Could China Win?

And didn't the Japanese win every single major battle against the Nationalist?

This is incorrect. The Nationalists won several important victories throughout the war although it should be noted that they primarily did so through good use of their overwhelming manpower to compensate for lack of equipment.

The first major victory was the Battle of Taierzhuang in 1938. In 1939 the Nationalists won the Battle of Suixian–Zaoyang and the First Battle of Changsha. In 1940 they won the Battle of Zaoyang–Yichang. In 1941, the Nationalists won the Battle of South Henan, the Battle of Shanggao, the Second and Third Battles of Changsha. That last battle was the only major Allied victory against the Japanese in the months after Pearl Harbor. These are the major victories; there were less important victories in more minor engagements along with defeats of various scale.

By 1942, China was exhausted. Chiang basically decided to wait things out. China had fought alone for 5 years, and he thought the other Allies needed to chip in. Especially after the Burma Road was closed, China was not capable of doing much. Unfortunately, it was only when the British and Americans entered the war against Japan that they paid any attention to China's war against Japan so these earlier victories were ignored.

China played an important role in eventually defeating the Japanese in Burma and driving them out, and continued to hold off Japan in central China. Unfortunately, the disaster during Ichi-Go wiped out any remaining prestige the Nationalists had. However, after General Wedemeyer replaced Stilwell as Chiang's Chief of Staff and the Ledo Road opened in early 1945, China began to receive real aide for the first time since Pearl Harbor. The Nationalist Army improved greatly and scored a resounding victory against Japan in the Second Guangxi Offensive. Had the war continued, the revitalized Nationalist Army (against a much weakened IJA) would likely have liberated Canton before the end of 1945 and the Yangtze Valley and Shanghai in 1946. If the war had continued, this would likely have changed people's opinions on the Nationalist war effort, increased Chiang's prestige, and enabled him to successfully take control of more regions before the Communists.

There were several superb Nationalist generals. Li Zongren and Bai Chongxi (both of whom were part of the Guangxi Clique which Chiang did not trust) were among the best. So were Xue Yue and Sun Lijen.

Many books that mention the Sino-Japanese War make the claim that after the Battle of Taizerhuang (in 1938) that there were no major battles, or that Chiang did nothing. This is completely false. Not only were the battles above very major - dealing with hundreds of thousands of soldiers and tens of thousands of casaulties on both sides - there were other major battles that ended in defeat for the Nationalists. Then again, most of the historography of the Sino-Japanese War repeat the false accusation that Chiang did nothing and that only the Communists did the fighting (it was actually the opposite). There are very few books in English on the Sino-Japanese War, and much of what is written repeats myths created after the Nationalist loss in the Chinese Civil War that blamed everything on Chiang to either build up pro-Mao propaganda or explain why the US "lost" China.

The Nationalists and Chiang definitely had lots of problems, and there is a reason why they were ultimately defeated. But there is a lot of mythology surrounding them that is just false and obscures what they actually did and accomplished.
 
The Chinese would have never accepted such an arrangement, Nationalism and Patriotism was at a fever pitch in that time, right after the Spring Revolution that brought Sun Yet-Set into powers, China was beginning to impose itself as a world power, if average Chinese would go to war to take back Manchuko you can be sure anything short of total liberation of China would not be tolerated.

Not saying they'd accept it, just saying the Japanese would probably be able to hold onto power for a while this way. It would encourage collaberation and would allow the Japanese to keep their gains until the Chinese became powerful enough to throw them out.
 

jeffking

Banned
if CKS had dispersed his armies into the countryside and let them live on the land and seperated into say squads or platoons for guerrilla warfare, they could have broken the back of the Japanese forces.
 
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