Figure 1.--Japanese military cmmanders were shocked that the Chinese not only resisted their invasion in force, but they wre unable to force a conclusion. The Chinese withdrew nti the interior, making it more difficult and costly to bring them to battle. As a result the war went on an on and more and more Japanese soldiers had to be committed to the fight. This young soldier we believe is being deployed to China. The photograph was pasted into a family album. We are not sure what the banner says, but perhaps Japanese readers can tell us.

The Japanese militarists who launched the invasion of China saw a short military campaign to be won with a relatively small force. And this would result in huge profits to be gained from occupying and exploting China as another Japanese colony. As it turned out the military campaign was not only not short, but it continued on and one requiring more and more men and costly material. Even so, the expected profits never materialized as planned. The costs of the effort, however, proved far greater than anticipated. The salaries of Jaoanese civilain officials had to be paid. The major cost was, however, the military operations which continued year after year. This is because military operations even if conducted by poorly paid and supplied military concripts are very costly operations. Much of the costs could be covered from domestic sources. Military operations, however, required the heavy use of costly imported oil and rubber. Truck and other vehicles were neded as well as large quantities of expensive military equipment. Japanese commanders expected their soldiers to live off the land. Thus little food was shipped to China for the soldiers. While grain and other food was shipped from Manchuko to the Home Islands, this did not occur to the extent anticipated from China. Most of the grain and food seized in China went to feed the Japanese armies opeating there. This was a massive non-productive force, but they had to be fed by Chinese peasant farmers, many of who existed on the razor edge of subsistence. There was no huge agricultural surplus. The war reduced Chinese harvests. And without a substantial surplus there were no huge quantities of food to be shipped back to the Home Islands. China is a huge country. The Japanese military force in China was massive. The Japanese not only had to have large force to fight the Nationalists, but also to occupy and garison the areas conquered. At the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor after more than 4 years of fighting, the Japanese had mobilized 51 divisions. There 35 divisions in China and 39 independent brigades, almost all of which were also in China. This amounted to about 80 percent Japanese Army's total force. And even so, the Japanese had not defeated the Nationalists nor gained full control of the rural areas of the territory conquered. The never ending war and the huge costs were a major factor in the Japanese decesion to launch the Pacific War. The Germans whatever miscalculations that Hitler made, did mostly focus the full strength f their military on their varrious victims. The Japanesein launching the Pacific War aginst America did so with the great bulk of their militry in China and no way of actually attacking the United States, from the onset a recipie for national disaster.

Created: 9:16 AM 8/14/2014
Last updated: 7:41 PM 8/14/2014