Map Description

Historical Map of China 1940


Illustrating the Extent of Japanese Occupation

Three years after its start in July 1937, the Second Sino-Japanese War remained deadlocked, with Japanese forces controlling major urban centers and transportation routes but failing to crush Chinese resistance.


In March 1940, the Wang Jingwei regime was established as a Japanese puppet government in Nanjing, presenting itself as the legitimate government of the Republic of China. This political maneuver aimed to undermine Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist government, which had relocated to Chongqing. The Japanese hoped Wang's government would pacify occupied areas and reduce resistance, but it had limited effectiveness and was viewed as illegitimate by most Chinese.


The Winter Offensive, launched by Chinese Nationalist forces in November 1939 and continuing until April 1940, was a large-scale counter-offensive designed to tie down Japanese forces across multiple fronts. It had some tactical success.


In response to growing resistance, the Japanese implemented what became known as the "Three Alls Policy" (Sankō Sakusen in Japanese, or Sānguāng Zhèngcè in Chinese). This brutal counterinsurgency strategy, which called for killing all resisters, burning all buildings, and looting all resources, was particularly severe in north China. While often described as a 1940 policy, historical records show its implementation varied by region and evolved over time.


In central China, the Battle of Zaoyang-Yichang (May 1-June 18, 1940) was a major campaign along the Yangtze River. Japanese forces, comprising four full divisions and additional support units under General Katsuichiro Enbu, advanced toward Yichang. While Japanese sources claim significant territorial gains, Chinese records indicate substantial Japanese casualties (claiming 11,000 Japanese troops killed). The battle's outcome remains disputed among historians, with both sides claiming tactical successes, though strategically, it failed to decisively alter the war's course.


In south China, the Japanese had launched an amphibious landing on the coast of Guangxi in early November 1939, capturing Nanning, the provincial capital, on November 24, 1939. This operation aimed to cut off Chongqing and the rest of China from seaborne foreign aid, making French Indochina, the Burma Road, and The Hump (a treacherous air route over the Himalayan Mountains) the only remaining supply routes for China.

The Japanese began bombing the Burma Road in late 1939 and continued these attacks into 1940, while diplomatic pressure on the Vichy French authorities after France's fall to Nazi Germany in June 1940 led to the temporary closure of the Indochina route in July 1940.


On September 27, 1940, Japan formally joined the Axis powers by signing the Tripartite Pact with Germany and Italy. While partly aimed at deterring United States intervention in the conflicts in Europe and Asia, this Pact was a comprehensive alliance that formalized the Axis powers' spheres of influence and established mutual defense commitments.


By the end of 1940, the Japanese occupation encompassed most of eastern China's coastal areas and major cities, including Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Nanjing, Wuhan, Guangzhou, and Nanning. They controlled most of the provinces of Hebei, Shanxi, Shandong, Jiangsu, Anhui, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Hubei, Hunan (northern portions), Fujian (coastal areas), Guangdong (major cities and coastal regions), and parts of Guangxi. The Japanese also maintained control over Manchuria (which they had renamed Manchukuo and occupied since 1931) and Inner Mongolia (under the puppet state of Mengjiang).


Taiwan (then known as Formosa) had been under Japanese colonial rule since 1895, following China's defeat in the First Sino-Japanese War. By 1940, Taiwan had been integrated into the Japanese Empire for 45 years and served as an important agricultural production center and military base for Japan's southern expansion. The island was fully administered as a Japanese colony with a substantial military presence, and many Taiwanese were being conscripted into the Japanese military or labor forces as the war intensified. Unlike the mainland territories occupied during the current conflict, Taiwan's longer colonial status meant more developed infrastructure and a population that had lived under Japanese cultural and political influence for nearly two generations.


The war's complexity was evident in its fractured battlegrounds: Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist government maintained its base in Chongqing, Sichuan province, while Communist forces under Mao Zedong developed more and more influence in rural areas, particularly in north China. The Communists' guerrilla warfare tactics proved especially effective, culminating in their Hundred Regiments Offensive from August 20 to December 5, 1940, which demonstrated their growing military capabilities. Led by Peng Dehuai, this Offensive marked a rare large-scale conventional assault by communist forces, which deviatied from their usual guerrilla tactics.


Japanese control varied significantly across occupied territories. While they maintained firm authority in major cities and along railway lines, their actual control in rural areas fluctuated constantly.

Credits

Courtesy of the United States Military Academy Department of History.

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