The Great Asian War was not one continuous fight from 1931 to 1946, but could instead be seen as being divided into 5 Distinct Phases, only lumped together by the sometimes inconsistent hand of history, and hand that is seen in the still ongoing fights over whether or not it constituted a theatre of World War 2.
The Manchurian Phase lasted only 5 months, from 1931 into 1932. The Empire of Japan swiftly occupied the region of Manchuria as well as portions of China proper and established a puppet government there. Fighting continued along the border, but no further effort was made to push into China, and the Chinese government was in no position to expel the Japanese.
The period of 1932-1937 was not one of peace. Spariodic fighting was common along the Manchurian frontier, and internally the Japanese were bogged down with anti-insurgent operations. Meanwhile the Republic of China continued its civil war with the Communists. However in 1936 this war was ended after the Xi'an Incident forced Chiang Kai-Shek to form a Second United Front, despite fearing China was not ready to face Japan.
In 1937 the war restarted after the Marco Polo bridge incident, and Japanese forces swept the countryside. In an effort to stall this advance Chiang attempted an assault on the Japanese in Shanghai, only to lose most of his best men in the fight. The Japanese followed their victory by advancing to Nanjing, the Chinese Capital, and sacking it with immense brutality. Their advance in the North would be slowed by the KMT intentionally bursting the Yellow River Dykes, but it would not be halted. The Republic was forced to relocate its capital to Wuhan, but was forced to retreat again. The KMT came close to collapse in 1940, but would pull through. Meanwhile the Communists did relatively little, even occasionally breaking the United Front to fight the Republic. However the events of 1941 would doom the Republic. The German invasion of the Soviet Union would cause all Soviet aid via the Gobi Desert to cease, while the Japanese Occupation of European Colonies would wind up severing the Burma road by 1942. With almost every supply route cut, the KMT began to collapse. Japanese forces managed to wrest control of Hunan and Guangxi from the Republic, and soon Sichuan was invaded. The provisional capital of Chongqing was well defended, but by the end of the year, it too fell to the Imperial onslaught. Chiang was shot in murky circumstances fleeing the city, and the Republic of China died with him. No traditional Army remained to oppose the Japanese in their Chinese territories.
The Colonial Phase of the War overlaps with the Chinese Phase. In 1940 they Occupied French Indochina, but the war would really commence in 1941. Embargoed from American Oil, the Japanese launched invasions of British and Dutch possessions in South East Asia to secure adequate supplies, although they declined to directly confront the Americans. Their offensive was swift. By early 1942 the Dutch East Indies had fallen, and British territories fared little better. In a matter of months Southeast Asia had fallen to the Imperal Japanese. The years following were largely dominated by two fronts. One was a campaign in the South Pacific, aimed at cutting Australia and New Zealand off from American aid, the other fighting in Burma and Eastern India with the British. The first saw successes, and Northern Australia became a favorite target, but the latter bogged down. Japanese were on the end of their supply lines, and the British were unable to get their ducks in a row in the Raj. American entry into the anti-German War was not accompanied with a declatation of war on Japan, much to the fury of the Australians and Brits. By the end of 1943 things had stabilized.
The beginning of the Phoney War stage is dated to 1941 in China and 1943 elsewhere. The truth was that it was substantially more violent than its European counterpart. Clearances of Chinese holdouts, massacres of civilians, and the tit for tat fighting against the post-Republic Warlords in the west. In Burma stagnant front lines were the order of the day, most reminiscent of WWI were the order of the day. And in the Pacific the IJN seized islands at a relatively leisurely pace, while bombing Australia proper.
The end of the war in Europe might have heralded a turn towards East Asian Affairs, but the British were exhausted and President Truman assumed, probably correctly, that the American people were not willing to launch another long and costly war. For their part, Japan was strained to the brink. On October 2nd a proclaimation was issued declaring an "Immediate Halt to Offensive Operations," signaling an openness for a ceasefire. Britain reciprocated. Australia and New Zealand would reluctantly follow.
Formal peace would not come for nearly a decade, amidst Cold War paranoia about Soviet influence in Asia. But there would be no peace for the occupied regions. There Resistance was almost immediate, and the brutality of the regime would fall upon them.....
