economy and military deteriorating. Its very  future existence as an independent nation  

uncertain. Three years later: China  is the largest power of East Asia and  

is recognized as one of the five major world  powers. The question is how did this happen?

Well, it was connected to the strategies  both China and Japan had adopted in this war.  

After the initial invasion of China in 1937 the  war became a stalemate. Japan did not have enough  

manpower to continue the expansion and China could  not push the Japanese back because of the lack of  

modern weapons. But in 1941 Japan went to war with  the Western Powers and both sides acquired new  

strategies. China's strategy would be to receive  a lot of modern weapons from the Western Powers,  

use them to build up its army and finally  drive the Japanese out of the country.  

Japan's first goal was to  defeat the Western Powers.  

This would free up much of its troops, which  could then be used to fully defeat China.

Japan began by attacking the Western Powers in  the Pacific. These included the United States, the  

Netherlands and Great Britain. Due to the Western  Powers being distracted by the ongoing Second  

World War, the Japanese forces in the Pacific were  much stronger. The Japanese crippled the American  

fleet by a surprise attack at Pearl Harbor.  Without a strong Allied fleet in the area the  

Japanese quickly captured the Allied strongholds  of the Philippines and Singapore. After that they  

occupied the resource rich Dutch East Indies,  which completed the Allied defeat in the Pacific.

Japan also invaded the British colony of Burma.  This area was critical to China's strategy,  

because here lay the only connection, through  which the Allies could send supplies to China.  

China therefore sent its best forces to  defend Burma. The Japanese had the advantage  

and after several battles the Allied forces  suffered a defeat and had to abandon Burma.

By the middle of 1942 Japan seemed to have  finished its goal of defeating the Western Powers  

and made preparations to proceed  with the attack on China's capital.  

But then, a wrench was thrown  into the Japanese plans.

The United States launched a small  retaliation raid against Japan.  

Their bombers took off from an aircraft carrier  in the Pacific. After executing the air attack  

against Japan, these planes headed for safety to  the nearest Allied controlled territory in China.  

Japan was dead set on stopping any further attacks  on its home islands. The Japanese army moved into  

the territories, where the Americans had landed to  make these areas unsuitable to be used for future  

air attacks against Japan. Then it withdrew.  In order to neutralize the origin point of  

the attacks the Japanese sent their fleet to  occupy Midway, the westernmost island of the  

Hawaiian archipelago. However the American navy  ambushed the Japanese fleet. As a result Japan  

lost most of its largest aircraft carriers. This  was the turning point of the war in the Pacific.

Without the Japanese fleet to defend its positions  Japan had to send more and more of its troops to  

defend against the American counteroffensive  in the South Pacific. The American forces  

achieved success and set out to eventually  reach and attack the Japanese home islands.

In this situation the Japanese could not launch  a major offensive against the Chinse capital  

and the smaller attacks they undertook  did not cause China much damage.

Meanwhile China continued with carrying out its  own strategy. It had been cut off from the land  

supply route, but it had the Allies establish an  airlift and began getting some supplies by air.  

However, it was a very small amount, not enough  to equip a large part of its army with Allied  

supplies. So China had to modify its strategy.  It used a small part of supplies to equip a minor  

part of its army. But most of the equipment was  used in building up the Allied air force in China,  

which could deliver damage to Japan  with less supplies than the army.

As the war entered the year 1944 the Japanese  situation in the Pacific had deteriorated further,  

so they decided to change their strategy.  

At first controlling China was  an important objective for Japan,  

but now Japan needed to use all of its resources  to stop the United States in the Pacific.  

Therefore it conceded many areas in North China  to the Chinese Communists and pulled its garrisons  

out from these territories. Japan prepared to  launch a major offensive against the Chinese army.  

But how would the offensive in China help the  Japanese in the Pacific? Well, we'll get to that.

China's strategy was focused on getting more  Allied supplies and for this reason its best  

units were in Burma and could not defend against  the Japanese offensive. The Allied air forces in  

China could not stop the Japanese land offensive.  Meanwhile the largest part of China's ground  

forces had not received Allied supplies and was  in the weakest shape it had ever been in the war.  

As the first step the Japanese  cleared the railway heading south.

Some time later the Japanese extended  their defensive perimeter further  

to neutralize an Allied airfield. The Japanese  advance continued south of Wuhan. Their target  

was the city of Changsha. The Chinese had  previously had some success defending the town,  

but this time the Japanese defeated them  with an overwhelming attack on a broad front  

and captured Changsha. They then proceeded along  the railway towards the next Chinese position at  

Hengyang. The Japanese had overextended their  supply lines and it took them considerable time  

and casualties to overcome the Chinese defense.  The Chinese prepared to make another determined  

stand at Guilin. But the Japanese were joined  by their troops in their enclave in the South  

and this led to the defense of Guilin failing.  After that the Chinese resistance collapsed and  

the Japanese easily established the connection  with their lands in Indochina and also captured  

the railway leading to Guangzhou. With that  the Japanese offensive had achieved its goals.

Japan undertook this offensive to support  the Japanese forces operating in the Pacific.  

But how could the success in China achieve  that? Japan needed to use its merchant fleet  

to transport the war materials to Japan, then turn  them into military equipment and send them to the  

forces fighting against the United States. But the  Americans were sinking a lot of Japanese shipping,  

which weakened the Japanese ability to resist  the American offensive. Part of the sinking was  

done by the Allied air forces operating from  China. As a result of the recent offensive  

the Japanese had occupied the air bases in the  area, and had thus seriously reduced the danger  

coming from this direction. In order to lessen the  danger from the American submarines the Japanese  

opened a land route to Southeast Asia, which made  this traffic immune from the submarine threat.  

Despite the success Japan had in China its  situation in the Pacific continued to deteriorate.

Meanwhile China continued to carry out  its strategy. It needed access to more  

Allied supplies and for this reason it sent  its best, Allied equipped units to Burma.  

These forces would attack and clear a route  to send the supplies to China overland.

The terrain in Burma was jungle and this offered  the Japanese a good prospect for defense.  

But due to the difficult Japanese situation in the  Pacific they attempted a risky offensive in this  

region. But it failed and depleted the Japanese  forces. The British and the Chinese used the  

weakening of the Japanese to go on the offensive.  It took around a year, but the Chinese were able  

to occupy the road they needed to transport the  supplies to China. China gained access to a large  

amount of supplies and started equipping a  large part of its army with Allied weapons.

This was appropriate timing,  because by the middle of 1945  

the Americans were approaching the Japanese  home islands and the Allies were preparing  

to launch the final offensive to bring  about the ultimate downfall of Japan.

It consisted of the Chinese attacking from  the south, the Soviet Union from the north  

and the Americans landing on  the Japanese home islands.  

Faced with this danger Japan decided to abandon  Southern China and prepared for the worst.

By mid 1945 China had a sizable force equipped  with Allied weapons and it could finally begin  

driving Japan out of China. The Japanese attacked  an Allied air base. The Chinese deployed their new  

forces and successfully defeated the Japanese  attack. Then the Japanese began carrying out  

their withdrawal from Southern China. The Chinese  forces now moved in to inflict a major defeat on  

the Japanese by capturing the important port of  Guangzhou. But they were not to carry it out,  

because the Chinese operations had been  overshadowed by that of the other Allies.

More than a million Soviet soldiers had invaded  the Japanese possessions in Northern China  

and the Japanese forces were unable to stop the  Red Army. Even more dangerous for Japan were the  

two million American soldiers getting ready to  land on Japan proper. As part of the preparations  

for the landings the Americans dropped two  atomic bombs on Japan with unprecedented  

destrucive ability. Faced with these odds Japan  decided to end further resistance and surrendered  

unconditionally to the Allies, ending both the  Second Sino Japanese war and the Second World War.

As part of the surrender the Japanese  forces left China and Japan also  

returned the areas it had captured from  China in the earlier wars. The United  

Nations security council was established to  help maintain peace in the post war world.  

The United States, Soviet Union, Great Britain  and France became the council's permanent members.  

In order for it to take care of East Asian  affairs the fifth place was given to China.

However this new high status would not determine  China's future. Its future would be instead  

shaped by the divided nature of its government.  The Nationalist government was opposed by the  

Chinese Communists, who had taken control over  much of the territory behind the Japanese lines.  

Their differences would soon prove to be  irreconcilable and would have to be settled  

in a new war, a civil war between the two Chinese  factions. But that is a story for another time.