Figure 1.--Here a Chinese boy starving to death is begging for food on the street of an unidentified Chinese city. The fighting in Asia began 4 years before the outbreak of the fighting in Europe. As in Europe, the civilian casualties far outnumbered the military casualties. This was due to both Japanese atrocities and dreadful famines as a result of food shortages, mostly the result of Japanese war policies. The graetest number of civilian caualties were in China, but there were also terrible famines in other areas of the Japanese Co-Prosperity Sphere and in British-controlled India (Bengal).

Fighting began in Asia before the outbrealk of the War in Europe. The Japanese seized Manchuria (1931), but the Nationalist realising they did not have adequate forces did not contest it. They did contest the invaxion of China proper (1937). There were lrge scale casualities in the first year of fighting in which the Nationalists committed their best units. The casualties killed where much higher than might be expected because the Japanese did not take POWs, they simolly killed all the Chinese soldiers they captured as well as many civilians they though might be supporting them. Military casualties declined after the first year of fighting as the Nationalists began withdrawing into the interior shere the Japanes had trouble bringing their superior military capabilities to bear. The War or China incident continued at a low level for several years. But over time the Japanese extended their control over the richest agricultural land in China. This reduced the food supplies available to the Nationalisrs to feed their population and Army. And at the same time, Chinese refugees because of the brutality og the Japanese flooded into the Nationazlist controlled area, substantially increasing the demand for food. And the Nationalists because of the loss of agricultural land becme increasingly unable to fill that demand. The other major engagement until the end of the War occured in Burma and the Indian frontier. The forces deployed here were only a fraction of forces fighting in China. The Japanese easily seized Malaya and Burma, but were unable to sustain a drive into India, primarily because of a limited logistical capability. The military casualties, however, were a fraction of the civilain casualties, primarily famines generated by the Japanese in occupied areas. he loss of Burma cut off food shipments to India, resulting in the terrible Bengal Famine. The Nationalists allowed the Japanese to surrender at the emd of the War and reaptriated them. The Soviets invaded Manchuraia in the final days of the War. The Japnese who surrendered were intered in the Gulag. Many died there some finally were repatraiteda after years od slave labor in Siberia.

Burma

The Japanese invaded Burma from Thailand and then after the fall of Singapore moved some of those forces to Burma through the port of Rangoon which they had seized. The British had virtually no air cover and their campaign as in Malaya and Singapore poorly managed. The American Flying Tigers helped, but were badly outnumbered. Operations were not coordinated with the american commanded Nationalist Chinese forces. The British-Indian and American-Chinese retreated to India, suffering heavy losses (1942). Here the war bogged down. Some Burmese joined the Japanese. As the war turned against Jaan, the Japanese granted Burma independence. It was a punlic relations stunt and the puppet government granted no real power. British offensives into Burma failed as did the Japnese drivekinto India. The Japanese did not have the logistical cpability to supply a drive into India. This was the reason for building the Thi-Burma railway. The Japanese used both POWs and conscripted Burmese labor. Both groups were treted barbarically. The Japanese suffered very few casualties in the invasion of Belgium. The Allies finally atacked in force and drove the Japanese out of Burma during which most of the Japanese defenders were killed (1945).

China

China of all the beligerants asailed by the Axis countries fought the longest war. At he time Hitler and Stalin invaded Poland, launching World War II, China had already been fighting the Japanese for 4 years. The casualties were enormous, but the actual fighting was a small part of it. The Nationalists after fighting the Japanese for a year in northern China were forced to withdraw into the interior because their best units were chewed by the better arnmed and led Japanese. The Communists for the most part avoided field engagements with the Japanese. The War with some exceptions continued at a low-level, largely because the Japanese could not get at the Nationalists in their remote interior strongholds. They began boming Nationalist-held cities, but after the Americans entered the War, American air power made this costly for the Japanese. The Japanese also used chemical and biological weapons, but while killing Chinese civilians had little military impact And the Japanese engage in horific attrocities like the Rape of Nanking. There were many more such attrocities on a smaller scale that are virtually unreported. The Japanese war time policy was the Three Alls (三光作戦): kill all, burn all, loot all. This is also reffered to as the Burn to Ash Strategy (燼滅作戦). Along with these horific actions, it was starvation that was the big World War II killer in China. Opposing armies (Nationlist, Japanese, and Communist) seized food from the peasants. And as the Japanese advanced deeper and deeper into China, they seized a great deal of the productive agriultural land. Thus the Nationalists were hard pressed to feed thei population and military formations, let alone the millions of refugees who fled Japnese terror into Nationlist held areas. Adding to the carnage was fighting between the Nationalists and Communists. The food situation got particularly severe in the last years of the war. And wth the Japanese controlling Chinese ports, there was no way to get substantial quantties of American food aid to China. Military casualties are only estmates, but are probably reasonably accurate. They include lossess due to malnutrition and related causes which are substantial. There is mo way of estimaating the number of civilian casualties, but they are know to be huge. One estimate places it at 14 million. [Mitter] This is within the range of most estimates. Generally estimtes range from 10-20 million people. Military deaths may have been 3-4 million, a relatively small part of the total. This is because, unlike the more evenly matched German-Soviet conflict on the Eastern Front, there was a relatively low level of combat during much of the Civilin deaths related to militry operations and Japanese attrocities may have totaled 7-11 million people. Deaths related to strvation and malnutrition are the most difficult to estimate We have seen estimates of some 5 million people, but this seems like a relatively low estimate. Some historians focus more on famine and starvaton than Japanese attrocities. [Collingham, pp. 248-6.] The Chinese peasantry in the best of times suvived on the edge. With the Japanese controlling much of the richest agricultural areas, disaster was inevtable. There are much higher estimates which bring possible Chinese deaths to 25 million or more. The actual numbers will never be known with any certaintty While the percentage losses compared to the overall population is relatively small compared to European countries, the absolute numbers are huge with only the Soviet Union suffering comparble losses. Total losses are estimated at 2-5 percent of the population, the wide range is because there is no precise accounting of the casualties.

India

Indian troops served with the British from the outbreak of the War. They played an important role in the Middle East along with other empire forces. The Indian Army was some of the few fully equipped units the British had available to deploy to Egypt and safeguard the Suez Cana when Italy declared war. After Pearl Harbor they played an impirtant role in the unsuccful defense of Singaporre and MBurma and the successful defense of India. A much smaller number of Indians fought with the Japanese, mostly POWs taken in Singapore. The Indian Army which fought with the British would becomd the Army of independent Indian after the War. Despite the important role the Indians played in fighting the Axis, the largest number of casualties stemmed from the terrible Bengal famine. India, especially Benghal dependend on food imports from Burma. This along with Grench Indo-China was the toc owl of Asia. After the Japanese seized Burma, the flow of rice and other food was cut. Several million Bengalis died in the resulting famine. It was a total failure of the colonial administration and the British focus on Europe. This was surely the majpr failing of the British war effort. The Congress Party has to bear some responsibility. Their refusal to support the war effort and participate in the hcolonial administration was a further distraction. There was also a resful famine on the Japanese-occupied adndaman Islands/

Indo-China (Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam)

Indo-China was a French colony, but after the fall of France (June 1940), the country was unable to resist Japanese encroachments, first north Vietnam and then the south. Bases here played an important role in the Japanese offensive that swept over Southeast Asia and the Pacific. There was, however, very little foghting in Southeat Asia. The French forces did not resist the Japanese until ordered to do so by the the government of newly liberted France at theend of the War. The Viet Minh engaged in limited resitance actions. There were, howver, terrible gfamine in what once was amakor rice exporter. This was due to incompetent Japanese administration and the seizure of rice from the peasantry. The famine was especially severe in the Red Rivr Valley of northern Vietnam. Before the War, large quatities of rice harvested in the Mekong Delta was shipped north. The Japanese precented these shipments, insising that each area of the Co-Prosperity Sphere should be self sufficent. The Vietnamese starved while wwrhouses were bulging with grain. The succes oif the American naval campaign prevented shipments to the Home Islands.`

Japan

The Japanese seized Manchuria, ut there was only limited fighting and minimal caualties (1931). Chiang and te Nationalists declined t contest the aggession. The Japnese launched the Second Sino-Japanese War by ivading China proper (1937). Here the ationalist fought and there were csaualties on bohsides. ftr heavy combat and the lost of the best Nationalist units, the nationalits began to withdraw into the interior. Fighting continued, but at a lower level. Casualties declined, but continued. More imporant fr the Japanese was the strain on the economy. After 4 years of fighting the casualties mounted, although only a fraction of Nationalit casualties let alone the enormouscivilian casualties in China. Japanese civilians were affected by the economic strain and family losses. Nut as th Chinese had no appecianle navy and aitforces there were no loss loss of life on the Home Islands. The Japanese attack on the Amrican Fleet at Pearl Harbor, as strange as it may sound. was intended to finally end the fighting in China (December 1941). Of course it did not. Casualies at first were limited as the Japanese swet over the Pacifc and Southeast Asia, this began to change after Midway (June 1942). The loss of carriers and pilots at Midway meant the the Imperial Navy could no longer provide Japanese soldiers the support they needed. And casualties behan to mount, especially after high performance aircraft and newships began to pir out of American factories and shipyards. The losses sustained only added to the steady stream of losses from China. Even so, the level oflosses should not be overestimated. Japanese garrisons might fight to the death on a Pacific island, but there were only so many men that could be crammed on a Pacific island, even defeat in Burma did not involve massive losses. There were substantial losses in the Philippines and Okinawa, but not cripplng losses. In addition to battefield deaths, very substantial mortalities resulted from Japan's inability to supply its far-flung garrisons. By the end of the War large numbers of Japanese soldiers had starved to death or sucumbed to related diseases and more were near starvation. The strain of war had begn to affect Japanese civilans from an early point, primarily due to food shortages and the American submarine campaign meant that their victoris in the Pacific and Souuthwast Asian would not benefit civilians or aid the war economy. The loss of the Marianas meant that the United States could begin the strategic bombing campaign (June-July 1944). The Japanese militarists who launched the War calculated that the Home Islands were beyond the reach of American bombers. It was one of the great millitary miscalcultions of history. Possssion of the Marianasa meant that for the first time, Japanese civlians faced not only shoratages, but death and destruction from the skies. American bombers methodically reduced Japan's timber and paper cities to glowing embers even before dropping the two atomic bombs. Japanese miitary casualties totaled over 2.1 million men. Civilian casualties resulting from military action, mostly the strategic bombing campaign totaled about 0.5 million people. Another 0.5 million civilians may have perished from malnutiion and related diseases. Today in Japan discusion of the War gives great attention to civilian casualties, something the Militarists who launched the war gave little or no consideration. There is vrtually no appreciation in Japan for how small their civilian casualties were in comparison the foreign civilians who were killed by Japanese soldiers or who perished in famines caused by the Japanese in China, the Pacific, and Southeast Asia.

Korea

Korea is an often neglected country in World War II histories as it wa a colony deep in the Japanese Empire. Modern Korean historians havedone soe work n the World War II experience. The Japanese military cncripted millions of Koreans for slave labor. Much f thiswas doe in Korea, but also MNanchria and Jaan, especiall souter Sakalin. Korean historians estimate that the Japanese military conscripted some 0.7 mllion Koreans in thefinal years of the War as part of the National Mobilization Law (1944-45). They were deported to Japan for war work and about 60,000 died because of abuse and poor rations. Many were put to work in Karafuto Prefecture (southern Sakhalin). Many of those taken to were trapped there at the end of the war, stripped of their nationality and denied any repatriation by Japan Tey are now called the became Sakhalin Koreans. The number of deathsdue to forced labor are not well dcumented. Estimates range from 0.3-0.8 million Koreans. [Rummel]

Malaya

Singapore

Thasiland

Thailand joined the Axis and gave the Japanese safe passage to begin the invasion of Burma. The Thais had a Fascist style Government, but may have cooperated with the Japanese in part to prevent an invasion. Japanese soldiers in Thailand behave relatively correctly. There were Thi military engagements with the French, but bsivally the Thais did not participate in the swar militarily, only diplomaticlly and economically. Thus military casualties were very limted.

Sources

Mitter, Rana. Forgotton Ally: World War II, 1937-45.

Created: 9:00 PM 7/21/2014
Last updated: 9:00 PM 7/21/2014