Could China have done better against Japan

In otl China seemed to have lost a lot of ground to the Japanese aggressors.

Is there any plausable combination of improved leadership in China and greater outside support which could have defeated Japan (and presumably have prevented the Pacific war?)
 
Might be ASB but avoiding the warlordism of the'20s and the civil war of the '30s could certainly help.

That's pretty clearly gonna help.

It's worth comparing how the PRC fought in the Korean War to the Nationalists a few years before. Why did the Communists do so much better?
 
No Great Depression means that the Western powers in the region are going to be more willing and able to stand up against Japan, and will also have less instability to distract them in Europe.
 
Why did the Communists do so much better?

Soviet Tech must have helped. Consider that the Red Army was more successful against the Japanese in two weeks than the Nationalists had in nine years, (okay 1945 the Kwantung Army had been considerably weakened in a number of ways but the Soviets would have made short work of them either way) the PRC had some of the best equipment in the world at the time of the Korean War, the Nationalists didn't.
 
Soviet Tech must have helped. Consider that the Red Army was more successful against the Japanese in two weeks than the Nationalists had in nine years, (okay 1945 the Kwantung Army had been considerably weakened in a number of ways but the Soviets would have made short work of them either way) the PRC had some of the best equipment in the world at the time of the Korean War, the Nationalists didn't.

Having a united mainland China under their control certainly helped, too. That sort of unity did not exist during the Sino-Japanese War. Although it could be argued that during the 30s - before the war - China was more unified than it was in the 20s.

That might also be one reason why the Japanese invaded in 1937, that they figured that their window of opportunity for invading China proper and making it a Japanese vassal was closing. The longer they waited, the more unified China would become under the KMT. So it was better to invade while the KMT was still contending with the CCP and the remaining warlords.
 
the easiest way to shorten the war would be to give the chinese all 80? german trained divisions, not just the few divisions they wasted away.
 

RousseauX

Donor
Might be ASB but avoiding the warlordism of the'20s and the civil war of the '30s could certainly help.
Without the warlodism and the civil war then it's unlikely for the Japanese to even invade China if it turns out strong enough, and paradoxically, it's unlikely for China to not just back down to Japan once again if they are weak enough.

Remember Chiang fought the "disease of the skin" against his will OTL, a government strong enough domestically might simply cut a deal with the Japanese rather than fight.
 

RousseauX

Donor
That's pretty clearly gonna help.

It's worth comparing how the PRC fought in the Korean War to the Nationalists a few years before. Why did the Communists do so much better?
National unity and an army which was built through foreign aid and battle experience of the previous 15 years.
 
I think even OTL China will win in the end no matter what.

with Oil Embargo:

If everything is OTL until December 1941, the addition of the flying Tigers to the region in December 1941 is going to increase the attrition on the Japanese going forward even if they dont attack the USA, the oil embargo is on, attitional costs are high. Japan can't sustain this for long.

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without Oil Emargo:

If for some reason IndoChina is Free French they likely would resist a Japanese incursion into IndoChina in the OTL September 1940 time frame and that line of supply is still open (OR the Japanese just don't invade to avoid USA emargos). OTL the Japanese failed to cut this from the Chinese side so they had to cut it from the French side.

So at this point Japan is in a war with China they can't win and can't sustain, the Chinese are still receiving outside supply via a rail line from IndoChina (more than OTL).

So even without USA war against Japan (and even if the Japanese can still buy oil from ther USA) the Japanese will be eventually forced to ask for peace terms or just pull back to Manchuria anyway just because they can't sustain the long term costs.

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However there is no way for China to win before 1942 by themselves than I can see.
 
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