| 7 July 1937 – 18 August 1945 Ongoing Fighting in China |
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| Japan and China had been at war since July 1937, the result of
a Japanese desire to create an exclusive sphere of influence in Northern China. The Japanese offensive
was largely successful, so that by late 1941 about a quarter of the country was under Japanese
control. However, the war at this point bogged down, since the Chinese refused to surrender and
the Japanese Army wasn’t large enough to push much further into the interior of China. There
was relatively little movement along the Chinese front from 1941 to 1945; nevertheless it was extremely
important to the overall war effort. After all, the fighting in China kept a large proportion of
the Japanese army occupied—and every Japanese soldier in China meant one less soldier available
to fight Allied forces elsewhere in Asia and the Pacific.
Histories: Campaign Maps: |
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