1.
Second Sino-Japanese War
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The Second Sino-Japanese War was a military conflict fought primarily between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan from July 7,1937 to September 9,1945. The First Sino-Japanese War was fought from 1894 to 1895, China fought Japan, with some economic help from Germany, the Soviet Union and the United States. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, the war merged into the conflict of World War II as a major front of what is broadly known as the Pacific War. Many scholars consider the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937 to have been the beginning of World War II, the Second Sino-Japanese War was the largest Asian war in the 20th century. The war was the result of a decades-long Japanese imperialist policy to expand its influence politically and militarily in order to access to raw material reserves, food. The period after World War One brought about increasing stress on the Japanese polity, leftists sought universal suffrage and greater rights for workers. Increasing textile production from Chinese mills was adversely affecting Japanese production, the Depression brought about a large slowdown in exports. All of this contributed to militant nationalism, culminating in the rise to power of a militarist fascist faction and this faction was led at its height by the Imperial Rule Assistance Associations Hideki Tojo cabinet under the edict from Emperor Shōwa. Before 1937, China and Japan fought in small, localized engagements, the last of these incidents was the Marco Polo Bridge Incident of 1937, which is traditionally seen as the beginning of total war between the two countries. Since 2017 the Chinese Government has regarded the invasion of Manchuria by the Kwantung Army in 1931, initially the Japanese scored major victories, such as the Battle of Shanghai, and by the end of 1937 captured the Chinese capital of Nanjing. After failing to stop the Japanese in Wuhan, the Chinese central government was relocated to Chongqing in the Chinese interior, by 1939, after Chinese victories in Changsha and Guangxi, and with Japans lines of communications stretched deep into the Chinese interior, the war reached a stalemate. The Japanese were also unable to defeat the Chinese communist forces in Shaanxi, on December 7,1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, and the following day the United States declared war on Japan. The United States began to aid China via airlift matériel over the Himalayas after the Allied defeat in Burma that closed the Burma Road, in 1944 Japan launched the invasion, Operation Ichi-Go, that conquered Henan and Changsha. However, this failed to bring about the surrender of Chinese forces, in 1945, the Chinese Expeditionary Force resumed its advance in Burma and completed the Ledo Road linking India to China. At the same time, China launched large counteroffensives in South China and retook the west Hunan, the remaining Japanese occupation forces formally surrendered on September 9,1945 with the following International Military Tribunal for the Far East convened on April 29,1946. China was recognized as one of the Big Four of Allies during the war, in the Chinese language, the war is most commonly known as the War of Resistance Against Japan, and also known as the Eight Years War of Resistance, simply War of Resistance. It is also referred to as part of the Global Anti-Fascist War, which is how World War 2 is perceived by the Communist Party of China, in Japan, nowadays, the name Japan–China War is most commonly used because of its perceived objectivity. In Japan today, it is written as 日中戦争 in shinjitai, the word incident was used by Japan, as neither country had made a formal declaration of war
2.
Communist Party of China
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The Communist Party of China is the founding and ruling political party of the Peoples Republic of China. It was founded in 1921, chiefly by Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao, the CPC is currently the worlds second largest political party with a membership of 88.76 million as of 2016. It also controls the worlds largest armed force, the Peoples Liberation Army, the highest body of the CPC is the National Congress, convened every fifth year. The partys leader holds the offices of General Secretary, Chairman of the Central Military Commission, through these posts the party leader is the countrys paramount leader. The current party leader is Xi Jinping, elected at the 18th National Congress, the CPC is still committed to communist thought and continues to participate in the International Meeting of Communist and Workers Parties each year. The official explanation for Chinas economic reforms is that the country is in the stage of socialism. The planned economy established under Mao Zedong was replaced by the socialist market economy, the CPC has its origins in the May Fourth Movement of 1919, during which radical ideologies like Marxism and anarchism gained traction among Chinese intellectuals. Other influences stemming from the Bolshevik revolution and Marxist theory inspired the Communist Party of China, Li Dazhao was the first leading Chinese intellectual who publicly supported Leninism and world revolution. In contrast to Chen Duxiu, Li did not renounce participation in the affairs of the Republic of China, both of them regarded the October Revolution in Russia as groundbreaking, believing it to herald a new era for oppressed countries everywhere. The CPC was modeled on Vladimir Lenins theory of a vanguard party, Study circles were, according to Cai Hesen, the rudiments. Several study circles were established during the New Culture Movement, the founding National Congress of the CPC was held on 23–31 July 1921. With only 50 members in the beginning of 1921, the CPC organization, while it was originally planned to be held in Shanghai French Concession, police officers interrupted the meeting on 3 July. Because of that, the congress was moved to a tourist boat on South Lake in Jiaxing, Zhejiang province, only 12 delegates attended the congress, with neither Li nor Chen being able to attend. Chen sent a representative to attend the congress. The resolutions of the called for the establishment of a communist party. The communists dominated the left wing of the KMT, a party organized on Leninist lines, when KMT leader Sun Yat-sen died in March 1925, he was succeeded by a rightist, Chiang Kai-shek, who initiated moves to marginalize the position of the communists. Fresh from the success of the Northern Expedition to overthrow the warlords, Chiang Kai-shek turned on the communists, ignoring the orders of the Wuhan-based KMT government, he marched on Shanghai, a city controlled by communist militias. Although the communists welcomed Chiangs arrival, he turned on them, Chiangs army then marched on Wuhan, but was prevented from taking the city by CPC General Ye Ting and his troops
3.
Empire of Japan
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The Empire of Japan was the historical Japanese nation-state and great power that existed from the Meiji Restoration in 1868 to the enactment of the 1947 constitution of modern Japan. Imperial Japans rapid industrialization and militarization under the slogan Fukoku Kyōhei led to its emergence as a world power, after several large-scale military successes during the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Pacific War, the Empire also gained notoriety for its war crimes against the peoples it conquered. A period of occupation by the Allies followed the surrender, Occupation and reconstruction continued well into the 1950s, eventually forming the current nation-state whose full title is the State of Japan or simply rendered Japan in English. The historical state is referred to as the Empire of Japan or the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan in English. In Japanese it is referred to as Dai Nippon Teikoku, which translates to Greater Japanese Empire and this is analogous to Großdeutsches Reich, a term that translates to Greater German Empire in English and Dai Doitsu Teikoku in Japanese. This meaning is significant in terms of geography, encompassing Japan, due to its name in kanji characters and its flag, it was also given the exonym Empire of the Sun. After two centuries, the policy, or Sakoku, under the shoguns of the Edo period came to an end when the country was forced open to trade by the Convention of Kanagawa in 1854. The following years saw increased trade and interaction, commercial treaties between the Tokugawa shogunate and Western countries were signed. In large part due to the terms of these Unequal Treaties, the Shogunate soon faced internal hostility, which materialized into a radical, xenophobic movement. In March 1863, the Emperor issued the order to expel barbarians, although the Shogunate had no intention of enforcing the order, it nevertheless inspired attacks against the Shogunate itself and against foreigners in Japan. The Namamugi Incident during 1862 led to the murder of an Englishman, Charles Lennox Richardson, the British demanded reparations but were denied. While attempting to exact payment, the Royal Navy was fired on from coastal batteries near the town of Kagoshima and they responded by bombarding the port of Kagoshima in 1863. For Richardsons death, the Tokugawa government agreed to pay an indemnity, shelling of foreign shipping in Shimonoseki and attacks against foreign property led to the Bombardment of Shimonoseki by a multinational force in 1864. The Chōshū clan also launched the coup known as the Kinmon incident. The Satsuma-Chōshū alliance was established in 1866 to combine their efforts to overthrow the Tokugawa bakufu, in early 1867, Emperor Kōmei died of smallpox and was replaced by his son, Crown Prince Mutsuhito. On November 9,1867, Tokugawa Yoshinobu resigned from his post and authorities to the Emperor, however, while Yoshinobus resignation had created a nominal void at the highest level of government, his apparatus of state continued to exist. On January 3,1868, Satsuma-Chōshū forces seized the palace in Kyoto. On January 17,1868, Yoshinobu declared that he would not be bound by the proclamation of the Restoration, on January 24, Yoshinobu decided to prepare an attack on Kyoto, occupied by Satsuma and Chōshū forces
4.
Peng Dehuai
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Peng Dehuai was a prominent Chinese Communist military leader, and served as Chinas Defense Minister from 1954 to 1959. When he was sixteen, Peng became a professional soldier, over the next ten years Peng served in the armies of several Hunan-based warlord armies, raising himself from the rank of private second class to major. In 1926 Pengs forces joined the Kuomintang, and Peng was first introduced to communism, Peng participated in the Northern Expedition, and supported Wang Jingweis attempt to form a left-leaning Kuomintang government based in Wuhan. After Wang was defeated, Peng briefly rejoined Chiang Kai-sheks forces before joining the Chinese Communist Party, allying himself with Mao Zedong and Zhu De. Peng was one of the most senior generals who defended the Jiangxi Soviet from Chiangs attempts to capture it, Peng participated in the Long March, and supported Mao Zedong at the Zunyi Conference, which was critical to Maos rise to power. Peng was the commander in the combined Kuomintang-Communist efforts to resist the Japanese occupation of Shanxi in 1937. In 1940, Peng conducted the Hundred Regiments Offensive, a massive Communist effort to disrupt Japanese logistical networks across northern China, after the Japanese surrendered, in 1945, Peng was given command of Communist forces in Northwest China. He was the most senior commander responsible for defending the Communist leadership in Shaanxi from Kuomintang forces, the rivalry between Peng and Mao culminated in an open confrontation between the two at the 1959 Lushan Conference. Mao won this confrontation, labeled Peng as a leader of an anti-Party clique, Peng lived in virtual obscurity until 1965, when the reformers Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping supported Pengs limited return to government, developing military industries in Southwest China. In 1966, following the advent of the Cultural Revolution, Peng was arrested by Red Guards, in 1970 Peng was formally tried and sentenced to life imprisonment, and he died in prison in 1974. After Mao died in 1976, Pengs old ally, Deng Xiaoping, Deng led an effort to formally rehabilitate people who had been unjustly persecuted during the Cultural Revolution, and Peng was one of the first leaders to be posthumously rehabilitated, in 1978. In modern China, Peng is considered one of the most successful, Peng was born in 1898 in the village of Shixiang, Xiangtan County, Hunan. His personal name at birth was Dehua, Pengs family lived in a thatched-straw hut and owned approximately 1.5 acres of irrigated land, on which the family grew bamboo, sweet potatoes, tea, cotton, and various vegetables. His father also operated a bean curd shop, the income from the land and shop supported an extended family of eight people, including Peng, his three brothers, his parents, his grandmother, and a grand-uncle. Peng later described his own background as lower-middle peasant. From 1905–1907, Peng was enrolled in a traditional Confucian primary school, in 1908 Peng attended a modern primary school, but, at the age of ten, was forced to withdraw from this school due to his familys deteriorating financial situation. In 1905–1906, there was a drought in Hunan. Pengs mother died in 1905, and Pengs six-month-old brother died of hunger, Pengs father was forced to sell most of his family possessions for food, and to pawn most of his familys land
5.
Zhu De
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Zhu De was a Chinese general, warlord, politician, revolutionary, and one of the pioneers of the Communist Party of China. Born poor in 1886 in Sichuan, Zhu was adopted by an uncle at age nine. After his time at the academy, he joined a rebel army and it was after this period that he adopted communism. He ascended through the ranks of the Red Army as it closed in on securing the nation, by the time China was under Maos control, Zhu was a high-ranking official within the Communist Party of China. He served as Commander-in-Chief during the Second Sino-Japanese War, in 1955, Zhu became one of the Ten Marshals of the Peoples Liberation Army, of which he is regarded as the principal founder. Zhu remained a prominent political figure until his death in 1976, as the chairman of the Standing Committee of the National Peoples Congress from 1975 to 1976, Zhu was the head of state of the Peoples Republic of China. Zhu was born on December 18,1886, to a tenant farmers family in Hung, a town in Yilong County. Of the fifteen children born to the only eight survived. His family relocated to Sichuan during the migration from Hunan province and his origins are often given as Hakka, but Agnes Smedleys biography of him says his people came from Guangdong and speaks of Hakka as merely associates of his. She also says that older generations of his family had spoken the Kwangtung dialect (which would be close to, and that his generation also spoke the Szechwan dialect, Sichuanese, a distinct regional variant of Southwest Mandarin that is unintelligible to other speakers of Standard Chinese. In spite of the poverty, by pooling resources, Zhu was chosen to be sent to a regional private school in 1892. At age nine, Zhu was adopted by his prosperous uncle, before the suspension of imperial examinations in 1906, he attained the rank of Xiucai, which allowed him to qualify as a civil servant. He enrolled in a Sichuan high school around 1907, and graduated in 1908, subsequently, he returned to Yilongs primary school as a gym instructor. There, he joined the Beiyang Army and the Tongmenghui secret political society and it was at the Yunnan Military Academy in Kunming, that Zhu first met Cai E. He taught at the Academy after his graduation in July 1911, siding with the revolutionary forces after the Chinese Revolution, he joined Brigadier Cai E in the October 1911 expeditionary force that marched on Qing forces in Sichuan. He served as a commander in the campaign to unseat Yuan Shikai in 1915-16. When Cai became governor of Sichuan after Yuans death in June 1916, following the death of his mentor Cai E and of his first wife, Zhu developed a severe opium habit that afflicted him until 1922, when he underwent treatment in Shanghai. His troops continued to him, and so he consolidated his forces to become a warlord
6.
Collaborationist Chinese Army
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The term Collaborationist Chinese Army refers to the military forces of the puppet governments founded by Imperial Japan in mainland China during the Second Sino-Japanese War. They most notably include the armies of the Provisional Government, Reformed Government and those forces were also commonly known as puppet troops but went under different names during their history, such as Nanjing Government Army. In total, all forces in China combined had a total of around one million men by the end of the war in 1945. Originally, the Japanese did not allow Wang Kemins Provisional Government of the Republic of China to have an army of its own and instead relied on a police force of 5,000 men for security. In May 1938 steps were taken towards forming an army for his government by opening a military academy in Beijing. In February 1939, a Training School was opened for non-commissioned officers with one thousand cadets undergoing a six-month course, along with graduates of the academies, who were given the rank of lieutenant or second lieutenant, there were also former Nationalist and warlord officers. In addition, there was also a 400-man bodyguard unit for Wang, in December 1938, Pacification Minister Ren Yuandao announced that the army consisted of 10,000 troops. The year-long training course was given by Japanese officers, however, their training was cut short as the expanded army, which numbered 30,000 men by November 1939, needed officers. Its quality was low, as reports indicated that Reformed Government troops fled from guerillas that they engaged and it was commanded by Vice Admiral Xu Jianding, the former commander of the Nationalist navys Yangtze Squadron. A water police training school was established with 150 cadets trained by 30 Japanese and 30 Chinese instructors, however, it had few vessels to carry out its duty with. During its existence, the Reorganized National Government of the Republic of China fielded a force that was estimated by Western sources to have been between 300,000 to 500,000 strong. Wang Jingwei initially planned to raise a force of twelve divisions under his personal command, all military matters were theoretically managed by the Central Military Commission, but in reality the body was largely symbolic and had little authority. The Nanjing Army commanders were able to operate without interference from Wangs government. In the Japan–China Military Affairs Agreement signed by Japan and the Reorganized National Government and they were provided with mostly captured Nationalist equipment along with small amounts of Japanese weapons. The main type of artillery in use by the Nanjing Army were medium mortars, the Japanese provided 18 Type 94 tankettes in 1941 so that the Wang Jingwei regime would have at least a token armored force. Records indicate that the Nanjing Army was also given 20 armored cars and 24 motorcycles, since there were few factories in the Nanjing Governments territory, it had to rely on weapons captured from Nationalist troops and those provided by Japan. Due to this the quality and quantity of arms used by the Nanjing Army varied greatly. Two of the most widely used rifles were the Mauser 98k, in 1941 the Japanese sold some 15,000 captured Mannlicher rifles and 30,000 new Arisaka rifles which were issued to the best Nanjing Army units
7.
January 28 Incident
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The January 28 Incident or Shanghai Incident was a conflict between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan, before official hostilities of the Second Sino-Japanese War commenced in 1937. In Chinese literature it is known as the January 28 Incident, after the Mukden Incident, Japan had acquired the vast northeastern region of China and would eventually establish the puppet government of Manchukuo. However, the Japanese military planned to increase Japanese influence further, especially into Shanghai where Japan, in order to provide a casus belli to justify further military action in China, the Japanese military instigated seemingly anti-Japanese incidents. On January 18, five Japanese Buddhist monks, members of an ardently nationalist sect, were beaten near Shanghais Sanyou Factory by agitated Chinese civilians, two were seriously injured, and one died. Over the next few hours, a burnt down the factory. One policeman was killed and several more hurt when they arrived to quell the disorder, the situation continued to deteriorate over the next week. The militarys justification was that it had to defend its concession, during the afternoon of January 28, the Shanghai Municipal Council agreed to these demands. Throughout this period, the Chinese 19th Route Army had been massing outside the city, causing consternation to the civil Chinese administration of Shanghai and the foreign-run Concessions. The 19th Route Army was generally viewed as more than a warlord force. In the end, Shanghai donated a substantial bribe to the 19th Route Army, hoping that it would leave, however, at midnight on January 28, Japanese carrier aircraft bombed Shanghai in the first major aircraft carrier action in East Asia. In what was a surprising about-face for many, the 19th Route Army, though the opening battles took place in the Hongkew district of the International Settlement, the conflict soon spread outwards to much of Chinese-controlled Shanghai. The majority of the Concessions remained untouched by the conflict and it was often the case that those in the Shanghai International Settlement would watch the war from the banks of Suzhou Creek and they could even visit the battle lines by virtue of their extraterritoriality. On January 30, Chiang Kai-shek decided to relocate the capital from Nanjing to Luoyang as an emergency measure. However, Japan refused, instead continuing to mobilize troops in the region, on February 12, American, British and French representatives brokered a half-day cease fire for humanitarian relief to civilians caught in the crossfire. The same day, the Japanese issued another ultimatum, demanding that the Chinese Army retreat 20 km from the border of Shanghai Concessions and this only intensified fighting in Hongkew. The Japanese were unable to take the city by the middle of February, subsequently, the number of Japanese troops was increased to nearly 90,000 with the arrival of the 9th Infantry Division and the IJA 24th Mixed Brigade, supported by 80 warships and 300 airplanes. On February 14, Chiang Kai-shek sent his 5th Army, including his 87th and 88th divisions, on February 20, Japanese bombardments were increased to force the Chinese away from their defensive positions near Miaohang, while commercial and residential districts of the city were set on fire. The Chinese defensive positions deteriorated rapidly without naval and armored support, Japanese forces increased to over a 100,000 troops, backed by aerial and naval bombardments
8.
Pacification of Manchukuo
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The operations were carried out by the Imperial Japanese Kwantung Army and the collaborationist forces of the Manchukuo government from March 1932 until 1942, and resulted in a Japanese victory. The provincial government of Liaoning Province had fled west to Chinchow, Governor Zang Shiyi remained in Mukden, but refused to cooperate with the Japanese in establishing a separatist and collaborationist government and was imprisoned. On 23 September 1931, Lieutenant General Xi Qia of the Kirin Army was invited by the Japanese to form a government for Kirin Province. In Kirin, the Japanese succeeded in achieving a bloodless occupation of the capital, General Xi Qia issued a proclamation on 30 September, declaring the province independent of the Republic of China under protection of the Japanese Army. On 24 September 1931, a government was formed in Fengtien with Yuan Chin-hai as Chairman of the Committee for the Maintenance of Peace. However he was not able to act as much of the area surrounding Harbin was still held by anti-Japanese militias under Generals Ting Chao, Li Du, Feng Zhanhai and others. After the fall of Chinchow, the movement made rapid progress in northern Manchuria. There he attempted to continue to govern Heilongjiang province, Colonel Kenji Doihara began negotiations with General Ma from his Special Service Office at Harbin, hoping to get him to join the new state of Manchukuo Japan was organizing. Ma continued negotiating with Doihara, while he continued to support General Ting Chao, away from the Japanese garrisons in cities and along the railroads, resistance units mustered openly and relatively free from molestation in late 1931-early 1932. One of the first such forces to form, called the Courageous Citizens Militia, had established by November 1931 near the estuary port of Chinchow. These militias operated principally in southern Fengtien, which had half of Manchurias population, Fengtien had come almost immediately under Japanese control, as most population centers and its capital of Mukden all lay along the tracks of the South Manchuria Railway in the S. M. R. Zone, which had been garrisoned by Kwantung Army troops since long before the conflict, peasant brotherhoods were a traditional form of mutual protection by Chinese small-holders and tenant farmers. Waves of immigrants fleeing the wars of the Warlord era that ravaged north, the Red Spear Society was strongest in the hinterlands of Fengtien and countryside around Harbin. The Big Swords Society predominated in southeastern Kirin and adjoining parts of Fengtien, in 1927, the Big Swords had spearheaded an uprising triggered by the collapse of the prevailing Feng-Piao paper currency. During the rebellion the Big Swords were respected by the peasants because they did not harm or plunder the common people, the Big Swords became the principal component of partisan resistance in this region, forming loose ties with the Anti-Japanese Volunteer Armies. The bandit leader Lao Pie-fang commanded several bands of Big Swords in western Fengtien, the Big Swords in southeast Kirin were allied with Wang Delin, and General Feng Zhanhai organized and trained a Big Sword Corps of 4,000 men. The Red Spear Society groups were more widespread, members formed important centers of resistance as the war spread out through the countryside. Red Spears frequently attacked the S. M. R, zone from the Hsinlintun and Tungfeng districts, close to Mukden and the Fushun coal mines
9.
Defense of Sihang Warehouse
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Defenders of the warehouse held out against numerous waves of Japanese forces and covered Chinese forces retreating west during the Battle of Shanghai. The successful defense of the warehouse provided a morale-lifting consolation to the Chinese army, the warehouses location just across the Suzhou Creek from the foreign concessions in Shanghai meant the battle took place in full view of the western powers. Moreover, the Japanese dared not use mustard gas here as they did elsewhere in Shanghai and this proximity drew the attention, if only briefly, of the international community to Chiang Kai-sheks bid for worldwide support against Japanese aggression. Using the Marco Polo Bridge Incident as a pretext, Japan launched an invasion of China on 7 July 1937, as the Imperial Japanese Army swept down from the north, fighting between Chinese and Japanese forces started in Shanghai on 13 August. Despite having logistical problems, inferior training, and a lack of air and artillery support, however, the Japanese did not attack the foreign concessions in the city and remained on peaceable terms with the foreign powers, though tensions were high. They did not occupy the concessions until four years later, following Japans decision to go to war with the Allies, by 26 October 1937, Chinese resistance in the district of Zhabei was faltering. Gu was personally attached to the 88th and unwilling to leave the division behind, as he used to be the officer of the 2nd Division. Neither Gu, Sun nor Zhang were about to disobey Chiangs orders, in his words, How many people we sacrifice would not make a difference, it would achieve the same purpose. He proposed that a regiment from the division be left behind to defend one or two fortified positions, and Gu approved this plan. Zhang returned to the 88ths divisional headquarters at Sihang Warehouse, back at the headquarters, Sun decided that even a regiment would be a terrible waste of lives and decided on a single over-strength battalion instead. Xie Jinyuan, a new commander in the 88th Division. At 10 p. m. on 26 October, the 524th Regiment, based at the Shanghai North Railway Station, the warehouse, used as the divisional headquarters of the 88th Division prior to this battle, was stocked with food, first aid equipment, shells and ammunition. Most of the men were from the 1st Battalion, 5th Regiment of the Hubei Provincial Garrison, Hubei did not want to send its best troops, trained over a decade to fight against the Chinese Communists, to Shanghai. Thus, many of the soldiers sent as reinforcements to Shanghai were green recruits, eventually the 1st Battalion came to be equated with the 524th Regiment, even within official documents of the period. The regiment was assigned used equipment from the troops of the 88th. There was a total of 27 light machine guns, mostly Czech ZB vz.26, Japanese infantry used the Arisaka Type 38 Rifle. The various companies of the battalion were spread out across the front lines that night, Yang Ruifu sent the 1st Company to Sihang Warehouse and personally led the 2nd Company. The 3rd Company, Machine Gun Company and part of the 1st Company could not be contacted and that these men essentially volunteered for this suicidal mission was later noted by Chiang Kai-shek as exemplary soldierly conduct
10.
Battle of Nanking
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Following the outbreak of war between Japan and China in July 1937 the Japanese government at first attempting to contain the fighting and sought a negotiated settlement to the war. However, after victory in the Battle of Shanghai expansionists prevailed within the Japanese military, Japanese soldiers marched from Shanghai to Nanking at a breakneck pace, rapidly defeating pockets of Chinese resistance. By December 9 they had reached the last line of defense, on December 10 Matsui ordered an all-out attack on Nanking, and after less than two days of intense fighting Chiang decided to abandon the city. Before fleeing, Tang ordered his men to launch a concerted breakout of the Japanese siege, most of Tangs units simply collapsed, their soldiers often casting off their weapons and uniforms in the streets in the hopes of hiding among the citys civilian population. Following the capture of the city Japanese soldiers massacred Chinese prisoners of war, murdered civilians, though Japans military victory excited and emboldened them, the subsequent massacre tarnished their reputation in the eyes of the world. Contrary to Matsuis expectations, China did not surrender and the Second Sino-Japanese War continued for eight years. China, however, wanted to avoid a confrontation in the north. The Japanese responded by dispatching the Shanghai Expeditionary Army, commanded by General Iwane Matsui, the city of Nanking is 300 kilometers west of Shanghai. Matsui made clear to his superiors even before he left for Shanghai that he wanted to march on Nanking, Yanagawa was likewise eager to conquer Nanking and both men chafed under the operation restriction line that had been imposed on them by the Army General Staff. On November 19 Yanagawa ordered his 10th Army to pursue retreating Chinese forces across the operation restriction line to Nanking, when Tada discovered this the next day he ordered Yanagawa to stop immediately, but was ignored. Matsui made some effort to restrain Yanagawa, but also told him that he could send some advance units beyond the line. Meanwhile, as more and more Japanese units continued to slip past the operation restriction line, Tada flew to Shanghai in person on December 1 to deliver the order, though by then his own armies in the field were already well on their way to Nanking. Here Chiang insisted fervently on mounting a defense of Nanking. He also noted that holding onto Nanking would strengthen Chinas hand in peace talks which he wanted the German ambassador Oskar Trautmann to mediate and they argued that the Chinese Army needed more time to recover from its losses at Shanghai, and pointed out that Nanking was highly indefensible topographically. The mostly gently sloping terrain in front of Nanking would make it easy for the attackers to advance on the city, while the Yangtze River behind Nanking would cut off the defenders retreat. Chiang, however, had become increasingly agitated over the course of the Battle of Shanghai, even declaring that he would stay behind in Nanking alone. Seizing the opportunity Tang had given him, Chiang responded by organizing the Nanking Garrison Force on November 20, the orders Tang received from Chiang on November 30 were to defend the established defense lines at any cost and destroy the enemy’s besieging force. Though both men declared that they would defend Nanking to the last man, they were aware of their precarious situation
