WW2 - Second Sino-Japanese War, 1941-1945

[@BjornHeiden]

This war is often overshadowed or even completely ignored in European and American schools, so not many people know of it’s importance. Thank you Eastory for showing this war in such detail.

[@Sahd079]

I just learned the Battle of Britain, the evacuation of Dunkirk, pearl harbour Stalingrad and D day. Even the European theatre is neglected by schools but that might be different from country to country.

[@yatsumleung8618]

Not much better on our side. This portion of Chinese history is often taught in a very patriotic way which emphasize on the suffering of the people, the aggression of the Japanese and the struggle of the communist guerilla, but not so much about the Nationalist regulars. You see the CCP makes movies about the communist 8th Route Army, but rarely about the regulars.

[@moonlighthalf7378]

@@yatsumleung8618 以前的教材是那样的，但现在正面抗战和敌后抗战篇幅一样多了

[@BjornHeiden]

@@Sahd079 My son went to school in America and they completely brushed over most of the war, like the eastern front and the Chinese front was almost completely ignored. They focused more on d-day and 1944-5 and very specific battles in the pacific, such as Iwo Jima and Okinawa.

[@BjornHeiden]

@@yatsumleung8618 The Americans do more or less the same thing. Only the events in the entire war that could be used for propaganda are taught, such as d-day and the battle of Okinawa or midway. The eastern front is almost completely ignored and so too is the Second sino-Japanese war.

[@tiborhelienek]

Wau, really great. This was really blank spot of history for me.

[@Eastory]

Glad to hear that these little videos can actually educate 🙂

[@drakmatheism]

@@Eastory You made the video after 3 months, congratulations from Spain

[@mappingidiot3894]

@@Eastory what do you use to draw?

[@linlawson1530]

Imagine invading a country that is actively fighting itself, faces missive corruption, and are behind in technology for at least two decades and still loses.

[@Fronzel41]

War is expensive and Japan didn't have the money for a protracted war. The experiance of getting the Russians to give up in the Russo-Japanese War seems to have poisoned the Japanese military with wishful thinking of always being able to repeat that result.

[@incognito-px3dz]

the allies did all the heavy lifting lmao. China was dogshit

[@hazzmati]

They lost due to the Americans obliterating their fleet, encroaching on their home territory, throwing atom bombs on 2 of their cities and the soviets invading Manchuria with a massive army. China would never have been able to kick out the invaders themselves.

[@lolasdm6959]

@@Fronzel41 It was mostly a matter of manpower for the Japanese, they don't have enough to occupy China even if they can win the battles.

[@lolasdm6959]

@@hazzmati That wasn't the point, the Japanese would struggle to occupy China even had they won.

[@CrasusC]

Well done Eastory for this well explained summary of the Chinese theatre of WWII. I had followed you for nearly 2 years now, but was still very excited when you started to make a series on this important war that shaped the history of modern China. You even touched on event that I wasn’t aware, like the nationalists’ planned offensive to re-take Guangzhou. Look forward to the next episode about the Chinese Civil War and your take on it.

[@XhuwagKangEpal]

Imagjne if CHINA wouldn't become a COMMUNIST . Well just IMAGINE

[@reich2126]

@@CrasusC well the ruler still matters cos it is and likely will continue to be a major geopolitical issue for many decades Also the dude above is just copy pasting the same subcomment in every comment

[@mastermirror3888]

@@CrasusC Good point. Ruling such a large and diverse country that has hundreds of million people would be very challenging. I don't think KMT would able to abandon authoritarian policy in 50 years. China tried democracy long before KMT's rise to power, but it was a huge failure that made China crumbled into many factions.

[@booaks2980]

@@XhuwagKangEpal Chiang Kai shek in Taiwan was also a dictator regardless

[@99estoc99]

@@CrasusC Who knows if the warlords/factions would rise up against Chiang again after he united the mainland...

[@williamwu8452]

I’m so glad you covered the 2nd sino japanese war because it meant a lot to my people and not many KZbinrs talk about this war

[@jerikmitchell7575]

Glad to learn about it !

[@GEO_ANIMATOR]

Bing chillin 👍

[@wuhaninstituteofvirology5226]

There is a strategic mistake in this video. Not all the best KMT military units were abroad, from the top 5 military units of the KMT (1st Army, 5th Army, 6th Army, 18th Army, 74th Army) the 18th Army and the 74th Army (the most decorated unit of the KMT) were never abroad.

[@dengist8172]

It is also a very important event for decades to come as it still shapes politics in China. As we enter a new cold war it would be useful to learn about this event to understand future geopolitical dynamics.

[@sresaz8623]

@@GEO_ANIMATOR i know about the meme but, this is inapprioate since its one of the China dark history and this is taIKins about both roc and prc

[@sakaijin7270]

Well done. Currently, the only video of the Sino-Japanese war that has been so precise and accurate shows the deployment of divisions. I hope you can make a video about the civil war and the Korean War in the future. Those two wars shape the geopolitics of East Asia until now.

[@Eastory]

Thank you for the kind words! Glad to be able to contribute. As for the upcoming videos, it took a lot of time to research the Second Sino-Japanese war, which hurt the upload schedule and I feel that I must do some less research intense content before we can visit East Asia again.

[@porksterbob]

Though it should be noted that Japanese divisions are 5-8 times larger than Chinese ones.

[@walterthecat2145]

You are my favourite when it comes to large operations

[@alexalex-om9ic]

times changes.

[@tescomealdeal9901]

I believe Eastory should take a well deserved break before moving on to other wars, personally I’d like to see the Napoleonic Wars done but I’m not to decide that, either way, whatever comes out I’m sure will be amazing!

[@Eastory]

Your faith is encouraging. But a break?! That is unheard of in the land of KZbin! The show must and will go on!

[@Spanish_Conquistador]

@@Eastory thats sad

[@z701062001]

1895-1945 Taiwan is a territory of Japan

[@wampastompastomp]

You brought up some really good points that western literature has a tendency to overlook, including the fact the Chinese received a minuscule of Allied military aid, that much of that aid was used to reinforce American airfields and not the Chinese army, and that the best Chinese army were in Burma to open up a land route, instead of in China proper where they could've been used to fight the Japanese in 1944. Your video is so good. It is such a breath of fresh air from the usual "Chiang was hoarding supplies to fight the communists instead of the Japanese" from most other western literature. Well done sir.

[@akriegguardsman]

He still kinda tried to deal with the communists, both sides knew they need to fight afterwards, biggest problem was jian jieshi accepting the use of Japanese officers into his army, this was not well received within his army and he lost popularity Contrary to popular belief jiang jieshi was stronger than the communists after the war but after the first year armies of the kmt started to defect in mass to the communists

[@BachelorChowFlavour]

Even in this video though, it's pretty clear that China's involvement in the "Sino"-Japanese war was surprisingly minor considering that it was right in the middle of it all.

[@SaintlyAussie]

@@BachelorChowFlavour Yep. The Chinese didn't do much. The 2.5 million casualties taken by Japan were all own goals.

[@BachelorChowFlavour]

@@SaintlyAussie I think more Chinese people were massacred by the Japanese than that. I am referring only to military importance.

[@lolasdm6959]

Chiang was still hoarding supplies, hence why they didn't conduct large counter offensives against the Japanese, because the Americans will force them to surrender.

[@randomobserver8168]

Well, they were recognized as one of the Big Five for three main reasons: 1. America said so. 2. The Allies needed a big friendly Asian power to replace defeated, unfriendly Japan and fill up the western Pacific shoreline with something other than chaos. 3. China IS huge and sooner or later its size and population would count. Still didn't work out the way the Allies hoped.

[@Eastory]

That is a pretty good summary.

[@fargr5926]

Check Yalta treaty.

[@LinuxLuddite]

But after china was overrun by communist, there was talk of offering the seat to india but india thought that was being unfair to china so rejected it

[@lbnkns7202]

@@LinuxLuddite 印度付出了什么？印度甚至都不是靠自己的力量独立的。。。

[@xiaogangdasha]

So all three reasons not include the war effort ? 🤔 But the whole video is about the their war so how can you missed that 😳 Edit, the UN is created to communicate between super powers to prevent future world wars. It's a direct result of WW2. It's not some community created in peacetime for chant or something...

[@danielnavarro537]

On September 2nd, 1945, at Tokyo Harbor, Japan, USS Missouri, General MacArthur gave a small speech, "It is my earnest hope and indeed the hope of all mankind that from this solemn occasion a better world shall emerge out of the blood and carnage of the past - a world founded upon faith and understanding - a world dedicated to the dignity of man and the fulfillment of his most cherished wish - for freedom, tolerance and justice." Godspeed to those who perished in the Asiatic-Pacific Theater of World War Two.

[@craftycurate]

Excellent as always - concise, well presented, beautifully animated, highly educational.

[@Eastory]

Just like your comment :)

[@kristiawanindriyanto5765]

Nice informative videos of the Sino-Japanese wars, surprising to know that even if late 1945 Japanese still hold many Chinese territories even as its front in Pacific were collapsing

[@vicviper4441]

@lati long As expected to be honest. In the end, the US is the one that lords over them while China and Russia completely blocked their future chance to rise to power militarily for the next century. That surely makes them pick the "right" target they want to bark against while waving tails to the master.

[@EroticOnion23]

@lati long That's like saying Germany lost to USSR and not USA/UK lol...😆

[@Nikkikkikkiz]

He made a video on 1895?

[@lamlam-bw7ev]

Germany lost WWI despite not being occupied itself and still occupying French soil

[@tonjjjmol]

因为我们没有能力做到反攻日本😅我们的装备武器太落后了，不是我们不想打，20多万日本人进攻70万中国人，请注意，是20多万日本人进攻，是进攻，进攻70万的中国人，用1到2个月的时间，轻松击败中国军队😅

[@nayohn2140]

Yes! As others have said, this topic is not nearly discussed with the importance it had during the war. Thanks for the vid Eastory!

[@hwg5039]

10:28 France having a place in the UN security council was just an insult to other Allied nations.

[@hikkivillain6009]

France got in the SC because De Gaulle made a deal with Stalin (Dec 1944). France was supposed to act as a deterrent to US-UK in Europe, because De Gaulle had discrepancies with them. And anyway, there had to be a country in the SC representing continental Europe.

[@lolasdm6959]

Why? France remains a great power despite their failure in world war 2, they still maintained their presence in Africa, they still have the largest army in Western Europe and they quickly became a nuclear power too.

[@BVRNERMVSIC]

@@hikkivillain6009 France got in the SC because Britain wanted a fellow colonial power with them. They didn't want to be left alone.

[@jamesgordon2788]

The French were very important in the defeat of the Germans they fought in every front and by the end of the war had one of the largest armies in the world

[@Lawnmower737]

What were they going to do instead, give it to one of the Germany’s or somewhere else like Brazil?

[@wargamingchina9174]

Stirling effort mate, it does make sense to present the war from a Japanese strategic viewpoint rather than getting mired in the strategies of the Nationalists and the Communists.I also like how you grasp that the real target of Japans 1944 offensive in China was the railway transport system not just the capture of airfields alone, many historians fail to understand this. The War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression 1931-1945 is indeed a fascinating, misunderstood and often ignored (in the west) part of what would become WW2. Cheers

[@Eastory]

Appreciate you acknowledging these details. It's an honor to have an educated audience. I would have gone more into the strategies of the Chinese, but there was too much conflicting information and I felt that I did not understand the situation well enough to speak about it.

[@wargamingchina9174]

@@Eastory Conflicting,contradictory and confusing are all good words to use to understand the difficulty of comprehending the war from the Chinese viewpoint. Ive been exploring and studying Chinas war (as an armchair general and wargamer) for over a dozen years now. You might find my channel interesting although my production standards are nowhere near yours. Cheers

[@fargr5926]

@@Eastory A good entry point is to understand Chiang's strategies and targets of the war, his pre-war preparation and diplomatic relation with Germany. Communists' strategies were not really against Japan, rather to survive behind enemy line and build up its own army.

[@punanchnay]

Thank you Eastory for another well-made video on China's role in WW2! I suppose the main reason for the historical neglect in this area is the Communist victory in China in 1949 and America needing a new cold war ally in Japan. The latter also successfully rebranded itself as a pacifist nation after the war.

[@stoneruler]

True. Japan loves to potray itself somehow to be the victim. Quite sick.

[@punanchnay]

Yeah it's either not remembered or remembered as being victims.

[@hexingcan]

@@stoneruler And that's why East Asia will never forgive Japan

[@zihanzhang3596]

What, Japan is a "model of pacifism"? Do you mean that the Yasukuni Shrine in Japan is still dedicated to war criminals from World War II?

[@-..-..-..-]

@@hexingcan I am Taiwanese and I hate Communist China more than Imperial Japan.

[@roguestargun]

I'm Chinese American, and despite the fact my family was bouncing around different parts of China during the war, this is the first time I've ever seen the map for this theater illustrated so clearly. If more Chinese folks in China proper understood what the situation was in 1944, they might have a very different perception of how important American intervention was in preventing China from being completely conquered in the 1940s.

[@caseblue2232]

Don't let Chinese propaganda misguided you my man. A lot of Chinese I know, including myself and my family still thinks it is the US prevented China from failing. Indeed, a lot Chinese took it as a matter of national pride and insisted that China could fought alone. I personally dobt think so, and dont think it is a problem to rely on a foreign ally in a time such as this.

[@infinummjb]

@@caseblue2232 Chinese people may have a different opinion on the matter than the Chinese government, but it's the governments view that gets promoted on the international stage. Right now China is seen by the world as hostile to the outside world and certainly towards USA and to a some degree to Europe as well. It's good to know there are Chinese that value Allied help during the war. However, until Chinese people are able to freely voice their mind I doubt China as a country will be perceived favorably on the world's stage. It's a shame because China seems like a great country of mostly wise people.

[@DonVigaDeFierro]

I am sure they knew that before the cultural revolution. Let's not forget that the China that fought so valiantly against the Japanese empire only exists now as a vestigial state in an island.

[@johnfellower8018]

Be careful making those assumptions because China got caught in a civil war where a significant portion did not fight. The Communists had the Japanese sieged in towns and cities and controlled the countryside (majority of China).

[@hoodrobin4397]

China is a member of Allied, who contained majority of Japanese land force. You could also say without US, GB and France would be destroied by German.

[@XuguangLeng]

WWII can’t be fully understood without proper understanding Russia/Soviet’s role. I have a lot respect for Eastory being Russia neutral.

[@immanuelhall4577]

Yea becase before japan invaded china in 1937 there were two factions in japan they were debating what to do in the future. Prepare for war with the soviet union or go to war with china

[@jimmothypakistan5223]

The japanese actually did have a single condition, They refused to surrender unless the emperor would be safe from prosecution from war crimes, which the americans granted, ending the war

[@alexanderpozdnyakov3189]

As always, best videos on war history I've ever seen on KZbin are on this channel. Clear story line, animation that goes perfectly in line with the story, no overcomplicated language. Thanks a lot and keep doing like that, dear Eastory!

[@Eastory]

You are too kind :) Thank you! Happy to keep doing it.

[@alexalex-om9ic]

nice

[@robotlauncher1233]

I hope you give use the same detailed explaination between Ukraine and Russia

[@Young_Baller7]

Well thank you for teaching and uploading this video. I’m a Chinese-American and I also learned something new from this video. My teacher expects me to tell my whole class about my family’s experience in this war

[@eluc_s2510]

Thank you, this was a great series and must have been hell to research. One of the most interesting and important fronts of the war, but nobody until now has mapped and summarized it this well.

[@victoryfirst06]

From all theatres in WW2 the Pacific is the one where I know the least about, in particular the 2nd-Sino-Japanese war. The only thing I knew was: Japan attacked China, China stronk, stalemate, Japan gets nuked, China wins. Now I know a lot more about why it was a stalemate, what the Japanese plans were, and why China wasn't crushed by the Japanese. Thank you Eastory, for educating me and many others about this forgotten, but interesting topic!

[@林木老寄卖]

中国之所以没有被击垮 我个人觉得有三点 第一中国士兵的英勇抵抗 不怕牺牲 第二中国的国土辽阔争取了很多时间 第三 战争中后期的国际援助 当时盟军意识到中国战区的重要性 如果中国垮了 日本将有更多的军力投送到其他战场 当然不管援助的出发点是什么 都是好的极大的帮助中国抗战 只不过我们需要讲出客观事实

[@glorytotheonewholookforwar6486]

​@@user-pn3im5sm7k You just re-defined the word "Near Dies" it is in Danger, but not dear to die.

[@tianwang1200]

@@user-pn3im5sm7kthis kid goes to every sino-Japanese war video to glorify japan and spread hatred to China. Classic sinophobia

[@smurfacc7779]

@user-pn3im5sm7k this kid is in every sino-Japanese video glorifying the horrendous actions done by IJA while being racists towards Chinese people. What a pitiful individual.

[@slkjvlkfsvnlsdfhgdght5447]

now i finally understand the chinese front! it's amazing how little people talk about such a front of epic scale

[@koboldprime2257]

As always a 10/10. Some folks love to leave the Red Army out of the equations of why japan surrendered. The US probably wouldn't commit a full scale invasion due to the expected high mortality, but the Japanese new better about the Russians. Not one reason to surrender, just a compounding factor among many.

[@leexingha]

when Japan realized that theres nothing waiting for them but utter defeat, they choose to accept US surrender terms rather than wait for more nukes and consequently the brunt of Russia. no one knows what will happen if Russia is the one made them surrender, there will probably no monarchy in Japan today. US probably offered a better candy to the Japan monarch

[@Lawnmower737]

America was well and truly prepared to launch a naval invasion of Japan of over five million men plus another 1 million mean of Britain under the name of operation Downfall. It would’ve started in November of 1945 for the invasion of Kyushu and in early 1946 for Tokyo itself. Purple Hearts for wounded were being mass produced at the time, which is why the hearts given to this day are all from 1945. They expected many casualties from both sides. Thankfully this option didn’t happen, and the war ended sooner.

[@PaganMin-1966]

RIP for those chinese soldiers that died defending their country against foreign invasion

[@ДенисКазаков-д7ъ]

No)

[@HHZX]

台湾问题一直都是中国内部问题 大家都知道 却偏偏希望台湾分裂出去 是抱着什么样的心理大家都明白。就不要口口声声还好意思说什么道义问题 简直可笑

[@naruoze]

台湾本来应该归属中国。 但因为中国现在是没有自由民主和人权的邪恶的独裁政权。所以我希望台湾人民享受自由和民主，不要回归中国。 就好比任何爱孩子的家长，如果自己贫穷得连上学和营养都无法提供，那宁愿舍弃孩子交给有爱又富裕的养父母，不是吗？ 只有恶毒的人才会想，“不管怎样反正你是我的所有物，我吃树皮你也得跟我一起吃树皮”，哈哈哈。

[@dr.s2491]

Wow, this is really so good and insightful! Thank you!

[@greatstar330]

Anyone notice that Thailand is the only country not conquer by Japan? Because of their hospitality to Japan and open door to Japan, Japan was able to go into Malaysia from Thailand.

[@basedneutral1173]

it was called Malaya during those times not Malaysia yet

[@greatstar330]

@@basedneutral1173 you r right !

[@brianyang5075]

They picked the wrong team and have to give up land at the end.

[@michiru2hell]

Didn't Japan invade Thailand and forced it into joining its side?

[@stryrok4216]

Next up: russo Ukrainian war of 2022 i would really love to see it

[@jonathantseu6515]

It’s interesting to see how Japan, as a maritime power, adopted a strategy a typical land power would use to try to secure resources due to its defeat on the sea and America’s unrestricted submarine warfare. Back in 1942, the proposed Operation Number 5 which aimed more at making the ROC capitulate was the priority on the continent.

[@alexalex-om9ic]

japan will be bigger soon.

[@LadyLiberty-c8i]

@@alexalex-om9ic in your imperialist dream. China has nukes now.

[@Jean_Jacques148]

@@alexalex-om9ic Keep dreaming

[@agentepolaris4914]

If only they didn't sent their whole aviation to Midway

[@CLARKE176]

The commonwealth, Dutch and others played a part in the submarine war as well.

[@tincan6862]

After the Ukraine war is over, maybe eastory can make a video on it?

[@Funkadelic74]

Great work as always, also brillant commentary as usual. I have not been aware of this part of history, because focus always was on pacific war and the final nukes. Thanks for presenting this in the most entertaining way !

[@Artii11283]

It's really sad that the US has still dropped nuclear bombs, even though it looks like a clear defeat for Japan

[@aAverageFan]

It is because the US didn't want to partition Japan with the Soviets like they did with Germany.

[@Fronzel41]

Japan's offensive to neutralize American bomber bases in China was called Operation Ichi-Go. There's a good video on it here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/q16keoKKftd8Z9k

[@CrasusC]

Ah, yes, the military history visualised’s famous video about Ichi-Go.

[@dragooll2023]

What happened to Rick rolls?

[@thecrusaderhistorian9820]

Thank you for a great video! I learned alot of new things especially how undersupplied the Chinese forces were.

[@Pmarmagne]

Excellent video. Every time I've studied the pacific theatre of WW2, nothing was ever mentioned about China's role.

[@almcmemeshack8443]

Love it, especially the details in your maps

[@Striderly]

Actually is not that detailed, just in the nutshell, but I still got the idea

[@atza6126]

can you make one for the upcoming russia vs ukraine conflict?

[@Debre.]

That one's gonna be straight fire, I hope he will.

[@superpowerdragon]

10:33 the 4 nation to be given permanent seats in the UNSC is actually USA, UK, USSR and China, not France, because France lost the war and surrendered. The four mentioned nation are called 4 police men, you can look it up. France was only added because UK feared europeans would have too little power in the new world order.

[@hsgame4088]

France was kind of seen as a collaberator for the axis even though it continued the fight under the free france flag and agenda.

[@francogiobbimontesanti3826]

Originally it was supposed to be Brazil not France. But the soviets thought France would be more of an ally to them while Brazil was too aligned with the US.

[@jamesgordon2788]

The French had the fourth largest army in Europe by the end of the war

[@Lawnmower737]

Just because they lost the initial fight and surrendered shouldn’t bar France from being a power on the world stage. That’s like saying Russia should’ve been considered not a major power in its defeat after WW1, also that France should’ve never been risen again to power status after Napoleon’s defeat, or that Britain’s power status should’ve left after the American Revolution. France after the war quickly bounced back to being a strong European power.

[@miliba]

0:01 CHYNAH

[@fuckyoutubeusernamechange]

Thank you so much for covering this theater of the war. I'm now really looking forward to the Civil War part.

[@leefromshanghai4456]

同胞耶，我觉得up可以了解一下敌后战场

[@jerolvilladolid]

Whenever northern china fights southern china, the north always wins. Communists vs kuomintang, qing vs ming, yuan vs song, jin dynasty vs a dynasty in the south I forgot

[@大清蛙]

ming vs yuan，ROC vs qing，the southern win

[@大清蛙]

CCP vs ROC is not a war between north and south，KMT contorl most of northern city at first，in fact，is a war between proletarian and KMT

[@karlkun717]

Mao was born in Hunan the province which literally has the term south in its name.

[@spiderduckpig]

What about the kmt's northern expedition? The KMT invaded from Guangzhou and went north, and won

[@napoleonibonaparte7198]

The communists barely did anything substantial to help in the war and waited out for the ROC to exhaust itself from fighting Japan.

[@xBlackWind]

That's a lie, number of PLA troops who died fighting the Japanese was nearly the same as the number of US troops dead in the whole ww2.

[@WilcherLLC]

At some point you are going to have to do the 2022 Russo-Ukranian war for us

[@Eastory]

I was thinking of the first video being a comparison between Poland 1939 and Ukraine 2022.

[@WilcherLLC]

Literally beging for it right now lol

[@leefromshanghai4456]

To be honest, we Chinese thank those martyrs. Without them, there would be no China today 说实话，我们中国人感谢那些先烈，没有他们就没有现在的中国

[@brianyang5075]

The Soviet Union was coming in 1945, China probably going to be more communist if America abandon the pacific.

[@kompila]

Japan must have been a really superior power back in the day. Taking 3 huge powers to bring a collapse to its empire.

[@losjx]

Thank you for showing such detailed information on the history that is often overlooked.

[@BurningSpear213]

Very detailed and well-made video on this topic, really appreciate it especially since this is an area that's neglected in Western media but hugely important in shaping the modern world. I hope you make more on Asia in the last century. There are a couple of details that aren't quite accurate, however (I'm an American who's read a fair bit on this topic). 1. The Atomic bombings were not done in preparation for Operation Downfall (the planned invasion of the home islands), but rather were an attempt to avoid it. President Truman in particular very much wanted to avoid the bloodshed and destruction that would result from invading Japan and hoped the bombings would be enough to "shock and awe" Japan into surrendering. Hiroshima and Nagasaki were chosen as targets because they had some strategic value but weren't the most populous or important cities that Japan had. The bombings were about sending a message rather than inflicting damage. 2. The Japanese attack on Midway was not in response to the Doolittle Raid but rather had been planned since Pearl Harbor. The attack on Pearl Harbor did not go nearly as well as Japan hoped, since its main objective was to destroy or cripple American carriers, which, as it happened, weren't there at the time. So Japan sent its main fleet to Midway in the hope of hunting down and destroying them as well as taking over the air base on Midway island itself, which was quite important and would allow them to attack American targets more directly, especially Hawaii.

[@jamestonbellajo]

Thank you so much for this. As someone who is very familiar with the Second Sino-Japanese War between 1937 and 1941, it’s great to see someone talk about the remaining 4 years as they were important in tying down the Japanese and hamstringing their manpower in the Pacific War. This definitely should be covered more and I love seeing your take on how it played out geographically.

[@ZZZ2573]

Wow, your recent videos is much more elaborate and aesthetically attractive. It's always great to see the quality rising with each release

[@Eastory]

I completely overhauled, how the map overlays work for this one. I am happy that it worked out well!

[@zeissiez]

As WW III is looming, I hope people learn from history. Peace.

[@darklazerx7913]

Will you do a video on the Russian invasion of Ukraine?

[@OnishkaPro]

please make , Ukraine 2022

[@KnightofUkraine]

🇹🇼🤜🏻🇯🇵🤛🏻🇺🇸

[@terryliu9015]

The neutrality in Eastory’s videos is so good

[@anshan180]

作为一个中国人，我根本不敢想象，有人把日本作为二战的受害者，他们是彻底的的法西斯帝国，两颗原子弹并不是冤枉他们。

[@xingyuchen9012]

中国伤亡了10%的人口，而日本制只控制了一半的地区。那些占领区就是人间地狱，破坏堪比欧洲的东线。如果真的占领全国，即便中国有4亿人也扛不住这样工业化的屠杀。

[@Autonova]

Everyone knows about the 0.2 million Japanese lost in the atomic bombings, but hardly anyone talks about the 3 to 14 million Chinese civilians massacred in Japan’s war crimes

[@XuguangLeng]

Chiang Kaishek’s focus was Chinese communist, not Japanese. Not to be outdone, Mao Zedong was secretly collaborating with Japanese. After the war, all Japanese war criminals in China pretty much go free, only those committed war crimes against American/British got punished. This is the sad fact.

[@Grabacr-pl3wy]

Man actually visualizing how large the conquered territories were it’s no wonder Japan got stuck in China. Even if they got the natural resources they needed would they have been able to hold on long term?

[@tawx]

Glory to China❤

[@ziwenwang5553]

China has the most brave soldiers but without weapons : (

[@death5913]

Nepal has the bravest soldier

[@death5913]

The Chinese did terrible in the opium war

[@yuanyuanxi262]

@@death5913 weren’t you caught talking to a 13 year old

[@navyseal1689]

Always the countries that can't build their own stuff have the "bravest" soldier award

[@ziwenwang5553]

@@navyseal1689 "Bravest" is not an award, however, may be an award to you, lmao

[@PakBallandSami]

i had alot but know i have nothing life feel meaning less

[@harveykorso]

Damn. This is fantastic content. You do a very good job at writing and presenting these events. To you and anyone that helps you, I say 'Bravo"

[@Eastory]

This comment makes me feel warm :)

[@franklin4647]

I really don't understand why some people say that in the Sino-Japanese War, Japanese were victims but Chinese were not. Did they ever have history class?

[@小马程序员]

Many Japanese think so, and their government has revised the history books.

[@stoneruler]

Its really tragic for the Chinese. They couldn't get access to US supplies like Britain or USSR. They suffered the longest period of war time in the allied camp, from 1937-1945. Their turning point came in 1945 when the war was pretty much decided. In the end, all that effort went to waste.

[@punanchnay]

Agreed it was really tragic!

[@燕北山前萬梅山莊主人]

1931-1945.

[@enderreaper1482]

It wasn’t a waste. The fact that they did not surrender saved the Chinese from genocide

[@fargr5926]

Not all wasted. Even though China is controlled by CCP, the old nation used the war to wake up and rebuilt its new identity.

[@iamcoolboi111]

It really shows that we couldn't count on foreign powers to "save" us, and that we could only really rely on ourselves, CPC does however make this possible, to give you an example of it they managed to make a cannon out of oil barrels, which is easy and cheap to make for a country like china at the time, and could multiply the firepower of the chinese army, which could nullify the japanese firepower advantage. They managed to do this with limited resources. If they had the nationalist's resources prewar, them coming up with other ways to nullify Japanese advantages (Gas attacks, etc) dosent seem too out of reach.

[@zhubotang927]

China was not industrialized at the time, weak and plagued by internal strife. It wasn’t until 1950s under the Sino Soviet agreement, heavy industries were established. Had China had closer cooperation with the US during WWII. History would’ve turned out very differently. Unfortunately, communists took over in the subsequent civil war and China immediately fought US in the Korean War. Had there been a land supply route to even receive 5% of what Soviet had received, Chinese public would have looked towards US for a post war future and not that backward Communist regime.

[@napoleonibonaparte7198]

If the Allies kept supporting the Republic of China well into the civil war, maybe the ROC could’ve been saved and Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and more would’ve been prevented.

[@fizkallnyeilsem]

Lol if only things happened that way, reality had other plans, Mao plans

[@kindasimpson9704]

You can’t support civil wars (in principle), otherwise the big boys gonna join in, namely the Soviets, Europe gonna be in another war, that the West can’t afford. This happened to Korea, they were having their own fights, but US wanted to decide the country’s future so the Chinese joined in the Korea war as well, ended pretty badly for US.

[@CrasusC]

Typical historical revisionist thinking. History doesn’t happen in a vacuum. There was a reason the allies didn’t support the KMT. The US administration back in 1940 hated the KMT’s guts, they saw Chiang as an intransigent dictator who did not want to fight the Japanese. In contrast, due to the Dixie Mission Report and reports by War Journalists such as Edgar Snow, the US public saw the Communists as freedom/resistance fighters akin to Yugoslavia’s Tito. Under such circumstances good luck getting enough political support in the US to continue the support for the KMT. In fact if it were not for the Korean War and the start of the Cold War, the Truman administration were perfect happy to let the KMT to be destroyed by the CCP.

[@Lawnmower737]

@@kindasimpson9704 It didn’t end badly. The outcome was unfavorable for both sides. North Korea almost completely beat out the south and later on South Korea, US, and UN troops almost completely knocked out North Korea. It ended almost right back where it began.

[@stephmod7434]

Make the balkan front in ww2

[@DodobirdBrand]

But according to Japanese's opinion, Japanese government just "stop war". They never "surrender" to the allies.

[@ellenation2294]

Lol according to Japan there was no war just Japanese superiority

[@luke2029]

It’s a shame China is often a side note when studying wwII, I had no idea that the Chinese mobilised forces for the 1941 Burma invasion! It paints a more complete picture on just how important the Burma road was and the cooperation between Chinese and allied forces that I previously thought only went as far as American air volunteers

[@XuguangLeng]

China played very minor role in defeating Japan. 99% of POWs in China was captured by Soviets. Soviet destroyed more Japanese army in two weeks than Chinese did in 8 years. KMT had reached tacit truce with Japanese after the start of WWII, Chinese Communist were secretly collaborating with Japanese. V-J Day was never big in China for a very good reason.

[@moonlighthalf7378]

@@XuguangLeng 来源呢？张口就来？😅

[@moonlighthalf7378]

That guy is a troll and liar. Don't mind him

[@artanisplays3982]

@@XuguangLeng That is true to a degree, but not 99%. China was unable to do jack shit for 8 years because their industry was captured, it was only after the allies started sending large amounts of supplies did China get the heavy equipments to beat Japan. It was literally said in the video, I am not sure about you but I'm pretty sure V-J day is also very big in China, although since China at the time was controlled by the KMT, CCP wouldn't allow such things That truce was probably because the Chinese couldn't attack nor does the Japanese, if Japan attacked they'd be over extended, the Chinese couldn't attack It wasn't the Communists who were working with Japan it was Wang Jingwei

[@XuguangLeng]

@@artanisplays3982 Roosevelt and Churchill are decent men, they gave Soviet a lot of materials, and showed a lot of respect for Stalin. Because Russian fought bravely. On the other hand, they excluded China and unilaterally decided at Yalta to restore Russia’s privileges and interests in Manchuria, including lease of Port Arthur and railway, in exchange for Russia joining the war against Japan, then forced down Chiang Kaishek’s throat. Why? Because they were disgusted by the performance of both KMT and CCP.

[@votesus9819]

Excellent work with the animation and detailed narrating.

[@titanttl4830]

I love these short stories with so much vital information

[@randomobserver8168]

Amazing to think Japan thought they could pull that off. Still, given what their 1944 offensive achieved in the southeast, if they had also managed their hoped for Sichuan offensive, that would have pretty much reduced Chinese forces to underpopulated, remote albeit vastly large backwaters like Tibet and Xinjiang, or some holdouts in Yunnan mountains. In that sense, Japan was tantalizing closer to their goal than Germany would ever be in Russia.

[@胡育昆]

You have to think about the terrain. The Sichuan Basin in China is one of the most important bastions of fertile land with 60 to 70 million people, and the basin is surrounded by extremely steep mountains. What the Japanese could achieve in central China could not be replicated in Sichuan.

[@deadby15]

I don’t understand why the imperial Japan didn’t try to produce oil in Manchuria. AFAIK, Manchuria produces oil, coal, and iron ore. Then, they didn’t have to invade South Asian European colonies, which led to the empire’s downfall.

[@胡育昆]

@@deadby15 The oil fields in northeast China were unexploitable in the 1940s because of a lack of technology. It took China 20 years to successfully mine it with Soviet technology.

[@deadby15]

@@胡育昆 thx! I didn’t know that…

[@胡育昆]

@@deadby15 In fact, the Japanese were so backward in their oil industry that even if they conquered Indonesia, they would not be able to take advantage of the oil fields.

[@lukebull4451]

WHERE IS BRILLIANT PLANS TO WIN WW2 BRITISH

[@uryen921]

There's a map error, Taiwan was not part of the Republic of China in 1942, it already ceded to Japan by the Qing dynasty after the first Sino- Japanese war. The Republic of China established in 1912, by then Taiwan was long gone.

[@VoidSpace9]

it was returned in 1945 to the nationalists, but the nationalists lost the civil war so all they had was taiwan, thus that is why taiwan is called the republic of china

[@the_feedle]

Tibet wasnt a part of China during the republican era

[@blazodeolireta]

it's an automatic like when a new video is out. Cheers from Italy!

[@Eastory]

Thank you for the vote of confidence! Cheers from Eastonia!

[@XuguangLeng]

V-J Day was never celebrated during my years in China. I gave President Xi a lot of credit for changing that. Was V-J Day celebrated in Taiwan during Chiang’s time?

[@uk4717]

Operation Ichi-Go is an operation conducted by the Japanese Army on the Chinese mainland from April 17th to December 10th, 1944 during the Sino-Japanese War. It was the last major offensive of the Japanese Army, which caused the National Revolutionary Army to be hit hard and affected during the Chinese Civil War. However, on the other hand, the United States is also mediating the conclusion of the Double Tenth Agreement with Chiang Kai-shek in order to avoid a civil war. According to a study by Barbara W. Tuchman, the results of this operation had a more significant impact on the subsequent war situation than the Japanese had imagined, and had a decisive impact on Japan's fate. According to it, Franklin Roosevelt has consistently strongly trusted and supported Chiang Kai-shek since the beginning of the war, and encouraged him in the war against Japan so that he would not drop out of the Allies in a single peace with Japan during the Cairo Conference. However, he said that he changed his mind because the front of Chiang Kai-shek collapsed due to this operation. In fact, Chiang Kai-shek has not been invited to important Allied conferences ("Yalta Conference" and "Potsdam Conference") since then. According to the Stilwell document, Roosevelt said, "Can China win?" Stilwell said, "There is no choice but to eliminate Chiang Kai-shek." During the 1944 Hengyang battle, he could not sleep at night and twice. He says he thought about suicide. The American side also planned to assassinate Chiang Kai-shek, and three methods of "poisoning", "aircraft incident", and "pretending to be suicide" were considered, but it was canceled in 1944 due to changes in the international situation such as Burma. The successor that the United States envisioned is Sun Fountain. As Roosevelt's Chief of Staff George Marshall and General Joseph Stilwell have long insisted, Chiang Kai-shek's army is actually a demoralized and corrupt organization that does not form an army. It became clear that he had no desire or ability to fight with the United States and other Allied forces. As a result, President Roosevelt changed the scenario of the operation against Japan from the conventional bombing of Japan and other countries from the air bases of mainland China to the one that MacArthur and others claimed to occupy the islands of the Pacific Ocean one after another. China was dismissed at the Yalta Conference, and the Allied nation's footsteps were disturbed, with angry Chiang Kai-shek presenting a peace plan to Japan against the will of the United States. The Japanese Operation Ichi-Go attack left the National Revolutionary Army with 750,000 casualties. This caused the Kuomintang to lose to the Communist Party in the civil war. China would not have been dominated by the dictatorship Communist Party if it had made peace with Japan and cooperated in protecting it from communism.

[@WorldUnity-dq4ln]

Why can’t Japanese trolls stop lying?

[@CartoonHistory]

Love to see how this channel has evolved over the last couple of years. Awesome!

[@peasant12345]

Well done! Could you do an episode of Chinese civil war which happened 2 years later?

[@marcusortnam]

Thank you for letting us know about the Japanese occupation is 1941-1945 as my counhry, Philippines, is also part of the occupation, and we want to learn more about that

[@黑骑士-i4u]

乌克兰🇺🇦要多向中国🇨🇳学习，坚持到最后才能赢得胜利。

[@robertpemberton3952]

The bombs werent to prepare for the landing, they were instead of the landing

[@Eddieheli]

It's just impossible for Japan to fight against two giants at the same time. Strategically they should have finished the war in China first and then think about the further military expansion, but they couldn't eventually, China is too large for Japan to eat all at once. However, they started another two fronts at the Pacific and South East Asia which made their defeat is inevitable.

[@fargr5926]

Japan's grand strategy was a disaster, its army and navy risked the nation for their departmental differences. Japan initially didn't want to expand the war beyond Manchu, but Chiang simply wouldn't let go Manchu, then Japan forgot its initial plan. Chiang wanted to rebuild China free of imperialism and communism, he partially succeeded.

[@scrowbasiri7449]

黄河決壊事件はないの？あれで日本は文字道理の泥沼の戦争になってしまった、、、

[@leogazebo5290]

I was blown away by how much you've improve keep it up bro.

[@Eastory]

Will do! Thank you for the acknowledgement!

[@CowrySeller]

真有意思，那你今天画的中国地图，套在二战中国头上

[@AlcasSin]

Eastory, can you provide the map for the Russian war with Ukraine in 2014?

[@AlcasSin]

I think there is a need for all of us in CEE to show it to the world.

[@kristijantoshevski630]

Can you do Chinese civil war?

[@colinadams5419]

I love this video. Though it's not accurate to say the bombs were preparation for Operation Downfall. They were an attempt to get Japan to surrender before the invasion. Otherwise, Japan would've defended the home islands to the last man, woman, and child.

[@yokochan7372]

Japan basically took the Chinese heartland most of what the couldn’t take was not the traditional heartland but rather xinjiang and insignificant territories the war was terrible atrocious and japan had yet. To pay for their crimes against Korea and china and the rest of Asia

[@Nate-fi7st]

A video on the Chinese Civil war would pretty interesting

[@hriata5384]

you don't mention the Japanese invasion of the tribals ppl of North East indians hills... in which the indian even abondedned its North East ppl thinking that it was loss... but the north east hold their grown without support fron central India Because.... India dosent want to interfere and was willing to sacrifice North East at that time..... even today the result of that betrayal from central the naga ppl (state) of North East India don't want to be a part of india... and demand seperated Country and mizoram state too insurgency started in india... but like Hiroshima and Nagasaki... indan Bomb miozram capital which make the ppl submit themselves under indian rule... Nagas too eventually are supressed but still the insurgency carried on till date.... this was also the time where china take over tibet... now we know why india is always neutral in worlds politics...and we know why india don't say a word in tibet issue during the time... because it was so busy taking over North East... and if u don't complain others atrocities nobody will complain ur atrocities.....so nobody speak for North East India or what the indan did to the tribals ppl during the time either.... tibet got sympathy from the world but states like Mizoram which was bombed by indan air force and Nagaland till today not much are known about them....

[@sepfms]

The following Chinese civil war is full of unexpected turns and surprises, where Americans helped the communist not suffering a total defeat. Can’t wait to see the video about that one. As always, you did an outstanding job! Thank you!

[@Eastory]

It's great to see the excitement over this topic. We'll do our best to give it justice. And your kind words are always appreciated :) Cheers!

[@焼肉師匠-m3u]

日本人としてもこの戦争を取り上げて貰えた事は非常に教育的だと思います。I think it is very educational for Japanese people to take up this war.

[@fargr5926]

This will be new teaching of history for sure. Who knows that US would dump China through Yalta treaty, left China in communism dire disaster, and rushed in Korean War and Vietnam war itself.

[@death5913]

@@焼肉師匠-m3u Don't they learn it at school?

[@焼肉師匠-m3u]

@@death5913 Of course I will learn

[@calintoma9646]

This cannel got so good

[@Noobmaster-ch7hr]

This 11 minute 53 second video contains more detailed information than a history book . I can imagine the hardwork to collect all the troop movements on both sides , must be hell of a research.

[@boboan2007]

So that's why China must defend against the first U.S.-led island chain