Figure 1.--Chunging was full of rfugees during the War. Here we see some of the refugees in Chungking after a Japanese air raid, we believe in 1939. The Japanese Army could not reach remote Chungking, so the Japanese subjected the Chinese war-time capital to their most prolonged and intense air assault of the War.

The Nationalists retired to the interior, setting up a war-time capital at Chungking/Chongqing (1937-46). Chungking and Kummin were located in southwest China. There the Japanese Army because of the rugged territoiry and primitive infrastructure were unable to reach them, so they began to bomb the city. The Japanese began a 5 year effort to bomb the Nationalists into submission (1938-43). Chunking was the primary target. This was a massive Japanese terror bombing operations conducted by both Imperial Army and Navy air units. Chungking had minimal air defenses. There were some 270 Japanese air raids, with boming forces ranging from 25-150 bombers per raid. Japanese bombers, however, reltive small bomb loads. Only with arrival of the American Flying Tigers did the Nationalists construct an lind of effective air defense. [Incredibly the Wiki page when we accessed it (June 2022) had no mention of the Flying Tigers, but a mention of Soviet assistance. We suspect this is an example of Wiki bowing to communist Chinese pressure to distort history. We also see similar examples in Google search results."] Air-raid shelters were constructed in the mountainous surrounding the city. Chungking was acclaimed to be a 'City of Heroes' because of stadfast resistance. Factories and universities were relocated from eastern China as the Japanese advanced. Refugees surged to the city. Tragically the Nationalists barely had the food needed to fed the pre-War population let alone he refugeess that hugely expanded the populsarion. Supplies reached Chungking over the Burma Road until the Japanese conquered Burma (1942). After that, Allied aid was limited to flying The Hump. Alied operations in the CBI were aimed at driving the Japanese out of Burma and reopenming the Burma Road. This was finally bone with byuilfing of the Ledo Road from India to link up with the Burma Road (February 1945). Kumming south of Chungking, amother Japanese target, was the terminus of the Burma road. Until well into the Pcifuc War, the Japnese miltarists ordering the bombing of Chinese and other cities assumed that Japanese cities were beyonmd the rech of eneny bombers, the sme assessment that the Germans made wtyh the same unforeseen consequences. It would take longer for the llies to bring bthe war home tonthe Japanese, but when they did it would be with hoirific force.

Created: 11:28 PM 6/26/2022
Last updated: 11:28 PM 6/26/2022