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Free China | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Traditional Chinese | 中華民國自由地區 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Simplified Chinese | 中华民国自由地区 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Literal meaning | Free Area of the Republic of China (full form used only occasionally) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The term Free China,in the context of the Second Sino-Japanese War,refers to those areas of China not under the control of the Imperial Japanese Army or any of its puppet governments,such as Manchukuo,the Mengjiang government in Suiyuan and Chahar,or the Provisional Government of the Republic of China in Beiping. The term came into more frequent use after the Battle of Nanking,when Chiang Kai-shek evacuated the government of the Republic of China to Chongqing.
In the final days of the Battle of Nanking,the Republic of China's National Revolutionary Army helped to evacuate the Chiang Kai-shek government to Chongqing,which was declared the provisional capital of the Republic of China. The Japanese,following their victory at Nanjing,created yet another puppet government,the Reformed Government of the Republic of China,which was later merged with the Provisional Government of the Republic of China to create the Wang Jingwei Government. Many civilians from Japanese-controlled areas of China fled to Free China.
Conflict between the Communists and Kuomintang continued in the area of Free China,the most severe example being the New Fourth Army Incident. At the same time,Japanese action against the Communists and Nationalists continued;Chongqing was bombed 268 times,making it the most-frequently bombed city in all of World War II. Japan tried to take full control of Guangxi in the Second Guangxi campaign of 1940,but Chinese forces inflicted a major defeat upon the Japanese at the Battle of Kunlun Pass forcing Japan to abandon Guangxi in 1940. The front line of the war was largely stabilised between 1940-1944 as Japan lost multiple battles including the Battle of Changsha (1939),Battle of Changsha (1941),Battle of Changsha (1941–1942) and Battle of Changde when it tried to take and hold new territory. However,the Nationalist government transferred hundreds of thousands of Chinese troops away from the front with Japan towards western provinces like Gansu,Qinghai &Xinjiang between 1942-1944 in order to seize Xinjiang from the Soviet Red Army and pro-Soviet warlord Sheng Shicai bringing Xinjiang under "Free China" and weakening China's front lines with Japan. The Soviet Union then backed the Ili rebellion in the Dzungaria region of Xinjiang against Nationalist China in 1944 where 120,000 Chinese soldiers were fighting against the Soviet backed rebels. It was only in December 1944,that the Japanese Operation Ichi-Go succeeded in taking control of Guangxi,giving them a continuous railway link between Manchukuo and Southeast Asia. The Japanese planned an invasion of Sichuan in an attempt to destroy the KMT government in Chongqing but were never able to implement it. [1] In 1945,the Japanese seized airbases in the West Henan and North Hubei,but they were defeated in an attempt to invade West Hunan and expelled from occupied areas in Guangxi before the final surrender. The seizure of airbases was also rendered meaningless by the fact that Americans were already bombing Japan from Pacific islands in 1945 and did not need the airbases in China.
The term "Free area of the Republic of China" was later reused by the Nationalist government after their retreat to Taiwan to contrast their territory with that of the People's Republic of China.
Chiang Kai-shek was a Chinese statesman,revolutionary,and military commander. He was the head of the Nationalist Kuomintang (KMT) party,General of the National Revolutionary Army,known as Generalissimo,and the leader of the Republic of China (ROC) in mainland China from 1928 until 1949. After being defeated in the Chinese Civil War by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 1949,he led the ROC on the island of Taiwan until his death in 1975.
The Second Sino-Japanese War was the war fought between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan from 1937 to 1945 as part of World War II. It is often regarded as the beginning of World War II in Asia. It was the largest Asian war in the 20th century and has been described as "the Asian Holocaust",in reference to the scale of Japanese war crimes against Chinese civilians. It is known in Japan as the Second China–Japan War,and in China as the Chinese War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression.
Wang Zhaoming,widely known by his pen name Wang Jingwei,was a Chinese politician who was president of the Reorganized National Government of the Republic of China,a puppet state of Japan. He was initially a member of the left wing of the Kuomintang,leading a government in Wuhan in opposition to the right-wing government in Nanjing,but later became increasingly anti-communist after his efforts to collaborate with the Chinese Communist Party ended in political failure.
Li Zongren,courtesy name Telin,was a prominent Chinese warlord based in Guangxi and Kuomintang (KMT) military commander during the Northern Expedition,Second Sino-Japanese War and Chinese Civil War. He served as vice-president and acting president of the Republic of China under the 1947 Constitution.
Bai Chongxi was a Chinese general in the National Revolutionary Army of the Republic of China (ROC) and a prominent Chinese Nationalist leader. He was of Hui ethnicity and of the Muslim faith. From the mid-1920s to 1949,Bai and his close ally Li Zongren ruled Guangxi province as regional warlords with their own troops and considerable political autonomy. His relationship with Chiang Kai-shek was at various times antagonistic and cooperative. He and Li Zongren supported the anti-Chiang warlord alliance in the Central Plains War in 1930,then supported Chiang in the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Chinese Civil War. Bai was the first defense minister of the Republic of China from 1946 to 1948. After losing to the Communists in 1949,he fled to Taiwan,where he died in 1966.
The Battle of Changsha of 1944 was an invasion of the Chinese province of Hunan by Japanese troops near the end of the Second Sino-Japanese War. As such,it encompasses three separate conflicts:an invasion of the city of Changsha and two invasions of Hengyang.
This article is concerned with the events that preceded World War II in Asia.
Operation Ichi-Go was a campaign of a series of major battles between the Imperial Japanese Army forces and the National Revolutionary Army of the Republic of China,fought from April to December 1944. It consisted of three separate battles in the Chinese provinces of Henan,Hunan and Guangxi.
The proposed Japanese invasion of Sichuan was the Imperial Japanese Army's failed plan to destroy the Republic of China during the Second Sino-Japanese War. It was to be a stepping stone for the Empire of Japan's final control of the Chinese mainland.
The Battle of China (1944) was the sixth film of Frank Capra's Why We Fight propaganda film series.
Zhang Zhizhong or Chang Chih-chung was a Chinese military commander and politician,general in the National Revolutionary Army of the Republic of China and later a pro-Communist politician in the People's Republic of China.
Sun Yuanliang was a Chinese military general of the National Revolutionary Army of the Republic of China. Sun was the last surviving member of the first graduating class of the Whampoa Military Academy,as well as the last surviving army-level commander of the Second Sino-Japanese War. His career spanned the January 28 Incident,Second Sino-Japanese War and the Chinese Civil War.
Long Yun was governor and warlord of the Chinese province of Yunnan from 1927 to October 1945,when he was overthrown in a coup by Du Yuming under the order of Chiang Kai-shek.
Yasuji Okamura was a general of the Imperial Japanese Army,commander-in-chief of the China Expeditionary Army from November 1944 to the end of World War II,and appointed to surrender all Japanese forces involved in the China Burma India theater. He was tried but found not guilty of any war crimes by the Shanghai War Crimes Tribunal after the war. As one of the Imperial Japanese Army's top China experts,General Okamura spent his entire military career on the Asian mainland.
Zhang Fakui was a Chinese Nationalist general who fought against northern warlords,the Imperial Japanese Army and Chinese Communist forces in his military career. He served as commander-in-chief of the 8th Army Group and commander-in-chief of NRA ground force before retiring in Hong Kong in 1949.
Guan Linzheng was a Republic of China general who fought against the Chinese Communists and the Imperial Japanese Army during his career. Guan was a recipient of Order of Blue Sky and White Sun,the highest honor for a Chinese Nationalist commander.
Li Jishen or Li Chi-shen was a Chinese military officer and politician,general of the National Revolutionary Army of the Republic of China,Vice President of the People's Republic of China (1949–1954),Vice Chairman of the National People's Congress (1954–1959),Vice Chairman the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (1949–1959) and founder and first Chairman of the Revolutionary Committee of the Kuomintang (1948–1959).
Events in the year 1941 in China.
The Chiang-Gui War was a military conflict between the Nationalist government of Chiang Kai-shek against the warlord army of the New Guangxi clique that lasted from March until June 1929. A later conflict,the 2nd Chiang Gui-War,occurred between the two opposing factions in November and December of the same year.
The Konoe statements refer to three diplomatic statements made by Fumimaro Konoe's cabinets in the early stages of the Second Sino-Japan war,aimed at establishing a new order in East Asia together with China. The Japanese archives during the period of the invasion of China explicitly record and categorise these three Konoe's declarations: