Sino- Japanes Wars

1
Sino-Japanese Wars
Irfan Arshad IR Department University of
Sargodha Pakistan
2
Introduction
Sino-Japanese Wars or Chinese-Japanese Wars, were
the struggles in the 19th and 20th centuries
between the belligerents over predominance and
lust for territory in East Asia. In these
ventures Japan was the aggressor
3
First War1894-1895

• For centuries Korea was a tributary state of
  China
• During the 19th century, Japan emerged as a
  military power in East Asia and threatened
  Chinas close relationship with Korea
• Anxious to exert its military influence, Japan
  secured the Treaty of Kanghwa (Ganghwa) with
  Korea in 1876, ostensibly to protect Japanese
  fishermen in the Korea Strait
• A provision of the treaty declared Korea
  unilaterally independent, which weakened Chinas
  association with Korea.

4
First War1894-1895

• Fearing a Japanese takeover of the peninsula,
  China encouraged Korea to also sign treaties with
  the United States, Britain, France, and Germany
  to increase international recognition of Koreas
  independence
• China, continued to expect a privileged
  relationship with Korea
• In March 1894 there was a domestic revolt against
  the Korean monarchy by the Tonghak religious
  cult, an anti foreign secret society
• Both China and Japan sent troops to help put down
  the rebellion. Once it was over, China proposed
  immediate withdrawal of foreign troops

5
First War1894-1895

• On the pretext of helping to affect political and
  military reforms, however, Japan declared that
  its forces would remain in Korea
• The Japanese occupied the royal palace, and in
  July they made a surprise attack on Chinese naval
  vessels stationed in Korean waters
• A short conflict on land and sea followed and
  Japan won a decisive victory

6
First War1894-1895

• By the terms of the Treaty of Shimonoseki,
  concluded on April 17, 1895, China was forced-
• Acknowledge the complete independence of Korea
• Cede the island of Taiwan, the Penghu Islands,
  the Liaodong Peninsula in northeastern China to
  Japan
• Pay a large indemnity
• Concerned that the treaty would destabilize the
  colonial balance of power in East Asia, Russia,
  France, and Germany then forced a revision of the
  Treaty of Shimonoseki under which Japan had to
  renounce its claim to Liaodong

7
Second War1937-1945

• During the 1920s militarists gained control in
  Japans government
• Their aim was to use force to extend Japanese
  influence into China, which had been weakened by
  revolution
• Japan also wanted to expand its territories both
  to relieve its problem of overpopulation and to
  obtain badly needed natural resources
• In September 1931 Japan alleged that the Chinese
  had sabotaged part of the Japanese-controlled
  South Manchurian Railway
• The Japanese invaded Manchuria and gained control
  of the city of Mukden (now Shenyang) with its
  large Chinese garrison

8
Second War1937-1945

• They set up a puppet government and renamed the
  region Manchukuo
• In response to Chinese resistance, in 1932 the
  Japanese attacked Shanghai and pillaged the
  countryside
• The League of Nations branded Japan an aggressor
  in October and Japan withdrew from the league
  several months later
• During the next few years Japanese forces in
  Manchuria exerted military pressure in northern
  China and by 1935 had moved into parts of Chahar
  (now part of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region)
  and Hebei provinces

9
Undeclared War

• In July 1937 a serious clash between Chinese and
  Japanese troops at the Marco Polo Bridge near
  Beijing precipitated a full-scale, though
  undeclared, war between the two countries
• The threat posed by Japan temporarily united the
  Kuomintang (KMT) and the Chinese Communist Party
  (CCP) in an uneasy political truce. The Chinese
  were hampered by their lack of industrial bases
  and well-trained army officers and enlisted men
• The Japanese quickly captured the major cities in
  northern China, including the KMT capital of
  Nanjing

10
Undeclared War

• In 1938 the Japanese also seized Hankou (now part
  of Wuhan) in central China and Guangzhou in the
  south
• KMT leader Chiang Kai-shek led his armies
  westward into the interior and established the
  new wartime capital at Chongqing, in Sichuan
  province.
• The Japanese were able to cripple the Chinese
  economy and isolate Chiangs forces by capturing
  the entire coastal strip of China and cutting off
  communications with the interior
• The Chinese, however, continued to resist the
  Japanese

11
World War-II

• In Asia the Second Sino-Japanese War was a
  prelude to World War II, just as the Spanish
  Civil War had been to the war in Europe
• In 1940 Italy, Germany, and Japan established an
  alliance known as the Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis.
• On December 7, 1941, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor,
  Hawaii
• The next day the United States declared war on
  Japan

12
World War-II

• As a result, desperately needed supplies and
  troops began to pour into China from both the
  United States and Great Britain
• At the same time the dispersion of many Japanese
  troops to other battlegrounds in the Pacific
  theater relieved the pressure on China
• Fighting against the Japanese continued in China
  until Japan surrendered to the Allies in August
  1945 after atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima
  and Nagasaki