Look at this picture. It was taken on September 2, 1945—the day Japan surrendered and the Second World War came to an end. Today marks the 80th anniversary.
The event took place aboard the American battleship USS Missouri, which for the occasion had anchored in Tokyo Bay. Surrounding the vessel lay a large number of other U.S. warships, and overhead formations of aircraft circled. No one was to be in doubt about who was now in command.
The USS Missouri was a brand-new battleship, launched in January the year before. Yet it had already managed to take part in several of the war’s decisive battles. The official ceremony began at 9 a.m. local time and lasted only 23 minutes. Shortly before, Japan’s small delegation arrived—twelve stiff gentlemen staring forlornly at the ship’s freshly scrubbed teak deck.
Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu, dressed in a black morning coat and leaning on a cane from an old injury, hobbled forward to the table where the documents lay ready for signing. At his side stood General Yoshijiro Umezu, empowered to sign on behalf of the Japanese army.
Not a word was exchanged.
“There was a silence out there, a silence I had never before experienced in war,” remarked the ship’s captain, Stuart S. Murray. “Even with hundreds of men on deck, and all those ships around us, you could hear the pen scratching against the paper.”
Robert Trumbull, reporter for The New York Times, was also present: “The Japanese representatives looked like men who bore the burden of the whole world on their shoulders. They stood still, with expressionless faces, as they signed their country’s defeat.”
Then the Allied supreme commander in the Pacific, Douglas MacArthur, stepped forward in his simple khaki uniform. Before affixing his name to the document, he spoke a few chosen words, declaring that the war was now over and that the ceremony would mark the beginning of a new era. The agreement was also signed by representatives of other Allied nations, including China, Australia, France, and Great Britain.
At that time no one had a clear overview of the number of dead and fallen in Asia and the Pacific. Even today the figures remain uncertain, but historians estimate that Japan’s invasion and occupation of China alone resulted in between 14 and 20 million deaths. This included soldiers and a vast number of civilians who perished from famine and massacres. In Indonesia the death toll is estimated at 4 million, in the Philippines around 1 million, in Vietnam roughly the same. One could go on country by country. Japan too was severely afflicted, especially in the war’s final phase. Likely between 2.5 and 3 million Japanese were killed.
All told, the war in Asia and the Pacific may have cost between 25 and 30 million lives.
For China, the Second World War had begun as early as 1931, when the Japanese attacked Shanghai and occupied Manchuria, a vast region in the country’s northeast. But it was not until 1937 that Japan launched a full-scale invasion. In Nanjing, then China’s capital, some 300,000 residents were killed in a gruesome massacre. Other cities were attacked and bombed in turn.
For China, the Second World War had begun as early as 1931, when the Japanese attacked Shanghai and occupied Manchuria, a vast region in the country’s northeast. But it was not until 1937 that Japan launched a full-scale invasion. In Nanjing, then China’s capital, some 300,000 residents were killed in a gruesome massacre. Other cities were attacked and bombed in turn.
Imperial Japan at that time was in the grip of aggressive militarist forces. The country had undergone rapid industrialization but lacked essential raw materials such as oil, iron ore, coal, and farmland. China, on the other hand, had much of what Japan needed. Other Asian countries also offered valuable natural resources Japan could exploit. To obscure its ambitions, Japan claimed it wanted to establish an East Asian “co-prosperity sphere.” They emphasized that the peoples of the East shared a common interest in resisting Western dominance.
China was politically divided in the 1930s. In Nanjing sat Chiang Kai-shek’s nationalist government, while Mao Zedong and his guerrilla forces had established themselves in Yan’an, a small city in the north. For years they had been at war with one another. With Japan’s invasion in 1937, they were forced to set aside their enmity and cooperate. This made it possible to mobilize the entire nation for resistance.
In the years that followed, the war see-sawed back and forth. There is no doubt that China, through its dogged resistance, tied down large Japanese forces. This reduced Japan’s capacity elsewhere in Asia and was, by war’s end, recognized as an important contribution to the Allied victory.
Yet China’s role has often been overshadowed. In Western accounts of the war in Asia we frequently hear of General MacArthur’s return to the Philippines and the atomic bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki. But without China’s endurance, Japan would have had freer hands to expand.
It was only with Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 that the United States entered the war. The following year China was formally recognized as one of the “Four Great Allies,” along with the U.S., Great Britain, and the Soviet Union. Chiang Kai-shek thus secured a seat at the Allied negotiating table, and China’s status as a great power was finally acknowledged.
At the same time, the U.S. decided to supply China with large quantities of weapons. The problem was that they could not be shipped by sea, as Japan controlled most of China’s coast. The solution was to transport them through Burma to southern China. The legendary Burma Road twisted through jungle, mountains, and valleys but became a vital supply line for the Chinese. Weapons were also flown into China from airfields in India. In the war’s final phase, Stalin’s Soviet Union also contributed arms, but mostly to Mao and his Red Army.
China was a vast country, and in practice it was impossible for Japan to conquer it entirely. At most the Japanese managed to occupy about one-third of the territory, primarily the coastal provinces and some inland areas. The vast western regions remained beyond reach, as did the city of Chongqing, which Chiang Kai-shek’s government made its temporary capital. The city lay in the inland province of Sichuan, shielded by hills and mountains not easily overcome.
When the Soviet Union declared war on Japan in August 1945, Japan’s final resistance in Manchuria quickly collapsed. The combination of the American atomic bombs and Soviet offensives made it impossible for Japan to continue fighting.
In retrospect, many have asked why Japan’s warfare in China was so brutal. Part of the answer lies in the emperor’s regime and the generals’ relentless efforts to portray the Chinese as backward, a people incapable of governing themselves. In Japanese schoolbooks China was described as the “sick man of Asia,” and the Chinese as a “mass of people” without individuality. Slogans such as chankoro (“subhuman”) were used to dehumanize them.
Such contempt made atrocities easier to commit. Rape, forced labor, biological experiments, and massacres could be justified by claiming that the Chinese were inferior. At the same time, the Japanese portrayed themselves as Asia’s light and saviors.
Today relations between the two neighbors are only tolerably good. Japanese conglomerates have for years invested heavily in China, contributing significantly to its economic progress. Trade between them last year reached as much as 293 billion U.S. dollars.
Yet old enmities flare up again and again. Polls consistently show that the two neighbors view each other negatively (87–89 percent in both countries). China maintains that the Japanese have never truly come to terms with their bloody past, and that Japanese society is still marked by racist undercurrents.
But the Chinese too have their own sins. On Chinese social media, words like “dogs” and other insults about the Japanese abound.
Ever since the war, Japan has been an ally of the United States. Naturally, this alliance is a thorn in China’s side, as China’s goal is to expel the U.S. from Asia and assume leadership in the region itself. Like the Japanese of old, today’s Chinese leaders speak of establishing regional “co-prosperity”—with China as the natural leader.
That too is hardly a cheerful prospect.
China was politically divided in the 1930s. In Nanjing sat Chiang Kai-shek’s nationalist government, while Mao Zedong and his guerrilla forces had established themselves in Yan’an, a small city in the north. For years they had been at war with one another. With Japan’s invasion in 1937, they were forced to set aside their enmity and cooperate. This made it possible to mobilize the entire nation for resistance.
In the years that followed, the war see-sawed back and forth. There is no doubt that China, through its dogged resistance, tied down large Japanese forces. This reduced Japan’s capacity elsewhere in Asia and was, by war’s end, recognized as an important contribution to the Allied victory.
Yet China’s role has often been overshadowed. In Western accounts of the war in Asia we frequently hear of General MacArthur’s return to the Philippines and the atomic bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki. But without China’s endurance, Japan would have had freer hands to expand.
It was only with Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 that the United States entered the war. The following year China was formally recognized as one of the “Four Great Allies,” along with the U.S., Great Britain, and the Soviet Union. Chiang Kai-shek thus secured a seat at the Allied negotiating table, and China’s status as a great power was finally acknowledged.
At the same time, the U.S. decided to supply China with large quantities of weapons. The problem was that they could not be shipped by sea, as Japan controlled most of China’s coast. The solution was to transport them through Burma to southern China. The legendary Burma Road twisted through jungle, mountains, and valleys but became a vital supply line for the Chinese. Weapons were also flown into China from airfields in India. In the war’s final phase, Stalin’s Soviet Union also contributed arms, but mostly to Mao and his Red Army.
China was a vast country, and in practice it was impossible for Japan to conquer it entirely. At most the Japanese managed to occupy about one-third of the territory, primarily the coastal provinces and some inland areas. The vast western regions remained beyond reach, as did the city of Chongqing, which Chiang Kai-shek’s government made its temporary capital. The city lay in the inland province of Sichuan, shielded by hills and mountains not easily overcome.
When the Soviet Union declared war on Japan in August 1945, Japan’s final resistance in Manchuria quickly collapsed. The combination of the American atomic bombs and Soviet offensives made it impossible for Japan to continue fighting.
In retrospect, many have asked why Japan’s warfare in China was so brutal. Part of the answer lies in the emperor’s regime and the generals’ relentless efforts to portray the Chinese as backward, a people incapable of governing themselves. In Japanese schoolbooks China was described as the “sick man of Asia,” and the Chinese as a “mass of people” without individuality. Slogans such as chankoro (“subhuman”) were used to dehumanize them.
Such contempt made atrocities easier to commit. Rape, forced labor, biological experiments, and massacres could be justified by claiming that the Chinese were inferior. At the same time, the Japanese portrayed themselves as Asia’s light and saviors.
Today relations between the two neighbors are only tolerably good. Japanese conglomerates have for years invested heavily in China, contributing significantly to its economic progress. Trade between them last year reached as much as 293 billion U.S. dollars.
Yet old enmities flare up again and again. Polls consistently show that the two neighbors view each other negatively (87–89 percent in both countries). China maintains that the Japanese have never truly come to terms with their bloody past, and that Japanese society is still marked by racist undercurrents.
But the Chinese too have their own sins. On Chinese social media, words like “dogs” and other insults about the Japanese abound.
Ever since the war, Japan has been an ally of the United States. Naturally, this alliance is a thorn in China’s side, as China’s goal is to expel the U.S. from Asia and assume leadership in the region itself. Like the Japanese of old, today’s Chinese leaders speak of establishing regional “co-prosperity”—with China as the natural leader.
That too is hardly a cheerful prospect.
