User:Blueshirts/Notes

BlueShirts writes notes here to help him organize his thoughts.

Sino-Japanese War

Notes

• Battle of Taiyuan is divided into three stages:

1. Battle of Pingxingguan (September 10 - 29 1937), yes, the KMT did more than the CCP.

2. Battle of Xinkou (September 30 - November 9), till fall of Taiyuan.

3. Combat around 正太路 (November 12 - November 30).

• German military advisors told Chiang Kai-shek that he needed at least four or five years to build up the military to fight Japan. So in essence by 1938-39 China would have been ready. Now I don't know how much of that factored into Chiang's early policy of non-resistance. BlueShirts 01:23, 6 December 2005 (UTC)

• serious discussion about NRA's fighting capability should be discussed. The NRA was probably the only Allied army whose power decreased along the course of the war. BlueShirts 20:07, 12 December 2005 (UTC)

• Manchuria was one-fifth of China's territory, had half of the nation's railways, four-fifths of the iron ore production, and one-tenth of the government's revenue.

Order

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).

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.