In their brutal treatment of both Chinese soldiers and civilians, most infamously during the "Rape of Nanjing," also known as the Nanjing Massacre, in December 1937 through March 1938, the Japanese military acquired a reputation as war criminals that still colors Japanese relations with Chinese, Asians, and many Europeans to this day.
Chiang Kai-shek (1887–1975), leader of the Guomindang (Nationalist Party), lost almost all of his carefully nurtured modern armed forces in this first phase of the war but nonetheless managed to withdraw the remnants of his military and civil government, along with several million supporters, to the fastness of the Sichuan basin, where he made the city of Chongqing his wartime capital.
Attrition Phase, 1939–1944
The attrition phase of the war began in March 1939. The Chinese Nationalists had little industry and few resources other than abundant manpower with which to resist the Japanese. During this phase, the Nationalist government's territorial base was the huge province of Sichuan, most of southwestern China, and some of central Hunan and Hubei Provinces, but for most Nationalist supporters, the war was a long, dispiriting time of deprivation and hardship.
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