not near of building its military, including industry, logidstics, and other associated aspects. China's attempts at doing so have been continuously hampered by civil wars and it was not until the middle of 1935 when concrete measures (end of 1938) could be put into action. However, when the war started, only around ten divisions were completely German-trained, and even these were equipped with small arms and did not have much combined arms support, not to mention a lack of competent logistics and medical services.

1930 Central Plains War

 * 1929 Reorganization and Disbandment Conference.
 * Feng and Yen vs. Chiang.
 * Troop disbandment = decrease regional military power = regional military power not happy = war.

Misc
This is expurgated from the Battle of Shanghai article. Good stuff but I don't how to integrate it with all other stuff I wrote so I moved it here:

The first stage lasted from August 13 to September 11, during which the National Revolutionary Army defended the city against the Japanese who were landing at the shores of Shanghai; The second stage lasted from September 12 to November 4, during which the two armies involved in a bloody house-to-house battle in an attempt to gain control of the city; and the last stage, lasting from November 5 to end of the month, involved the retreat of the Chinese army by flanking Japanese.

By September 17, the Chinese retreated to the North Shanghai Railway Station further inland to set up a defensive line at Lotien-Shuangtsaoten section of the railway. During mid-September vicious house-to-house fighting erupted and 100,000 Japanese troops broke the Lotien line. The Chinese retreated further to the southern bank of Wentsaopang creek and took up defensive positions along the Kwangfu-Szesiangkungmiao-Liuho line.

The Japanese further increased their men to 200,000 during October and launched an offensive on the Wentsaopang creek region. The Chinese also started their counter-offensive. This caused tremendous casualties on both sides. On October 23, the Japanese broke through Chinese lines, forcing them to make an orderly tactical withdrawal further south to the hilltops of the Blue Dragon Ridge. The Chinese fought relentlessly to hold their higher ground. But with casualties of some thirty thousand, the Chinese retreated. However, a group of Chinese troops successfully covered the retreat of the bulk of Chinese forces by fortifying the Sihang Warehouse and defending it against all odds against more than 10 Japanese attacks in 4 days. The story of "The 800 Heroes" spawned a patriotic song of the same name, and successfully raised the morale in an otherwise grim situation. With Chinese lines faltering throughout the city, the Japanese demanded a surrender on November 7th. However, the Chinese refused to surrender and bitter close-quarters battle continued, with Japanese planes strafing and bombing the city. The last Chinese troops evacuated from the city and retreated further south on November 12.

-- Mukden Incident, copied verbatim from merged article

The starting point of the Showa War [i.e. Sino-Japanese War of 1931-1945] was the Manchurian Incident that took place in September 1931. Who should be blamed for having caused the incident? The main instigators of the incident were Kanji Ishihara and Seishiro Itagaki, staff officers of the Kwantung Army, a unit of the Imperial Japanese Army.

Determined to conspire together to grab power and lead the country, they became the masterminds of the act of aggression into Manchuria (currently part of northeastern China) and literally dragged the nation into a series of wars.

At the core of Lt. Col. Ishihara's militarist thinking was the pursuit of the "Final World War Theory" to determine the No. 1 country of the world in a war between Japan and the United States, which he considered the greatest nations of the Eastern and Western civilizations, respectively.

In January 1928, at a meeting of the Mokuyo-kai (Thursday Society) group of elite officers who graduated from the Imperial Japanese Army's War College, Ishihara said, "The nation could stand being in a state of war for even 20 years or 30 years if we have footholds all over China and fully use them."

In June of that year, Daisaku Komoto, the predecessor of Itagaki, assassinated Zhang Zuolin, a Chinese warlord who had a strong influence in Manchuria, by blowing up the train in which he was traveling. This incident would become a model for the Manchurian Incident.

The Manchurian Incident took place as members of the Kwantung Army blew up a section of South Manchuria Railway lines in Liutiaogou (Lake Liutiao), outside Mukden (currently Shenyang). The army then took control of Mukden in a single day. The temporary mayor's post of Mukden was taken up by Kenji Dohihara, then chief of the Mukden Special Service Agency.

The Kwantung Army began advancing into Jilin Province beyond its original garrison areas. Shigeru Honjo, then commander of the Kwantung Army, initially opposed sending troops to Jilin. But he eventually yielded to Itagaki's persistence and decided to give the go-ahead to the deployment.

Senjuro Hayashi, commander of the Japanese Army in Korea, also decided to dispatch his troops to Manchuria without an order. He followed advice from staff officers of the Japanese Army in Korea, who had ties with Ishihara and Itagaki.

Kingoro Hashimoto, chief of the Russia group of the Army General Staff's 2nd Bureau, had close contacts with them.

Hashimoto formed the Sakura-kai (Cherry Society) group that comprised young reformist officers, and used the group as a foothold to lead two failed coup attempts called the "March Incident" and the "October Incident." The March Incident was aimed at installing War Minister Kazushige Ugaki as prime minister. Others involved in the incident included Kuniaki Koiso, chief of the ministry's Military Affairs Bureau.

The October Incident was linked to the Manchurian Incident, although it was poorly planned. However, it would be the forerunner for a series of coups and terrorist acts, such as the May 15 Incident of 1932 and Feb. 26 Incident of 1936.

Before the Manchurian Incident, War Minister Jiro Minami strongly advocated to take hard line stance on Manchuria and Inner Mongolia. Without complaint, Prime Minister Reijiro Wakatsuki readily approved the dispatch of troops from the Japanese Army in Korea to Manchuria at its own discretion after being told about it by Minami.

The helplessness of [Japanese] politicians from being able to prevent military officers stationed outside the country from spinning out of control surfaced for the first time at this point.

It was the beginning of the 14-year-long Japanese Militarist invasion, occupation and colonization of Manchuria, the northeastern region of China.

Lend-lease
Year % of lend-lease to China 1941 1.7 1942 1.5 1943 0.4 1944 0.4 1945 8

Source: Arthur N. Young, p.115, China's Wartime Finance and Inflation