7 July 1937 – 18 August 1945
Ongoing Fighting in China
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:
China Defensive, 1942-1945
China Offensive, 1945

Campaign Maps:
Japanese Territory Seized Prior to July 1937 and Major Drives in 1937
Japanese Advances during 1938 and 1939
Operation ICHIGO, 1945, and Final Operations in the War