Steady progress in the South - February 1939
Steady progress in the South
It was still early and the sun was just rising in the East when Ishiwara Kanji crossed the small courtyard that separated the living quarters from the building where they had established the forward command post. Some soldiers worked on one of the big antennas on the left side of the courtyard and a truck was just unloaded at the small storehouse to the right. The air was cold, but dry and his breath condensed in front of him. It had gotten cold lately. He didn’t care too much though. He liked the cold better than the soggy heat of the summer. He could even see some hoarfrost on the windows.
He entered the building and went upstairs to the radio room. He hoped that he had gotten news from the southern part of the front. Two corps of the South and Central China armies were trying to encircle a Chinese army in the northern part of the Guangdong province. The sergeant in charge had already sorted the message out and gave it to him immediately. A good man, who knew what was important and what wasn’t. Perhaps he should be promoted. He would keep him in mind.
A quick glance over the message filled him with joy. The two corps had met and had been able to establish a pocket. General Higashikuni estimated that they had encircled about a dozen Chinese divisions. He walked over to the officer’s mess and asked for a tea while reading the message in detail. Apparently everything had worked out exactly as he had planned it. After eating a small bowl of rice and miso soup while reading a few more messages the sergeant had given him, he walked over to General Hata’s war room. The general was already there, talking to Lieutenant General Okamura and the recently promoted General Nishio. He bowed and greeted his superiors.
Development of the Guangdong pocket
“We have news from the Guangdong pocket, General Hata. It was a total success. We have encircled about a dozen Chinese divisions. Together with the units that we trapped along the Coast earlier, it will considerably weaken the Chinese in the South.”
“Excellent. We were just talking about the offense south of the Yellow River. We made some progress there too, not as spectacular as in the south, but we are slowly advancing along the river. And we talked about the latest proposal from the government about the plans in China. Did you already read the proposal?”
“Yes, yesterday evening. And I don’t need to say that I disagree with it.”
He had been against the war in China since it began in 1937. The Marco Polo Bridge incident had been a severe disappointment for him. While he had played a pivotal role in seizing Manchuria, he saw China as a bottomless pit that would bind way too many resources and troops to pacify. He would rather have sought some kind of agreement with Chiang. Manchuria was a necessity for Japanese interests as it supplied important raw materials and was an excellent buffer against Russia. But China would be to Japan what Spain had been to Napoleon: a never-ending nuisance and burden. The real enemy was not China. The real enemy was the United States and the rest of the Western nations. Sometime in the future, there would be a conflict between East and West, between Asia and America and Europe. That’s what they should plan and spend their resources on, not some futile campaign in China.
“No, your objections are well known. I am not too happy with it either. I am sure that bastard Long Yun will try to get more out of the deal. He knows that we don’t want to commit the troops to control all of China. But for now, we will have to follow the plans of the army headquarters. Your friend Itagaki supports them too.”
“Yes. He does not see the bigger picture at times. If we bind a third or more of our army permanently in China, it will weaken our options in the future. We should have been patient and tried to get a compromise with Chiang to protect our interests. The only thing we achieved so far is to rile up the Chinese against us and to isolate us further internationally. For now, we are not strong enough to do that.”
