Battle of Wuhan
The Battle of Wuhan (traditional Chinese: 武漢會戰; simplified Chinese: 武汉会战; Japanese: 武漢作戦 (ぶかんさくせん)), popularly known to the Chinese as the Defence of Wuhan (traditional Chinese: 武漢保衛戰; simplified Chinese: 武汉保卫战), and to the Japanese as the Capture of Wuhan, was a large-scale battle of the Second Sino-Japanese War. Engagements took place across vast areas of Anhui, Henan, Jiangxi, Zhejiang, and Hubei provinces over a period of four and a half months. It was the single largest, longest, and bloodiest battle of the entire Second Sino-Japanese War.[18][19][20] More than one million National Revolutionary Army troops from the Fifth and Ninth War Zone were put under the direct command of Chiang Kai-shek, defending Wuhan from the Central China Area Army of the Imperial Japanese Army led by Shunroku Hata. Chinese forces were also supported by the Soviet Volunteer Group, a group of volunteer pilots from Soviet Air Forces.[21]
Not to be confused with Battle of Wuchang or Wuchang Uprising.Battle of Wuhan
武漢會戰
武汉会战
Wǔhàn Huìzhàn
Wǔhàn Huìzhàn
武漢保衛戰
武汉保卫战
Wǔhàn Baǒwèizhàn
Wǔhàn Baǒwèizhàn
武漢攻略戦
Bukan koryakūsen
Bukan koryakūsen
Although the battle ended with the eventual capture of Wuhan by the Japanese forces, it resulted in heavy casualties, with China suffering as many as one million casualties.[22] With Japan suffering its heaviest losses of the war, it decided to divert its attention to the north, which would prolonged the war until the attack on Pearl Harbor.[23] The end of the battle signaled the beginning of a strategic stalemate in the war,[24] shifting from large pitched battles to localised struggles.[25]
Use of chemical weapons[edit]
According to Yoshiaki Yoshimi and Seiya Matsuno, Emperor Shōwa authorized by specific orders (rinsanmei) the use of chemical weapons against the Chinese.[46] During the Battle of Wuhan, Prince Kan'in Kotohito transmitted the emperor's orders to use toxic gas 375 times, from August to October 1938,[47] despite the 1899 Hague Declaration IV, 2 - Declaration on the Use of Projectiles the Object of Which is the Diffusion of Asphyxiating or Deleterious Gases,[48] Article 23 (a) of the 1907 Hague Convention IV - The Laws and Customs of War on Land,[49] and Article 171 of the Versailles Peace Treaty. According to another memorandum discovered by the historian Yoshiaki Yoshimi, Prince Naruhiko Higashikuni authorized the use of poison gas against the Chinese on 16 August 1938.[50] A resolution adopted by the League of Nations on 14 May condemned the use of toxic gas by the Imperial Japanese Army.[51]
Japan made heavy use of chemical weapons against China to make up for its lack of numbers in combat and because China did not have any poison gas stockpiles of its own to retaliate.[52] Japan used poison gas at Hankou in the Battle of Wuhan to break fierce Chinese resistance after conventional Japanese assaults had been repelled by Chinese defenders.[53] Rana Mitter wrote, "Under General Xue Yue, some 100,000 Chinese troops pushed back Japanese forces at Huangmei. At the fortress of Tianjiazhen, thousands of men fought until the end of September, with Japanese victory assured only with the use of poison gas. Yet even now, top Chinese generals seemed unable to work with each other at Xinyang, Li Zongren's Guangxi troops were battered to exhaustion. They expected that the troops of Hu Zongnan, another general close to Chiang Kai-shek, would relieve them, but instead Hu led his troops away from the city."[54] Japan also used poison gas against Chinese Muslim armies at the Battle of Wuyuan and the Battle of West Suiyuan.[55]
Aftermath[edit]
After four months of intense fighting, both the Chinese Air Force and the Chinese Navy were decimated since the IJA had captured Wuhan. However, the main Chinese land force remained largely intact, and the IJA was significantly weakened. The Battle of Wuhan bought more time for Chinese forces and equipment in Central China to move farther inland to the mountainous fortress of Chongqing and lay the foundation for an extended war of resistance. Wuhan and Hubei Province now provided the Japanese with new airbases and logistics to support the massive "joint-strike force" terror-bombing campaign against Chongqing and Chengdu under the codename Operation 100.[56][57]
After its fall 1938 victory in the Battle of Wuhan, Japan advanced deep into Communist territory and redeployed 50,000 troops to the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Border Region.[58]: 122 Elements of the Communist Eighth Route Army soon attacked the advancing Japanese, inflicting between 3,000 and 5,000 casualties and resulting in a Japanese retreat.[58]: 122
The IJA advance in central China was slowed down significantly by multiple battles around Changsha in 1939, 1941, and 1942. No more major offensives were launched until Operation Ichi-Go in 1944; between 1942 and 1944, limited Japanese offensives were mounted for the sole purpose of training recruits. The Chinese managed to preserve their strength to continue resisting the weakened IJA, which reduced its capability to respond to rising tensions between Japan and the Soviet Union at the northeastern borders.[59]