WI: Chinese divisions to invade Japan in WW2?

... The hard-liners' last idea was that the when U.S. troops landed in Japan, all-out banzai charges by millions of Japanese including women and children would inflict heavy casualties on the Americans, ...

The same idea was tried in Okinawa. Leaving the Okinawan ethinic group aside the Japanese militias proved ineffective in inflicting noticible casualties on the US 10th Army. A few Japanese women and children participated in combat, but most hid, slipped away, or committed suicide. The operations officer of the Japanese Army staff on Okinawa, Colonel Yahara, survived the battle and the English language translation of his book is useful. Yahara noted how the regular infantry regiments had to do nearly all the fighting & when those gave out the army service/support battalions, militias, ect were useless.
 
My though exactly. Quality of Chinese nationalist troops varied and the ones that were decently equipped and trained were not being used to fight the Japanese, they were kept for the inevitable reckoning between Chiang and Mao.

That wasn't true to start with. The RoC army had some crack divisions that had been trained by the German military advisors led by General von Falkenhausen. When the Japanese advanced on the Chinese commercial and political heart in Shanghai and Nanking, Chiang committed these divisions. The result was a grueling three-month battle for Shanghai, which cost Japan 40,000 casualties. However, Chiang's crack divisions were mostly consumed in the fighting, and could not be replaced.

Chiang and the KMT got very little political benefit from the battle they had put up, and wshen the Japanese moved from Shanghai against Nanking, the city fell in only two days.

Chiang needed a strong disciplined force to maintain the supremacy of the RoC government over the warlords and the Reds. So after Shanghai and Nanking, Chiang held back his best remaining forces, rather than use them up in patriotic but ineffective fighting.
 
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That wasn't true to start with. The RoC army had some crack divisions that had been trained by the German military advisors led by General von Falkenhausen. When the Japanese advanced on the Chinese commercial and political heart in Shanghai and Nanking, Chiang committed these divisions. The result was a grueling three-month battle for Shanghai, which cost Japan 40,000 casualties. However, Chiang's crack divisions were mostly consumed in the fighting, and could not be replaced.

Chiang and the KMT got very little political benefit from the battle they had put up, and When the Japanese moved from Shanghai against Nanking, the city fell in only two days.

Chiang needed a strong disciplined force to maintain the supremacy of the RoC government over the warlords and the Reds. So after Shanghai and Nanking, Chiang held back his best remaining forces, rather than use them up in patriotic but ineffective fighting.

Yeah, Chiang stuck to the defence of Shanghai hoping the Western powers would intervene on his behalf. He ended up getting twiddled thumbs and hesitance while his crack troops are bled dry. Had he ordered the troops to fall back, it'll still result in a lack of Western confidence in his ability to defend China, but at least they'd still be able to hold Nanjing longer.
 
WI in 1945, the US Navy offers massive amounts of supplies to both Chinese factions. They also offer their fleet of Landing craft, LSTs, etc. to deliver Chinese troops to the Japanese home islands, but Communists are sent to attack the most heavily-defended islands and suffer staggering casualties.

A few days later KMT troops step ashore on lightly-defended beaches and soon seize Japanese factories, shipyards, etc.
 
WI in 1945, the US Navy offers massive amounts of supplies to both Chinese factions. They also offer their fleet of Landing craft, LSTs, etc. to deliver Chinese troops to the Japanese home islands, but Communists are sent to attack the most heavily-defended islands and suffer staggering casualties.

A few days later KMT troops step ashore on lightly-defended beaches and soon seize Japanese factories, shipyards, etc.

I don't think they would go for it, either of them. First, you would have to train them for an amphibious assault and not throw them on a boat and hope they live and learn. Two the Chinese as a collective already did enough of the fighting long before the allies even declared on Japan, unless you expect them to willingly bleed themselves white after years of hard warfare. It would create a really nasty image of the West being more than willing to let other people die because they don't want to.
 
The KMT did send a army to Hanoi to take control there from the Japanese. They took the opportunity to loot the city, plumbing fixtures were popular, and the French claimed most of the railway rolling stock had departed with the Chinese withdrawl and never returned. I could see some KMT generals eager to take their corps to Japan. They would have their service companies collect loot while their infantry regiments did their minimum to assist the US Army
 

Wendigo

Banned
Would Chinese troops treat the Japanese population as badly as the IJA treated Chinese civilians as revenge similar to the Red Army in Germany?
 
Would Chinese troops treat the Japanese population as badly as the IJA treated Chinese civilians as revenge similar to the Red Army in Germany?

I suspect that it would be equal if not worse. Lots of bad blood would be let loose by the Chinese.
 
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