WW2 From the Chinese Perspective | Animated History
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Sources:
Hsieh, C., Hsiej, J., (2009) Race the Rising Sun; A Chinese University’s Exodus during the Second World War. Hamilton Books
Van de Ven, H., (2014). Negotiating China's Destiny in World War II. Stanford University Press
King, A., (2016). China-Japan Relations after World War Two: Empire, Industry and War, 1949-1971. Cambridge University Press
King-fai Tam, Timothy Y. Tsu, Sandra Wilson. (2014). Chinese and Japanese Films on the Second World War. Routledge
Mitter, R., (2020). China's Good War: How World War II Is Shaping a New Nationalism. Belknap Press
Mitter, R., (2014). Forgotten Ally: China’s World War II; 1937-1945. Belknap Press
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China is such an overlooked aspect of WW2. It warms my heart that this is finally getting talked about more.
No it's not really.
@@redwind5150 I mean not necessarily, is just that in most schools in the U.S it isn’t really talked about
Wait actually?
@@longarmboiiiiiiiiiii6823 how would you know most schools don't talk about it?
I don’t think anyone is really overlooking it. I’d argue that people the world over are at least tangentially familiar with the tragedy at Nanking.
For China WW2 was pretty much a battle of survival just like Poland only on a bigger scale. Not only that but the Chinese Civil War took place around the same time and continued after ww2 until 1949
And before. You can say the civil war began since the 1911 Beiyang Revolution, which then lead to the Warlord Era till 1928. Where the Civil War between the CCP and KMT began till 1949. That is 38 years of civil war, with 8 of those being invaded by the foreign power that is Japan.
And the chinese has greater atrocities committed on them than those the germans deemed "undesirable" you want some nightmare fuel go read on unit 731.
As a Chinese, I don’t like the idea of a large Poland. We have resisted for 14 years. The Kuomintang and the Communist Party have launched countless counterattacks in front of the enemy’s rear. and Crush India (UK) If China is defeated, think about how many Japanese troops can be transferred to other places. They can immediately take down Australia and India, they can take down these places without much effort, and they can rush all the way to the Middle East.
As an American, I respect the Chinese for their heroism and will to defeat their foe. WW2 is always written about USA and USSR winning
How different would the world be if all leaders could follow one simple rule? Don't be a d***.
The irony of the safety zone in Nanking was that the de facto leader was the Nazi supporting German diplomat. Another ironic thing is that he also wrote back to his superiors and to Hitler describing his disgust at the atrocities and questioning if a alliance with Japanese was morally and practically acceptable
John Rabe A true hero despite his affiliation
That man’s grave was moved to China after he passed and he is still viewed as a hero by most people there.
那个时候的德国人没有不做纳粹党员的自由
@@jink1768 only based nazi
He saved the lives of 250,000 Chinese, he's viewed as a hero.
My grandpa was a medic for the Nationalist army up until ichi-go where he was hit by shrapnel. He said that at some times, the men didn’t have rice to eat or ammunition to fire, yet they still resisted to their last for China as subjugation to the Japanese meant the destruction of Chinese civilization
A contrarian (who I won't name here) said the Japanese were better than the KMT because they did a better job of running Taiwan. I think basically everyone in mainland China would disagree with that.
@@willsung5965 bro why would you support the Japanese Empire?
@@harryholden795 Many people don't understand the truth.All this begin from 1927 ,Chinese killed several Japanese in Nanking with no reason.Japanese just revenge and unfortunately 🇺🇲 's kindness was be used by China so that they sanction 🇯🇵,force 🇯🇵 to start a war can not win.All this is because Chinese hide their true side.
@@harryholden795 it's bait
@@willsung5965 bro why not go to Germany and show your support to the Third Reich and see how long they will let you rot in prison
it is nice that you covered the Chinese perspective of the war. Most books on ww2 books I find don't go into detail about the Chinese in ww2
woops I added books twice my bad
Right?! Its ridiculous as the Pacific War is not very often covered.
@@itsblitz4437I always wondered what happened to China during the second world war, i know there was the chinese civil war
Its ironic that history books always cover America's and Russia's rise as world super powers because of WW2 but never cover the other country that benefited from that war: China. With 2/3rds of Asia being left in disarray after Japans imperial collapse, it set the stage for China to quickly take over as the predominant power in the region which is huge considering how much that region came to be involved in world politics during the 20th century.
I recommend you give a read to "Tower of Skulls"
China really endured a lot of pain and suffering during the war and after. I'm glad this is getting talked about more often.
Same
@@sandwich5344 i know it’s such a disgrace what white people from USA and EU did to the indians and africans
The history of this era explains why modern China still holds a lot of animosity against Japan.
Yes, and much more than that@@squirrelsinjacket1804
@@sandwich5344 dude you're not saying the truth you're just being racist towards Chinese specifically by treating like they're the only evil in the world.
Thank you for all your hard work on this episode as well as the others. As a 3rd generation Chinese Singaporean, my grandfather escaped from China in the 1920s during the country's turbulent period. The Sino-Japanese war of 1894 was still felt in the 1920s as Japan conquered the Korean peninsula with parts of Northeast Manchuria commiting numerous atrocities, long before they invaded again in 1931. In 1942, Japan invaded and conquered Singapore and killed an estimated 50,000+ civilians (mostly Chinese) out of a population of 900,000+ people for their purportedly monetary support of China against Japan. This history is made a compulsory subject for all secondary school students here in Singapore.
I'm also a singaporean and the japanese were so brutal to us Chinese people rest in peace to the fallen soldier of most sea county and china :(
鬼子的不做人程度是鬼见了都怕的程度
Let's be clear that even if overseas chinese did not send monetary support to China, those Japanese soldiers will still kill and torture overseas chinese reason being China gave them a hard time to accomplish their goals.
You can talk about wars happened in China over and over again, it makes no difference like talking about any wars in the world. Chinese people are mostly Han Zu 汉族. Han languages, Han rituals, Han ancestors' efforts, .... all of these make a difference when you talk about war or any historical events. Our ancestors had made great contributions to the world's progress, and BEFORE any other country did. Why the word today puts us into such a hard time today? They all think that they are the best in the world, while pushing the real one that deserves that into destruction.
respect the truth!
This honestly made me tear up a bit. My late grandfather lived in those times under Japanese occupation. He was a child but he remembered it well: Constant hiding in the forest from troops, his sisters dressing up like men to avoid harassment, his grandpa being beaten up by troops by just showing up at the wrong place at the wrong time. It was a miracle my grandfather even survived.
As a Chinese Australian I'm glad that you're shining light on forgotten fronts off WW2. I suggest you try looking into the other forgotten fronts like the West Africa against Vichy France or Burma theatre. My grandmother from Thailand remembers when the Japanese occupied Thailand.
30M people dead in China during WW2, they shall not be forgotten.
As a Chinese australian english **
Australia and Chinese contributions in WW2 (for the Chinese the late 30's aswell) needs to be talked about more.
As a Chinese I feel happy that the world acknowledges more and more of our history and suffering
I hope your communist gov would not bring even more suffering to the world. Looking back at what the communist russia did to Ukraine in 2022 and prior to that all the other acts of genocide throughout the history. Cant say that communism is any better than the reich of ww2.
Japanese never felt sorry for that
@@Nevancen be quiet race traitor
How are you using youtube are you using a vpn?
@@rocketman831 probably taiwanese or ethic Chinese in other countries, or a priviledged CCP member hahahah
My hometown is in the mountainous area of Xiangxi, China. When I was young, I heard from my grandma that more than 20 young people in our village went to fight against Japan, and only two returned in the end. Thank you for letting more people know about our history of suffering.
Government wise the Chinese people are extremely brave, honorable, and heroic. Much respect to the elderlies, that is why there is so many benefits for elders in China
The struggles of China that defined the nation in modern days, and led to her seat as a major power on the UN Security Council is so often underrepresented and not talked about enough. So many times I talk to people in America and commonly the response is “what did Japan do?” or “China fought in WW2?!” We appreciate anyone who puts notice into this deadly theater and brings it to western attention. All over, thank you so much.
That’s because they didn’t pay attention in history class. I guarantee if you asked them about the constitution or American history in general, they will be just as ignorant. We get taught about China in WW2. Flyin tigers, Grape of Nanking, etc. hell we even went over the opium wars and the boxer rebellion which is even further back in time than WW2.
No, the Americans which forged the UN, were correct to recognize China will eventually become a great power. Because United States went through a similar progress of long industrialization process and eventually converted itself from a agrian economy to a industrialized economy after the American Civil war. Had it been the Europeans that formed the UN, China would be excluded 100%.
I know in school in history we look alot into WW2 but mostly in europe and sometimes the pacific but i do remember China being talked about a bit during WW2 but they don’t cover them alot compared to other countries in europe or the island hoping campaign in the pacific it wasn’t until i got to college where we actually digged deeper in the history of other countries including Chinas problem
As an Asian, I want to ask you too. “China fought in WW2 ?”
@@purevjargalpuujee4845 You must be Japanese then, because everyone in China and Korea knows
Man, the designs of these Armies and their equipment are amazing! Goes to show how far you guys could go 👍🏼
the resilience and the will of the Chinese nation is utmost admireble, even after years of wars and turmoil they still managed to climb their way back to the top...
By the means of undermining human rights, global health and sanity, freedom of religion and all the cruel crimes against humanity? I dont think that's very acceptable :(
@@sandwich5344 You didn't say what they did specifically and you provided less proof than a flat earth believer.
@@ericlee5515 oh buddy that list is extremely long, just go watch the news and you’ll see atleast one or two of each
@@ericlee5515lmao are u saying the ccp is a kind government who cares about human rights? Average socialist iq right here 😂😂
@@sandwich5344 I think you should look back at history abit.What happened to the native Red Indians when the Americans expand westward?Bombing nations to the ground is very good for their economy.The moment a nearby hostile state is unstable,invade them.Took advantage of the instability of Libiya,supported the rebels and overthrow the government and kill their leader and now westerners can buy oil cheaper.Also what happened in My Lai?Both China and USA have committed crimes and violated human rights for their own good,so westerners have no right to criticise china or they are just hypocrites
in August 1937, one month after the Japanese invaded the Northern China, my father left school as a freshman of University of Beijing and joint the Army. then he fought against the invader for the next 8 full years, until August 15, 1945. during that period, he lost his parents and fiancee, when VJ Day finally came, he had had nothing beside a miserable memory.
Thank you for his service. Wish the world recognize their efforts more
谢谢前辈们为我们所做的一切，谢谢
感谢
您的父亲是一位真正英雄
感谢先辈们的努力
As a Chinese, I appreciate your very detailed description of the war against Japan in this video, because mainland Chinese history books also describe this story in detail, and we call many generals, including but not limited to the Kuomintang, foreign friends who protected the Chinese during the Nanking Massacre. In China nowadays, we also have museums and memorials on the theme of anti-Japanese resistance, as well as monuments for all the brave martyrs and related commemorative days.Anyway, thank you very much for the video, which can make more people know this history that not many people know.
I appreciate the narration from the bro,and so do you.Frankly speaking, I've never been so proud of our country, together with her contribution to the war aiming for the liberty of the whole world.
Yeah, but no. The communist guerillas did about 3-5% of fighting against Japan, but assumed all the honors. And after they massacred everyone else involved (and their families too), there was nobody else to tell the tale. The Japanese may have killed 10 million Chinese, but the communists killed 100 million.
Your so-called foreign friends protected you so they can continue to exploit your countries resources. You can thank Japan for preventing that by weakening Chiang's army just for the communist to swoop in and take power
@@andrew3203We welcome you to learn about the history of China's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, but it is clear that you are only trying to discredit the Communist guerrillas, which is completely baseless. China has built many monuments, and even the veterans of the Kuomintang are given adequate subsidies and care. And you don't know anything about it, and you're even spreading rumors!
I hope your knowledge comes from official sources, not urban legends
Masterpiece as always, Grif and the team coming in clutch today
So happy we have KZheadrs like The Armchair Historian
The Japanese were savage in every sense of the word. Even being warned of the nuclear weapons, they still resisted. Madness.
that was the navy, the army were cowards of the highest degree@DililahSiti
@DililahSiti nanking
There are still a small number of Japanese people who believe that the invasion of China in 1931 was correct
Don't view WWII at its face value. It is well-planned and mastermind too. Japan in the East and Germany in the West. The common objective is to reduce the vast population on both sides and at the same time to get rid of all the out-dated weaponery. Hence, after WWII in rememberance of OUR GLORIOUS DEAD. In conclusion: "They died so we may live!" Hypocritical?
My great grandfather was in the KMT army. He never talked about the war. Can't imagine what he must have went through
Thank you so much for this video, the chinnese front against the japanese is so overlooked when studying the 30s and WW2 and hearing from a youtuber like you warm my heart, as it will spread the information and get it more talked about. Usually when I mentioned my great great grandfather and his brother fought together in the war against the japanese, most people would not even know that the second sino japanese war ever happened or dismissed it completely. However i kind of understand the lack of knowledge, media and history classes mostly focuses on the war in Asia being fought by the british commonwealth and the americans against the japanese. The only reason I ever learn about it, is because of my heritage where the involvement of my great great grandparent and his brother in a long fought war at the other side of the world has been passed on. An old binocular is all whats left, but it keeps his story alive. Thanks for the effort!
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ok lol
Nice
Hi Griffin Johnson, the armchair historian
This is such a weird sponsorship
Love you
I’m a Chinese-Vietnamese American. My grandfather was born in the 30’s and left China in 1949 during the end of the Chinese Civil War. Those times were very poor and hard but it wasn’t so long ago.
No, the Chinese civil war is not over until the reunification with Taiwan island according to Chinese' perspective
Man, the quality of your videos is something of another world... I've just recently found this channel and it's pure gold.
Japan to the Usa: I am sorry Japan to the rest of Asia: *I would do it again!*
It's because of right-wing nationalist Japanese politicians and groups like Nippon Kaigi, why People's Republic of China and two Koreas still have resentment towards Japanese government and continue to maintain, build and spend money on their own military. They learnt a harsh lesson from their Qing and Joseon predecessors whom neglected their militaries.
@@TechieWidget Ironically, those Asian countries always remember their resentment due to continuing watching Tokusatsu medium, the only place where Japanese acknowledge their war crimes and Unit 731. Especially through Ultraman and Kamen Rider where the Chinese kids, Filipinos kids, Korean kids, Indonesian kids, and Korean kids learn the resentment facts.
Until now some right wing Japanese think they apologized for military failure, not humanitarian disasters. The Chrysanthemum and the Sword is a good book about the difference.
@@TechieWidget By right wing nationalists you mean like vast majority of the population in Japan?
Japan has a tradition of bowing to the strong and ruthlessly bullying the weak
Excellent content as always!
Give me meonys please 🙏 🥺💰💰🤑
@@JacobFraps cry
@@JacobFrapsew poor
@@pwn3r1 🥺😭 I no money's
@@justinkim7756 my family Is rich I live in a gated community 🤑 I just no momeys because kids
One bit that I think could be highlighted more was Soviet material support to China. For a while there the USSR was pretty much the only country who was still willing to back China's seemingly hopeless situation.
Apart from the flying tigers, soviet also sent their volunteer group from Soviet air force, yet their stories are not as popular as the flying tigers in China as well.
@@Frank-qy4rg Yeah the government pulls out the flying tigers whenever they need the population to like the Americans again.
Also they sent materials for both the nationalists and communists
If China was occupied by Japan, the Soviet Union faced a huge threat from Japan, especially in the Far East. The Soviet Union supported China out of its own national interests. However, the Soviet Union occupied more than 1.6 million square kilometers of China and supported the independence of Outer Mongolia.
@@felixkepler6871 Mainly to KMT instead of CCP, the Soviet had long relationship with KMT since the China's Warlord period. KMT aren't able to defeat the other warlords without the Soviet's huge support on weapons and equipment and money. For CCP, is totally different situation. One can even say that the Soviet even treat the warlord Shen shicai in Xinjiang better than CCP.
11:04 I heard a story from “The Hump” where an aircraft crew transporting supplies across the mountains was transporting a piano meant for Chiang’s wife. They threw it out of the plane over the mountains.
Based, she can live without a imported piano.
she was the more competent part of their marriage
@@wafl423 she was only useful diplomatically.
that just goes to show the level of corruption that is endemic in the KMT gov., its rotten from the core from top to bottom
Totally false. Stilwell once transported a cargo of sports shoes for the Chinese army. Largely what can be shipped into China was decided by USA and British. They sure could find a piano in China, what scarce was gasoline.
Great work as always, apperciate the effort you put into different perspectives of the WW2 and other conflicts Til this day, cities across China rings air raid alarms on multiple days marking infamy of the nation
Great video as always I have always wanted to see World War II from a Chinese perspective
You are one of my favorite history channels, you should do a video on the Chinese Civil War. It seems no one has a desire to cover it, I think you would be breaking major ground by providing your education on such a consequential conflict.
My great-grandfather was an army Officer in Kuomintang during the war against Japanese invasion. He died during the battle. He sacrificed his life protecting his family and motherland. I'm proud to have such an honourable ancestor.
感恩！英雄永垂不朽！
May God bless your grandfather in heaven. People like him are the most honourable kind of people to China.
I think it's a shame that China's such an overlooked part of WW2. The loss of life in the Chibese theatre was equal to that of the Eastern front and the atrocities were also just as, if not more brutal
The whole system of this world now is still running by the G7, nothing bad for them would be shown to the world. Sad.
@@cheungchingtong Yeah. Everyone talks about the Nazis and their atrocities, but nobody pays any attention to the Japanese war crimes
Finally for the world to see the truth in the Chinese theater it's really quite underated
Finally, someone has recognised our efforts in WW2, thank you. This video warms me to my hearts content.
Learning about the Second Sino-Japanese war inspired me to try and learn Mandarin. I hope some day to be able to read primary sources, what ever may exist of them. Good work on this, a forgotten front and a forgotten ally.
I’m sure there are plethora of primary sources written in Chinese in museums, libraries, and memorials on both sides of the Taiwan Straight.
I would love to see you do some videos on the lesser known battles of WW2. Like the battle of Buron or Orsha. I just feel like there’s so much spotlight on the US and Western Front, the Eastern Front and commonwealth countries get overlooked. If anyone has a video or stuff on these I’d love it if you shared! I’ve got the Bloody Buron book, but that’s about all I can find
Burma or Alaska are probably the least covered
It makes sense depending where you live. If you’re an American, you basically have American KZhead with mainly American content creators. It’s an algorithm thing from my understanding. Much like Netflix. American IP address gets you mostly American Netflix. German IP address gets you mostly German Netflix. (It was hilarious watching anime in German)
@@eannamcnamara9338 right??? I feel like Burma was pretty important
@@bigredwolf6 that’s funny cause I noticed that a few years ago but I just thought it was a fluke. Thanks man!
Love this video, keep up the great work. Could you guys do a video on the Russian Civil War?
I would love to see that!
No! Forget about this country!
@@user-pf3kv4bv5s Aren't you Russian though?
Weren’t there multiple of those?
Obsessed with these history videos- you inspired me to also make animated history videos! Make more Ancient Greece videos!
My Great Uncle, Shanghainese, born in 1922, was a hero during Sino-Japanese war. But not just a hero but a lifetime tragedy. When he was young, my great uncle learned martial arts in Shaolin Temple and before the war join the ROC Army as a guard, stationed in Shanghai. He has a photo with other guard and ROC President Chiang Kai-shek at his age of 15. When Shanghai was broken by Japanese Army, he followed the guard regiment to Chongqing and then joined China intelligence Bureau for his shooting skill and martial arts. He was later assigned to assassinate Japanese officers and Chinese traitors in Shanghai. After successful killing 7 targets with his special action teammates in Shanghai once he got injured on his leg and almost captured. Fortunately, he finally fled from Shanghai to Hong Kong, though most of his teammates died from the last assassin. From Hong Kong he back to Xi Feng, Guizhou Province, to build with Americans the Sino-American Special Technical Cooperative Organization (SASTCO) 3rd branch. As his one disabled leg, he can't go kill Japanese officers anymore. Later he served as a lieutenant colonel instructor in 3rd Branch, to train more Chinese agents with other American instructors, and send bunches of young soldiers to the occupied cities for special missions. In 1949, he was stationed in Hong Kong as a military agent, waiting for new mission from Taiwan Authority. In around 50’s he and his team were captured once entering mainland. Almost all his followers were sentenced to death. However, one high rank CCP intelligent officer knew my great uncle as they might have some connection or cooperation action during WW2 in Shanghai. The officer proved my great uncle never killed any CCP but only Japanese, and get wounded during 40’s. So, he was sentenced to life imprisonment from 50’s. After Nixon’s visit in China, he was freed from prison in 80’s. But his wife died for years and now his son and daughter didn’t accept this father for the long years’ political persecution and no-responsibility to the family. So, he lived alone in Suzhou in a small rent room until 1993 he was taken to live with my grandfather, his brother. He taught me some martial art, but I was not talented on that. He bought me chocolate and always smile to me peacefully. Yes, his eyes are always that peaceful, no regret, no pain even through the death battlefield, 30 years prison, 10 years lonely life. He passed away one day around year 2000, with only a few relatives (my grandfather died in 1999 ahead of him). His son didn’t attend the funeral in the end and wouldn’t accept his tomb close with his wife’s. 20 years passed, I always remember his smiling and peaceful eyes, feed me with chocolate. At that moment, he might recall his son’s childhood at the sight of me. By the way, his name is Qian Jie.
Wow. I wonder how many ROC men like your great uncle never get to tell their stories throughout history.
Condolences, it’s a shame how heroes like him get screwed by evil governments, is there anyway you could share his picture with Chiang Kai-Shek?
@@kianvandenberg6364 Thanks. I don't think so. The photo is dangerous to the family, so it must be taken away or hidden in some place.
@@JR5745 Millions I think. When in childhood in 1985-1995, we often found some neighbor or classmate family are ROC's. But we avoided talking deep even inside family.
@@YangLiu-fx9yn I understand, good luck
The most devestating period of WW2 is the most overlooked. Glad your giving them recognition
Really glad you opted to cover this stage of the war! And the recent Chinese film “The 800” is a very well done depiction of the battle of Shanghai. Highly recommend.
finaly been waiting for this video for months
I glad you have covered this topic as often or not, most schools & history books failed to cover this theater from the Chinese perspective, only covering the USA & Soviet Union perspective. I would like to see WW2 from either the Vietnamese, Cambodian, Burmese & Singaporean perspective.
Thanks for talking about this theatre of WW2. Many in the West don't even know about this theatre, and it is often overlooked in textbooks, often appearing as a footnote.
I'm very glad someone is finally covering the Second Sino Japanese war. This theatre is so rarely covered, yet so many men had died just to protect their land. It truly is astounding.
very high quality video mate!
The music in this one is phenomenal. Added greatly to the narration
I would love to see him do either a perspective on the Philippines, Brazil or Mexico as they are mostly forgotten.
The true horror of Nanking is that to this day the Japanese still refuse to even acknowledge any wrongdoing.
Great video and very nice animations!
Great video thank you love the detail.
As an American, I would very much like to learn more about modern Chinese history. I feel like most of my school-learning on China focused on ancient history. Thank you for another informative video. God be with you out there everybody! ✝️ :)
Modern Chinese history is a bit more controversial lolol
unfortunately, modern china is powered by corruption and a rather contriversial form of "soft power" in order to undermine the truth about what actually goes on behind closed, marxist doors rather difficult. However - a few key points and main events are: - forced labour "re-education" camps, WWII style - organ harvesting, the likes of dystopian novels - forced steralisation, one way to wipe out religious & ethnic minorites - covering up global threats cause "if i warn the government about X, they'll accuse me of X"
Thank you for your interest in Chinese history. China's modern history begins with the Qing dynasty, specifically see the beginning of China's battle to resist the British dumping of opium into China in 1840. China has experienced semi-colonial and semi-royal rule ever since. After the overthrow of the Qing Dynasty in 1911, China entered a phase of warlord rule and Kuomintang (KMT) rule, with the Civil War and Japanese invasion of China occurring at the same time. The Communist Party of China (CPC) was founded in 1921, and after the Sino-Japanese War ended in 1945, the CPC and the KMT began a civil war of more than 3 years, which culminated in the departure of the KMT from the mainland to Taiwan. And China, after 1949, has been seeking strategic autonomy independence and balance among different forces such as the Soviet Union and the United States.
Hello Armchair Historian! I suggest that you look into the Philippine Perspective for WW2. It is overlooked in most textbooks. However, it is an interesting story and I think should be brought to light. Thank you.
this is one of the best English documentary on Sino-Japanese war, and I must praise the production team as the animations of equipment, uniforms are historically correct. Someone has done a lot of homework before the making of this doc., very well done
As someone who studied history I appreciate these types of videos. I am also making videos about history. I just go over the events that happened in order.
As a Chinese I am happy that you talked about our perspective, since it is rarely in any books I find.
One of the craziest and most unexpected stories of the Nanking massacre was how John Rabe, a Nazi, set up a safe zone and saved the lives of thousands of Chinese civilians.
Really overlooked part of history in school. Nice video.
Thank you Armchair Historians, for making another great video about China during WW2. China’s role (both the KMT & the CPC) in WW2, shouldn’t be forgotten and deserved more attention. Hate it how everyone always remembers Japan as a members of the Axis, and forget to mention’s Japan’s long term enemy of WW2 and a member of the allied power; China. Most Americans and other allied members only mention themselves as the one who’s been fighting Japan in WW2, and forgets to mention that China has been fighting Japan way before them.
Even till today Germany: "we are sorry for starting the war. Aplogies to the world" Japan: "we are sorry for losing the war. Apologies to the japanese people who didnt benefit from it."
Basically Germany: we remember, we are sorry. Japan: we are sorry, we don’t remember.
It is always a good day when The Armchair Historian uploads. Happy Mothers Day everyone!
Your production quality is outstanding, it's inspiring me to make similar content.
Ty for this one really needed it
thank you very much for this video! it provides a great perspective of the sino japanese war and its nice seeing western media talk about it more. in china, every 18th of septemebr, there are still air raid alarms.
Hello. Im very excited for this.
Thank you for making this video i didnot knowvmuch about this
Another great video Griffin 👍🙌
As a Chinese myself, I am very glad to see this video with such quality. I am glad to see how you talked about the war crime made by IJA and the fight between Chiang Kai Shek and CCP under the table and what did Chiang do wrong to lose the civil war in the future, as I still often see some people are saying it was the CCP who did not fight with the Japanese and that's how they lost the civil war. (Which I think that is totally not the facts or that just a tiny part of the story.) There is actually more to talk about: 1, The Japan invasion of Jehol Province end up a DMZ between China and Japan, while Japan had significant influences over there. It actually act as way of how the Japanese goods, like yarn, to avoid the import duty from Chinese customs. Imagine what will happen for a industrial country keep selling goods without being charged any duties on it. Also, Japanese companies managed to obtain some local factories with little cost in Jehol Province after that as well. 2, The Marco polo bridge incident broke out on the 7th of July, 1937. It was until 2 weeks later when IJA launched an attack on Peking as it was an incident made by a few lower rank officers(Mutaguchi Renya and Kiyonao Ichiki) who seem it as an opportunity to be promoted, like 1931. The Japanese authority saw it as an opportunity to occupy Huabei Region. Peking and Tianjin was under another Chinese warlord control, and he did not see this as a full scale invasion as this kind of incident happened many times before, and it often ended up with compensations and Japanese took control over some land around Peking.( And left Marco Polo Bridge the last route to connect Peking with the rest of China that is still under Chinese forces control by 1937.) Mutaguchi Renya organised a failed operation, Battle of Imphal, leading to death of lots of their own due to lack of supply, but he managed to survive after the war. Ichiki died in Guadalcanal with that "famous assault" Battle of the Tenaru. 3, At the start of Battle of Shanghai in August 1937, Japanese authority believed this Incident would be ended within three months, as emperor asked in the meeting when will this finished? The army chief of staff said he believed this incident would be ended within a month. The emperor apparently did not believed that and asked what if it did not end within a month. Another officer, who is a member of royal family said a month is a bit overexaggerated, he believed it this incident can be solved within three months. And in fact, Chiang was planned to agree on Trautmann mediation later by the mid of December 1937, so the estimation was correct until the Japanese authority announced the they will not see Chiang as the leader of China anymore and they were looking forward to negotiate with another pro-Japanese Chinese leader on mid January 1938. This make peace between China and Japan no longer possible. 4, Apart from Trautmann mediation, there were two more peace negotiation between Chiang and Japanese authority before December 1941. Apparently, none of them end with a peace deal. And those deal were pretty harsh. Including but not limited to: admit the division of Manchuria, more compensation, allowing IJA to retreat from China when they wanted to, Against CCP not the Japanese. 5, Not sure whether this has been mentioned before or not, the Battle of Shanghai was started with surrounding Japanese settlement in Shanghai by Chinese forces as a lesson learned from 1932 battle of Shanghai. After 1932, Chinese Army are not allowed to stay in Shanghai, but Chiang managed to disguised them as military police and placed them outside of Shanghai DMZ. He decided to take Japanese settlement before the Japanese Marine Corps starts to attack them( as a lesson learned from 1932). However, the HQ of Japanese Marine Corps was designed with the ability to become a fort when needed. And Chinese force was lack of heavy artilleries and no air superiority. Both Chiang and Japanese started to bring more force to Shanghai. 6, Apart from the flood, there were other man-made disaster like 1938 Changsha fire, which shows KMT was lack of organisation and corruption in there. 7, Japanese occupation the ports and major cities of China that attempt to cut the supply route of China damaged other foreign powers' business, and I personally still believed it was the occupation of Southern Indochina lead to the embargo and the lost of business in China lead to the loans rather than what IJA did in China. At one degree, Roosevelt was about to agree with Japanese that the US will admit the Manchuria and leave Japanese alone as far as they promised not to allied with Germany and they will not occupy British and Dutch colonies. 8, The Burma Road was not exist before. Due Japanese occupied most of ports by the end of 1937, the Chinese authority started to build this road at the beginning of 1938 and because of lack of heavy engineering equipment, local authorities gathered more than 200 thousand people from locals, old people, children and women mainly, to build this road from mountains to mountains. 9, Chinese army was not always go well when it came to 1944. With the loses in vassals for Japanese, Japan need to connect South East Asia under its control with Manchuria, so they can bring resources by train rather than vassals. Japanese army launched Operation Ichi-Go at the end of 1944. It ended up with success for Japanese side, and of course, that means great lost on Chinese side(500,000-600,000 casualties according to wiki). Overall, this is definitely a great video, I just want to say China did a lot on against the invasion from Imperial Japan, not just lost more that 10 million of its own people, but also this war allowing the ally to focus on the Europe and managed to forced Japan put millions of people in China in order to maintain its occupation. And eventually led to Japan's decision to attack Pearl Harbour that really changed everything. I am also a bit surprised when it said the war started 8 years earlier than 1939. (That is 14 years in total.) As before, many would say it was eight years and it wasn't until decades ago that we start to say we fought for full 14 years. And glad to see you mentioned Japanese war crime, despite there are more to say.(Like Three Alls Policy, using of chemical weapons and notorious Unit 731. I really hope many of you can learn about those in the future.)
The CCP really didn't fight the Japanese after the 100 regiments offensive in 1940. It was actually explicit policy to avoid antagonizing the Japanese and focus on expanding base areas in the countryside.
@@porksterbob No the CCP was restricted to smaller operations instead of large full on operations like the 100 regiment offensive. The CCP bases in northern China were almost completely destoryed following the Japanese counter offensive post 100 regiment offensive. Peng suggested the operation to Mao, Mao accessed correctly that should the Japanese counter attack, the existence of the CCP armed forces would be jeperdized. All the cringe westerners after reading some pro KMT propaganda apperently believed the CCP was capable of fighting the Japanese head on at this time in the war. This is complete BS, the CCP were at the mercy of the Japanese, the CCP's existence behind Japanese lines kept significant Japanese and Chinese collborator troops back as garrison, but they weren't enough wipe out the CCP. Draw too much attention, Japanese will pull back from the frontline and they be all dead. Therefore Mao correctly instructed the CCP to operate as logistic disruption, as well as infiltrating collaborators. And to launch large scale disruptions in the logistic network anytime the Japanese tried to launch large offensives against the KMT. Both KMT and CCP were conserving forces tor the final showdown post Japanese defeat.
@@lolasdm6959 you're pretending the entire 1949 to 1990 period didn't exist. This was when the CCP pretended that they did the lions share of the fighting and the kmt didn't. The CCP could have made Japan's life very difficult during ichigo. They had a million troops in 1944. They purposely decided not to as they saw it as the best way to defeat the KMT. Mao was executing the best strategy for the CCP. It wasn't the best strategy for China though.
@@porksterbob A million troops in 1944? You are tripping. CCP only had enough weapons to equip 1 million men after the Soviets handed the Manchurian Japanese arsenal to the CCP. Mao was trying to not die, he moves something big once during operation Ichigo his dead, and all the men under his command. Mao correctly waited for the Japanese to vacate themselves from northern China during Ichigo, and then launched attack all across North China, the collaborators pretty much didn't give up a fight once the Japanese went south. Reclaiming vast amounts of terrtory with his tiny army and suffering basically no losses, and cutting off the Japanese from their supply depots in the north. You are free to provide an alternative strategy that can have a better result. Trust me you can't, Mao isn't stupid, his the best strategist ever to take helm in China in the last couple hundred years. Chiang was conserving his strength as well, it's just his troops had nowhere to hide when the Japs come knocking. Something bound to happen when you have 40 armies under your command compared to 2 heavily understrengthed armies under Mao. As for CCP claiming lion's share of effort in the war of resistance, that is plain wrong. I had read the history book in China, it constantly focuses on the failings of KMT but nowhere did it claim CCP was responsible for most of it. In fact it even teaches that Mao accepted leadership under Chiang. You are free to take out a real source and refute me. It also teaches the Chiang speech where he said that no further conccessions can be made to the Japanese.
@@lolasdm6959 the new fourth army and the 8th route army were massive by 1944. The handover if Japanese equipment by the Soviets would put them up to 1.5 million by the start of the civil war. A typical Chinese army was some 5-10 divisions I.e. a little over 100,000 troops at best. Both the communist armies had grown to be several hundred thousand each by 1944. Mao was a brilliant strategist. But he was a brilliant strategist for Mao and the CCP, not for China. The CCP could have done a lot more to make ichigo difficult, but they didn't because it would help win them the civil war. This was definitely the right call vis a vis defeating the KMT. However, if was not the right call if the goal was defeating Japan and/or protecting the Chinese populace. Here is what a better result is... Mao is a bit more aggressive in the summer of 1944. He attacks more Japanese forces directly. He doesn't do full death or glory attacks that wipe out the red army, but enough to make the Japanese keep more troops in the north. With less troops, maybe the Japanese don't win fourth Changsha, maybe they don't win the battle of hengyang. Essentially, ichigo becomes less successful. Lots of South China stays unoccupied. That would have been a better result ... For China and Chinese people.
As a Chinese-American, WW2 was only half of the brutality that China faced in the 20th century. We as the people survived such hardships and its not quite a happy ending.
As a Anglo-Chinese, I agree with this statement.
I agree. Our people have suffered through brutal warfare and famine in our country and in our history. Given the bad tensions going on, we can hope that both the US and China will not go to war so our people can suffer less and we may live a peaceful life
Ironically the Stalin-backed communists were actually worse than the Japanese, lol.
@@bigkidd2147sadly , history has shown us that these situations usually end in blood. We can only hope for the best, and i hope nothing bad happens
Haha what about Taiwan fckn rice cooker
This was really well made. I was surprised that there was no mention of the Gegenmiao massacre, as it was previously touched upon, but regardless, this is an overlooked area of the war and its great that it's being covered in such detail.
I watch the sponsor part of every Armchair Historian video with enjoyment for no reason what so ever
Hope to see more videos about china! Rest in peace to those who suffered from the japanese.
"Imperial" Japanese. A very important distinction. A cabal of evil men had wormed their way into the upper ranks of the imperial Japanese military. And unfortunately they had the Emperors ear. They basically brainwashed him with militant propaganda and lies. That whole part of history is a very deep rabbit hole with many tunnels. And quite interesting.
I was looking for a channel quite like kento bento. It has been more than a year since he last uploaded some contents & i have finally found a best fitting alternative. This video gave me the same feeling. Your voice, narration skills& knowledge are admirable. It's not your gain as a subscriber in me but my gain as a quality content provider in you.
Thank you for finally covering the Chinese perspective and mentioning the notorious corruption and embezzlement that the Kuomintang was involved in when they had control of Mainland China. My family used to have ties with Kuomintang, going back to the time when they were part of Tongmenhui in overthrowing the Qing. It was until 1946 when my great-grandpa had enough of Kuomintang upperclassmen embezzling foreign aid (esp food) and had him and his family fled to Southeast Asia to escape persecution after exposing their embezzlement in newspapers via his friend.
Where in southeast asia did he flee to?
@@clownpendotfart Singapore or Malaysia would most likely be the location, given how populated Chinese are at there. But maybe countries like Vietnam and Burma given how close they're to China's Mainland
Your great grandpa made a wise choice escaping to Southeast Asia. If your family stayed in China, they would have being prosecuted during the Anti-Rightist Campaign or Cultural Revolution due to their former ties to KMT.
I think one thing a lot of people in the west don’t realize is that neither the KMT or CCP had the moral high ground and both group committed atrocities. Only difference is CCP came out on top in the end. Ultimately it was the average citizen that suffered as a result. My families weren’t KMT supporters nor CCP revolutionary they were a small family of merchants that were caught in the crossfire. My family was apparently too rich for the CCP during the purge but they weren’t well off enough to escape the country at the time and most of my family’s clan was wiped out. I was told those that those of my family survived became wandering beggers before finally taken refuge with a community of Hui people and weren’t even allowed to enter large cities until Deng Xiao Ping became chairmen in the 1980s. My family manage to make a living in the mainland until we had to run due to allegations of treason and charges of corruption. I was young at the time but my understanding was someone influential in the province I was from had issues with my family business and when we refused to pay “protection fee” to the local gang and suddenly we were charged with allegation of treason. We were under house arrest and my family eventually “sold” their business to the person and we were released from house arrest. We didn’t take any chance and fled for the U.S immediately fearing they will come after us again with nothing but what little saving we had left. Years later we found out from another family who fled to the U.S that this was a common tactic by corrupted official. Had we not sold our business we would have most likely been executed or imprisoned and our assets would have been taken by the government regardless.
@@HWDragonborn Definitely, he would most likely be made a target during Cultural Revolution because of his educational background (he studied law in Fudan University) and former ties with KMT. If he never exposed embezzlement of food foreign aid by KMT in Amoy, he may have stayed on mainland China or fled to Taiwan or Hong Kong.
Great video as always guys 🫡
People tend to forget how quality this channel is
Given the United States was directing the majority of their rage and firepower towards Japan, it's unfortunate how little it's thought of and talked about on the more populous East Coast here in the US. The events of World War II in the Indo-Pacific have far more relevance today than anything in Europe.
I disagree. We’re seeing WW2 weapons and tactics on the eastern edge of Europe. Again. Both situations are heavily influenced by WW2.
Disagree. WW2 forged a lot of the closest Allies we see today in the West. It's the reason for the formation of the European Union and the origin of a lot of the issues between Russia and the West. These issues are still at play today. The European theatre of WW2 is the main factor in the cold war which has been reignited recently
@@TargetFinder72 If you think Russia is a part of the new cold war you are pretty delusional, they are only very loosely economically aligned with China.
Why would the East Coast think of Japan more than Europe that is nearer to them? New York Harbor was invaded by Kriegsmarine subs in 1942, don't act like that it's something they must fear less than Japanese ships...
Because fdr's foreign policy advisors were soviet spies trying to get the POTUS to make bad decisions. Which is why china was overlooked during ww2. (I'm serious look it up)
I have a young chinese student in one of my classes who is very interested in this history. I look forward to sharing the link with her tomorrow.
Thank you for posting this video. I'm korean and schools here don't teach world war 2 unless you take world history class so i barely had any chance to learn about this Second Sino Japanese war. I've heard that Japan invaded China from books but I never knew it was this large and horrific. I wish people around the world knew more about this devastating war. It is so heartbreaking to read books written by survivors of this war.
I'm really surprised by this, Korean textbooks don't have the history of the Second World War. China's current textbooks are more objective and fair in recording historical events, including some of China's wrongdoings in recent decades, which are smaller in size but not shied away from. Our history books have described that Japan invaded Korea hundreds of years ago, and the Ming Dynasty of China helped Korea to defend itself from Japan, but then after that, due to the decline of China's national power, it was unable to help Korea again, and Japan occupied Korea and colonized it. When I was a kid I even remember Korean newspapers had Chinese characters, then the Korean rulers removed them completely due to political necessity and Seoul was renamed.
@@forrestZH yea they emphasize the fact that japanese occupation was brutal but doesn't really say anything about second sino japanese war. oh actually they do, but they focus on the Korean independence movement in Chinese territory, but that's it.
你没发现韩国的南北分裂就是日本造成的吗？😂
One of the underrated fronts of the Pacific war, great video.
Great video, although I was hoping that there would be more talk about Chinese collaborators (AKA Jingwei's regime, Manchukuo and Mengjiang). I always wondered if all of them had active roles in combat against regular Chinese troops, how were they viewed by Chinese and wondered about their legacy (since, from what I heard, some of collaborators remain polarizing figures to this day), but all information I managed to find about them was scarce and relatively brief.
Collaborators themselves were perceived negatively, but they usually didn't stay collaborators for long; among the soldiers within the puppet states like Manchukuo and the Reorganised RoC, defection rates were astronomically high. Japan also found it difficult to locate potential collaborator leaders as well; even many exiled warlords who had to flee to the concessions in Shanghai after Chiang Kai-Shek's Northern Expedition refused to join the Japanese, and so the collaborationist governments were usually filled with underqualified individuals far above their previous positions in government. Leaders of the collaborationist governments such as Wang Jingwei are seen today as Hanjian(race traitors) because of their role in the war, and are reviled in both the RoC and the PRC.
I read a article of a former child soldier of the puppet army at the time. The former puppet soldier said the puppet army consider themselves the “Peace Army” while the actual National army as the “Fighting Army”. One side keeps the peace in occupied territory while the other in Free China actively fights the invaders. Honestly it sounded like a coping mechanism for the puppet troops
Not a perspective we hear enough about. Looking forward to watching this!
Thank you for doing this video. The story of China in WWII is not often told but provides the context for the China/Taiwan conflict today. It is also the story of my dad's family. Originally from Ningbo, my dad was born in Chengdu as the Nationalists were retreating from the Japanese. I believe my grandfather was an accountant in the Nationalist Air Force and they ended up in Taiwan. I have many relatives in China today that I have never met.
China suffered disastrous amount of casualties and material destructions during the second Sino-Japanese war. The only meaningful gain from it was the return of Taiwan back to China. Do you think China can easily let it go?
Thank you for your grandfather’s service to the country! Welcome to come visit your homeland.
感谢❤虽然未曾谋面，深受其恩
The Second Sino-Japanese War was a war that is really overlooked in history. It was a war that was part of the Second World War. The stories told from my family during the war was extremely sad and difficult to listen to. Around millions of Chinese people United and fought the Japanese even though they were much more superior in military. 20 million Chinese people died from this war. The Japanese were extremely brutal and inhumane to the Chinese people. Respect to the Chinese who fought and sacrificed for their country.
This video is eye-opening and allows me to feel that we are more alike than different. Kudos to what China achieved today I just think I can let go of my dislikes of China and start to embrace them more. Respect from Canada.
Glad you made this video. This is ,unfortunately, a perspectives most often ignored and I’m glad to see some eyes put onto the Chinese. So good video over all.
Congrats on 2 million subs!
If you ever do your versus series again American Paratroopers vs Japanese ones would be cool.
I was not aware Japan had paratroopers. Ya learn something new everyday
@@bigredwolf6 they had, they were called Teishin Sudan, and they had a lot of activity between 1942 and 1943 during the Philippine campaign...
Always great tto see things from alternative perspectives! Another topic that's somehow rarely discussed but might be very interesting would be "Crusades from the Muslim perspective". How much of an impact did the conquest of the Holy Land actually have to the Arab World? Was the Christian Invasion seen as an existential threat to Islam itself like e.g. the Ottoman Expansion was seen by Christianity? Or was it seen as "just" another conflict as the Middle East had already been a war-torn region before? And how much truth lies in the narrative of cruel Crusaders on the one side and a wise, just Sultan Saladin as their counterpart?
Lovely video!
0h man I've been waiting for this finnaly a in-depth look at the chinese front. Thanks Griff.
Probably the less known invasions of WW2. Really put in prospect what China had to go through fighting the Japanese. I suggest you do a video on the 1st AVG, aka the "Flying Tigers", who defended the Burma Road and played a crucial role during the invasion. Overall great job and keep up the amazing work!
Flying Tigers were mercs, paid hefty salaries by the Chinese government.
China is SUPER interesting, i would love to see you covering the inter-war period in China and things like Northern expedition and Central plains war could be really educational
Was literally just looking for videos on the Chinese Civil War and the United Front against the Japanese bro. Thank you for this!
Aw yes! An historical perspective not usually covered by mainstream Eurocentric history tellings. Thanks!
It's really cool that you guys are now moving onto the pacific theatre of the war. I hope one day, y'all make a WW2 from the Philippine perspective. That country basically became a battle ground for 2 rivaling world powers at that time.
Alright a new episode!
Hope This Video Boosts Armchair's Subcount Above 2M Because He Is Probably The Only Man To Deserve 2 M
Flowers of War, great movie armchair about this topic.