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  • Have you ever wondered why did Japan attack the  United States of America during World War Two?  

  • The United States had a much stronger economy  and Japan did not have many chances of winning

  • The answer lies in the Second Sino-Japanese warIt all began ten years ago. China had been in  

  • relative stagnation for a long time, while Japan  had started its modernization half a century ago  

  • and had a strong military. This had allowed Japan  to make some expansion. Seeing China in a weak  

  • state, the Japanese military decided to continue  with enlarging Japan's territory and occupied the  

  • Chinese province of Manchuria. China did not have  a strong army and could not offer much resistance.  

  • The Japanese proceeded with expansion and took  over Chinese territories bit by bit. In 1937  

  • the Japanese seized some Chinese cities. By that  time the Chinese public had become outraged by  

  • Japanese expansion and demanded resistance. The  Chinese military was too weak to recapture the  

  • territories. The Chinese decided to capture the  weakly defended Japanese possession in Shanghai.  

  • Then they could possibly trade it back to Japan  for the return of the territories in the North

  • The Chinese attacked in Shanghai. They  expected to finish the operation quickly,  

  • but they were unable to overcome the Japanese  defenses. Both sides brought reinforcements and  

  • the fighting grew larger. Japan wanted to end the  conflict by inflicting a major defeat on China.  

  • It deployed 200 000 men in North China to go  on offensive and destroy the Chinese forces

  • The Chinese knew of their weakness. They did not  allow themselves to be drawn in a decisive battle  

  • and offered major resistance  only in the western mountains.  

  • Japan was unable to destroy the Chinese forcesBut it still could do so in Shanghai. Japan landed  

  • around 300 000 men in Shanghai and went oncounterattack. The Chinese made a mistake by  

  • holding Shanghai for as long as possible and the  Japanese landed another force behind their lines.  

  • The Chinese were unable to properly react to  the landings and their forces were thrown into  

  • disarray. Without encountering much resistance the  Japanese now headed towards the Chinese capital  

  • at Nanjing. The Japanese captured it and a large  part of the city's civilian population perished in  

  • the following weeks during the Nanjing massacre. Japan had inflicted a major defeat on China  

  • and now offered peace on harsh terms. Although  the Japanese military had proven to be stronger  

  • than the Chinese, Japan had other weaknessesIt was a much smaller country than China and  

  • had difficulties sustaining a large army. Also  Japan was threatened by other powers and if they  

  • would move against Japan, It would find itself  in great difficulties. So China expected Japan  

  • to become weaker as time passed and it decided not  to make peace with Japan for as long as possible

  • Japan could not force China to surrender so it  decided to neutralize it by attacking China's  

  • economy. The Chinese war industry and its best  agricultural lands were in the central part of the  

  • country. Japan believed that if it occupied themthen the Chinese army would become much weaker.  

  • Then Japan could would not need to sustain a large  force in China and could reduce its garrison

  • The Japanese first wanted to connect their  armies in the North and South of China.  

  • While most of their armies were reorganizingthey launched the attack with weaker forces.  

  • In the South the Chinese brought up reinforcements  and stopped the Japanese on a river line.  

  • Then they regrouped their units in the North  and deployed a strong force against the Japanese  

  • northern attack, which halted their offensive. This left a lot of Chinese troops situated  

  • between the two Japanese armies and Japan set out  to encircle them. The Chinese were ready for that  

  • and withdrew their forces from the encirclementThe Japanese then continued to advance west,  

  • but the Chinese destroyed the dykes on the Yellow  river, which flooded the area between the two  

  • armies and the Japanese had to stop their advance. The Japanese now set out to capture the lands  

  • around the Yangtze river and the city of  Wuhan. The floods closed the northern route  

  • and the Japanese chose to advance along the  Yangtze river. The Chinese had 800 000 men, while  

  • the Japanese attacking force had only 200 000. The Chinese deployed their troops on the path of  

  • the Japanese attack and slowed down their advanceThe Japanese then attacked the weak Chinese forces  

  • in the North and outflanked the Chinese defencesThis helped the Japanese to overcome the Chinese  

  • on the Yangtze and they now approached WuhanThe Chinese abandoned the city to the enemy

  • The Japanese proceeded with securing their  position. They expanded their territory  

  • to the east and west. Then they set out to  destroy the Chinese armies. They dispersed  

  • the Chinese forces in the North and returned  to their positions. They then launched an  

  • attack against the Chinese in the South. Japan had achieved its goal of occupying  

  • the Chinese war industry. In order to prevent  China circumventing the Japanese strategy by  

  • bying war materials from overseasJapan also occupied China's major ports

  • Japan had deployed 850 000 soldiers to  carry out the conquest and it could now  

  • start withdrawing them back to Japan to cut down  the expense of the occupation. But the Chinese  

  • still had formidable forces. They decided  to launch a major counter offensive

  • Its goal was to retake Wuhan and to  achieve smaller gains in several places.  

  • The offensive was launched in late 1939. But the  Japanese strategy had proven to be effective.  

  • Without proper equipment the Chinese were  unable to breach the Japanese defences.  

  • Nevertheless they stopped an attack in South China  and disrupted the Japanese positions near Wuhan

  • The Japanese wanted to restore the security  around Wuhan. They dispersed some Chinese units  

  • and then extended their territory to the West. The Japanese were able to recover from the  

  • Chinese offensive, but then the Chinese Communists  launched a series of attacks behind the Japanese  

  • lines known as the Hundred Regiments Offensive. The Japanese suppressed the offensive and in 1941  

  • they cleared their occupied areas from most  of the Communist forces and improved their  

  • defensive positions in North China. In central  China they launched several offensives to weaken  

  • the Chinese forces. By this time the Chinese  had adapted themselves to Japanese tactics  

  • and avoided large-scale battles and as a result  the Japanese could not completely destroy them.  

  • Japan had another problem. China had established  land routes to the ports of the European colonial  

  • powers and was sourcing war materials from abroadAfter France had been defeated in World War Two,  

  • Japan occupied the French Indochina  and closed one of the routes

  • Remember that Japan could become  embargoed by the United States?  

  • Well the United States was opposed to Japanese  expansion. The move into Indochina was the last  

  • straw and the United States stopped selling oil  to Japan unless it withdrew its forces from China  

  • and Indochina. Japan got almost all of its oil  from the United States and without a new source,  

  • its military would become inefficient in a couple  of years. For Japan, withdrawing from China  

  • was unacceptable. It also realized that, until  the United States controlled its oil supply,  

  • it could make Japan do whatever it wantedSo Japan badly needed its own source of oil.  

  • For this, it could capture the oil fields from the  European colonial powers. This would mean war with  

  • the United States, a country much more powerful  than Japan, but the risk was considered worth it

  • To answer the question from  the beginning of the video

  • Japan went into war with China, but China  did not surrender. So Japan had to escalate  

  • the war more and more. Eventually this  caused the United States to embargo Japan  

  • and the only acceptable way out of this situation  for Japan was attacking the United States

  • Would Japan going to war with America finally  turn the war in China's favor? Well...  

  • it is a long story. One, which we  hope to tell in a separate video.

Have you ever wondered why did Japan attack the  United States of America during World War Two?  

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WW2 - Second Sino-Japanese War, 1937-1941

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    香蕉先生 に公開 2022 年 06 月 17 日
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