Interlude: The Far East and the Second World War
Japan, who had been at war with the Chinese since 1937, allied herself with German forming the Tripartite Pact on 25 April 1943. Within weeks, the Japanese had broken this pact via the invasion of Vichy French territory in Southeast Asia and by attacking the Dutch colonial possessions (both members of the Axis). They went further than this. On 4 May, they bombed the American naval base at Pearl Harbor dragging the Americans (who up until this point had been pro-German, a major trading partner, and a signatory of the Anti-Comintern Pact) into the war. In the space of weeks, the European war and the war in China became two vast theaters in a multi-sided world war (the Axis vs. the Allies, the Axis vs. the Comintern, the Axis vs. the Empire of Japan, and the Allies vs. the Empire of Japan.).
The Japanese attacks and planned attacks.
Insert: Japanese marines land in the Dutch East Indies. They would be repulsed within weeks.
Japanese troops ride on trucks as they drive into Indochina.
The Japanese struck deep into Southeast Asia while they kept the disorganized and divided Chinese at bay. Over the course of the next few years, the forces of the British Empire drove the Japanese out of Southeast Asia and back into China. The British and Nationalist Chinese allied and attempted to destroy the Japanese military in China, but too little effect.
British propaganda photo taken during their offensive in southeast Asia.
On 8 July 1945, the Soviet Union was defeated by the Axis. Cripple by the fighting, the Red Bear licked its wounds in silence. Two years later, on 18 December, the Chinese factions, up until now split by ideology and ambition, unified in an attempt to defeat the Japanese. The following day, the Soviet Union’s recently raised mechanized divisions rolled across the northern border of Japan’s Chinese territory. Within months, the Soviets had destroyed the main Japanese northern armies and annexed what had been several Japanese puppet states. The Chinese, their strength unified, attempted an offensive to destroy the southern Japanese armies. This effort backfired, leading to the defeat of the Chinese Nationalists and the overrunning of several Chinese warlords. The Japanese struck into Indochina once more, but after much hard fighting the British pushed the Japanese back into China.
Soviet naval troops raise their ensign over a capture Japanese naval base, avenging the defeat of their naval forbearers during the Russo-Japanese War.
American troops raise their flag on a captured Japanese island, during their island-hopping campaign.
By 1948, Japan was besieged. The United States had begun a successful island hopping campaign that by the end of the year had captured all Japanese islands in the Pacific. The Soviet armies pushed south through the eastern half of China, while the British led imperial and Chinese forces advanced through the western portions of the country. Outnumbered, the Japanese continued to fight stalling the offensive of all the armies sent against them. With the vast majority of their troops committed to China, the Japanese were unprepared for the defense of their Home Islands. The Soviets landed, and throughout early 1949 overran the home islands.
On 25 April, with Tokyo and the Emperor in Soviet hands, the Japanese surrendered. By the conclusion of the war in Asia, millions had been killed on both sides in China and in Japan. With the final surrender and at the command of the emperor 1.2 million Japanese troops walked into Soviet and UN custody (each capturing around half of this figure). As part of the final surrender the Americans annexed the Japanese Pacific possessions, the British established mandate control over Indochina, while the Soviets installed their own communist puppet government in Tokyo and annexed various territories. In China, the Nationalist government was returned to power in areas where their allies or the British had a presence, whereas the Soviet occupied areas (the industrialized eastern portion of China) were turned over to the Communist Chinese.
Japanese troops surrender to the British, lay down their arms to the Soviets,
and crawl out of their hiding spaces to the Americans.
The Nationalist and Communist Chinese both quietly withdrew from the Allies and Comintern, and set about rebuilding their devastated country while at the same time preparing for the inevitable conclusion to the Chinese Civil War. With Japan’s defeat, millions of Soviet and UN troops were now no longer needed in the East and could be deployed to Europe. The final battles of the Third Reich and her allies were set to begin.
The Far East, 1949.
1 - The People's Republic of Korea
2 - Soviet annexation of Okinawa as part of their occupation of Japan
3 - Nanjing Nationalist Government, an ex-puppet of Japan. Now a breakaway independent and rival faction to the Nationalists and Communists.
4 - The People's Republic of Chinm
5 - British mandate of Indochina
