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The War in Eastern Asia
When Japan went to war with the United States, Great Britain,
and the Netherlands in December 1941, she was already well established on
the Asian mainland from Manchuria in the north to Indochina in the south.
Since she possessed sovereignty over Taiwan (Formosa) and the Penghu Islands
(Pescadores), she was poised to strike quickly toward the so-called Southern
Regions, which included the Philippines, Borneo, Celebes, Java, Sumatra, Malaya,
Thailand (Siam), and Burma, an area rich in such raw materials as oil, rubber,
tin, and many other products of which she was desperately short. Of the 51
infantry divisions which composed the Japanese Army in 1941, 43 were committed
to the Asian mainland: 13 to Manchuria, 2 to Korea, 25 to China, 2 to Indochina,
and 1 to the island of Hainan. In addition, 2 of her 5 air divisions were
also committed to Asia. She had therefore only a comparatively small force
available to undertake the capture of the Southern Regions. The attacks on
the Philippines and the Netherlands East Indies are discussed in section
9. War in the Southern and Southwestern Pacific, and this section therefore
deals only with operations on the Asian mainland: Thailand, Malaya, Burma,
China proper, and Manchuria. A division from China was given the task of seizing
Hong Kong; the Twenty-Fifth Army, consisting of 4 divisions (of which only
3 were used) and an air division, was allotted to neutralize Thailand, Malaya, and capture the British naval base
at Singapore; and the Fifteenth Army, consisting of 2 divisions and an air
division, was assigned the job of occupying southern Burma.
Japanese Advance in Southeast Asia: 1941-1942
The invasion of Hong Kong began early on Dec. 8, 1941 (local
time). The small garrison of this isolated outpost, consisting of two British,
two Canadian, and two Indian battalions, attempted to defend the New (Leased)
Territories on the mainland, but by December 13 had to withdraw to Hong Kong
Island. The Japanese landed on its northern shores on the night of December
18-19 and gradually forced the garrison into the western part of the
highly populated island. With no hope of reinforcement or relief and having
suffered severe losses, the garrison surrendered on December 25. This freed
the Japanese division to join the Sixteenth Army for the invasion of the Dutch
territories farther south.
In the early hours of December 8 (local time), the Twenty-Fifth
Army occupied Bangkok, thereby gaining control of Thailand, and landed a division
at Songkhla (Singora) on the Kra Peninsula and part of another at Kota Bharu
in northeastern Malaya. The Japanese quickly gained air supremacy, since their
aircraft were far superior to and outnumbered the obsolescent Royal Air Force
(RAF) planes. Two days later, Japanese torpedo bombers sank off the east coast
of Malaya the Repulse and the Prince of Wales, the only
two British capital ships in Eastern waters. This success ensured the Japanese
complete control of the South China Sea. The British garrison of Malaya consisted
of the Indian 3d Corps (two newly raised and semitrained divisions), which
held northern Malaya, and an understrength Australian division, which held
northern Johore. Constantly outflanked by infiltration through jungle-covered
country and by landings on the coast behind it, the 3d Corps proved to be
no match for the highly trained and experienced Japanese divisions and was
forced to withdraw southward. The Japanese occupied Penang on December 19,
and Kuala Lumpur on Jan. 11, 1942. Despite a stand in northern Johore by the
Australians, they had driven the mauled and dispirited defenders back into
Singapore Island by January 31. Although the garrison had been reinforced
by two hastily dispatched and almost untrained Indian brigades and, at the
last moment, by a British division diverted while at sea on its way to Egypt,
the defense of the island, by then isolated by sea and air, was a hopeless
task. The Japanese landed three divisions on February 8-9, and by February
13 had forced the remnants of the garrison back into a tight perimeter ringed
around Singapore itself. With the city and its large Chinese and Malayan population
under heavy artillery fire, water supplies cut off, and the troops short of
ammunition, the garrison surrendered on February 15. In conquering Malaya,
the Japanese had gained an entrance into the Bay of Bengal and the use of
the Singapore naval base.
The invasion of Burma began on Dec. 16, 1941, when a small
Japanese detachment occupied unopposed Victoria Point at its southern extremity;
in mid-January other detachments occupied points on the Tenasserim coast.
The small Burma Army was reinforced during January with what India could spare,
but when the main invasion began it consisted of only two ill-equipped divisions,
composed of British, Indian, and Burmese troops, supported by a very small
air force, which included a squadron from Brig. Gen. (later Maj. Gen.) Claire
L. Chennault's American Volunteer Group (Flying Tigers) in China. On January
20, two Japanese divisions crossed the Thai frontier east of Moulmein. Outflanking
and outmaneuvering the Indian division facing them, they captured Moulmein
on January 31, and by February 24 had forced the defenders back across the
Sittang River.
In December 1941, Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, anxious
lest the Burma Road, along which lend-lease supplies were reaching China from
Rangoon, should be cut, had offered Chinese troops to assist in the defense
of Burma. Their entry into Burma from the north in mid-February enabled the
other division of the Burma Army (now reinforced by an armored brigade and
other troops) to move south to help in the defense of Rangoon. The advance
of the Japanese was, however, too rapid: they drove a wedge between the two
divisions before a junction could be made, and on March 5 captured Pegu. Rangoon
could no longer be held and, after some hesitation, was evacuated on March
7. Its garrison, escaping somewhat luckily from the encircling Japanese forces,
withdrew up the Irrawaddy toward Prome.
The defense of central and northern Burma now rested on
the Burma Army (two weak divisions) in the Irrawaddy Valley, and on the Chinese
Fifth and Sixth armies (equivalent in strength to two American divisions)
in the Sittang Valley on the direct railway from Rangoon to Mandalay. The
Chinese were under the command of Lt. Gen. (later Gen.) Joseph W. Stilwell, who had also been appointed commanding general of
the American China-Burma-India (CBI) theater in February 1942. The possession
of Rangoon and the cessation of hostilities in Malaya enabled the Japanese
to reinforce the Fifteenth Army in Burma with two fresh divisions, two tank
regiments, considerable artillery, and a number of air regiments. They quickly
advanced toward Mandalay in an attempt to destroy the defenders in the loop
of the Irrawaddy River. Having captured Toungoo on March 30, they drove rapidly
north, passing round the Chinese left flank, and by the end of April had cut
the Burma Road at Lashio. The Burma Army had no alternative but to withdraw
across the Irrawaddy. Burma could now no longer be held. The Burma Army and
two Chinese divisions withdrew into Assam, the former by way of Kalewa to
Imphal and the latter from Myitkyina to Ledo. The rest of the Chinese armies
withdrew eastward across the Salween River into China. By the end of May 1942,
the Japanese were in control of the whole of Burma and had occupied the Andaman
and Nicobar Islands. They had thus attained in five months all their objectives
and secured the western end of their long defensive perimeter around the Southern
Regions.
With the control of the Strait of Malacca and the Bay of
Bengal in their hands, the Japanese sent part of their naval forces, including
aircraft carriers, into the Indian Ocean for a short time early in April to
bomb Colombo and the naval base at Trincomalee in Ceylon and to raid the shipping
routes along the east coast of India. Neither the British nor the Japanese
were seeking a fleet action but, before the enemy force withdrew to Singapore,
its aircraft had sunk two British cruisers, a small aircraft carrier, two
destroyers, and a corvette and had accounted for approximately 100,000 tons
of merchant shipping.
The loss of Burma and of the command of the sea and air
in the Bay of Bengal left India wide open to invasion by land or sea. Since
the best Indian formations had been sent to Iraq and Egypt and the equivalent
of three divisions had been lost in Malaya and Burma, there was little with
which to undertake her defense until her many newly raised divisions were
trained, equipped, and ready for battle. Strenuous efforts were therefore
made to build up forces for her defense and that of Ceylon. Three British
divisions were diverted from the Middle East theater, and an African division
was sent from East Africa. A beginning was also made in the buildup of a large
Allied strategic and tactical air force, including the United States Tenth
Air Force, and the India-Burma Division of the United States Air Transport
Command to ferry supplies from Assam across the "hump to China, which
was now cut off from all land access from the west. This entailed an enormous
program of airfield construction in Bengal, Assam, and elsewhere in India,
which stretched Indian engineering resources to their limit. Faced with the
defense of her eastern frontier (an eventuality which had never been envisaged),
India had also to reorientate her logistical organization and improve the
very poor rail and river communications from Calcutta to eastern Bengal and
Assam. In her efforts to do this she was hampered by having sent much of her
river and coastal shipping and a large proportion of her meter-gauge railway
locomotives and rolling stock to Iraq to help in its defense. The buildup
therefore could only be accomplished over a longish period of time.
With the American naval victories of the Coral Sea in May
and Midway in June 1942, the danger to India passed, and the main problem
now facing the Allies was how to keep China in the war. To reach Kunming by
road from Assam necessitated the reoccupation of northern and central Burma
and the building of a road from Ledo through Myitkyina and Bhamo to join the
original Burma Road. Since to accomplish this would take considerable time,
it was decided to increase deliveries of supplies by the air ferry route to
a tonnage sufficient to supply the needs of Chennault's Fourteenth Air Force
and reequip approximately 30 Chinese divisions. The Chinese troops who had
reached India in 1942, gradually reinforced by men flown from China, were
reformed, equipped, and trained by Stilwell, who aimed at producing three
elite Chinese divisions (each of 10,000 men) with tank and artillery support.
Operations in Burma: 1942-1943
Gen. (later Field Marshal) Sir Archibald Wavell (later 1st Earl Wavell), the
commander in chief in India, made every effort to take the offensive to recapture
Burma as soon as practicable, but the means were not to hand until time allowed
his land and air forces to be assembled and trained and his communications
to the eastern frontier built up. Nevertheless, he launched an offensive in
October 1942 by one division to capture Akyab
in coordination with an amphibious assault on the port. Maungdaw and Buthidaung
were occupied on December 17, but the formation earmarked for the amphibious
assault and its landing craft were delayed by extended operations to wrest
Madagascar from the control of supporters of the Vichy French government.
Wavell therefore decided to continue with the land advance and, when within
striking distance of Akyab, to launch a short-range amphibious attack. The
Japanese had meanwhile brought their forces in Arakan up to divisional strength,
and early in March 1943 halted the land advance too far to the north of the
port to make a short-range amphibious operation possible. They then launched
a counteroffensive and by the break of the monsoon in May had recaptured Buthidaung
and Maungdaw. Although Wavell's effort had failed, it brought to light defects
in the organization and training of the rapidly expanding Indian Army. These
were eliminated, and by the end of 1943 the British-Indian divisions had reached
a pitch of training which made them equal to the Japanese.
In July 1942, Wavell formed a long-range penetration brigade
(Chindits) under the command of Brig. (later Maj. Gen.) Orde C. Wingate. On
Feb. 14, 1943, the Chindits, some 3,000 strong, crossed the Chindwin River
and, supplied by air, penetrated deep into Burma without meeting much opposition
and damaged the railway south of Indaw. Wingate then crossed the Irrawaddy
into a somewhat waterless area, but its many roads and tracks enabled the
Japanese to surround his force, which had to disperse and get back as best
it could. By early June, only 2,200 men had got out of Burma to Assam or China.
This incursion had little strategic value in itself, but it gave a considerable
moral fillip to Britain and India and showed clearly that troops in jungle
country could be supplied by air. Its greatest effect, however, was that it
made the Japanese decide to improve their defensive positions in Burma by
taking the offensive toward Assam, a decision which was to prove fatal.
Campaigns in Burma and China: 1943-1944
In November 1943, the Anglo-American Southeast Asia Command (SEAC) was formed
with Adm. Lord Louis Mountbatten (later 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma) as
supreme commander, and General Stilwell as his deputy, with the object of
controlling all operations in Southeast Asia. In December, the United States
Tenth Air Force and the RAF wings in India were combined into the Eastern
Air Command under Maj. Gen. (later Lt. Gen.) George E. Stratemeyer. Meanwhile,
plans were made to establish the 20th Bomber Command, equipped with long-range
B-29 aircraft, at Chengtu in Szechwan Province, China, from where Manchuria
and the Japanese mainland could be bombed.
The plans for the 1944 campaign prepared by the supreme
commander included a combined thrust by Stilwell's Chinese forces from Ledo
toward Myitkyina, by British-Indian forces across the Chindwin toward Indaw,
and by the Chinese Yunnan armies across the Salween with the object of
reoccupying northern Burma and opening a land route to China. A subsidiary
attack was to be made in Arakan to capture Akyab and, if resources allowed,
the Andaman Islands. Resources, however, did not permit an amphibious operation
to be mounted in the Indian Ocean, and Chiang Kai-shek refused to commit his
Yunnan armies across the Salween. The plans for 1944 had therefore to
be reduced to a land advance toward Akyab, a drive down the Hukawng Valley
toward Myitkyina, and an incursion by the Chindits (now enlarged to six brigades
and known as Special Force) to the Indaw area to cut the enemy communications
to the north and so assist Stilwell's thrust on Myitkyina. The Japanese, on
the other hand, having decided to take the offensive, planned to advance in
March 1944 across the Chindwin to capture the British base at Imphal, and
to attack in Arakan in February to forestall the expected Allied advance in
that area.
At the end of the monsoon the Indian 15th Corps of the Fourteenth
Army under the command of Lt. Gen. (later Field Marshal) Sir William Slim
(later 1st Viscount Slim) was gradually approaching the strong defensive positions
in Arakan covering Maungdaw and Buthidaung when, on February 4, the Japanese
launched their offensive. They passed approximately 5,000 men behind the forward
Indian divisions, thus cutting their communications. Supplied by air, these
stood firm, and reserves brought forward threw back the Japanese with heavy
loss. The British offensive was then resumed, and by the break of the monsoon
in May the Japanese had been driven out of all their main defenses covering
Akyab.
The Japanese offensive toward Imphal was launched by the
Fifteenth Army in mid-March, but, on the assumption that Imphal would be captured
in three weeks, inadequate logistical plans for its maintenance had been made,
a mistake which was to prove disastrous. In accordance with the Fourteenth
Army's prearranged plan, the Indian 4th Corps withdrew to prepared positions
covering the Imphal plain as soon as the enemy crossed the Chindwin. The corps
was isolated from India when the Imphal road was cut on March 29. Kohima was
attacked on April 4 and surrounded by April 8. A division was flown into Imphal
from Arakan, and the Indian 33d Corps was brought forward from India and concentrated
at Dimapur. The Allies had by now gained air supremacy over Burma, and, supplied
by an airlift, the 4th Corps was able to hold its position around Imphal and
in May to begin a counteroffensive, while the 33d Corps, after relieving the
Kohima garrison, took the offensive southward. By the end of June, the two
corps had met, and the Imphal road was reopened. The defeated Japanese Fifteenth
Army, short of food and ammunition, retreated to the Chindwin in considerable
disorder.
Stilwell had begun his advance from Ledo toward Myitkyina
in January. On orders from Chiang, the Chinese divisions did not press forward
as fast as they might, but progress was made thanks to Merrill's Marauders
(the 5307th Composite Unit led by Maj. Gen. Frank D. Merrill and the American
counterpart of the Chindits), and by the end of March the Hukawng Valley had
been cleared and entry into the Mogaung Valley secured. On April 28, the Marauders,
reinforced by some Chinese regiments, began to move east across the mountains
and then south to capture Myitkyina from the north by surprise. On May 17,
this force occupied the Myitkyina airfield, but its exhaustion was such that,
despite reinforcements brought in by air, it was unable to drive the Japanese
from the town, and a dour struggle began that lasted 11 weeks.
To assist Stilwell's advance, three brigades of Special
Force were moved into Burma by air and by march route. By the end of March
1944, approximately 12,000 men, supplied entirely by air, were established
around Indaw and had formed a block north of the town on the road and railway
leading to Mogaung, thus effectively cutting the communications of the enemy
forces facing Stilwell. The Japanese made repeated unsuccessful attempts to
break the block, but it became evident early in April not only that the block
might be overwhelmed by a newly arrived Japanese division, but that Special
Force could not be maintained at Indaw during the monsoon. It was therefore
ordered to move north at the end of April, establish a new block nearer Mogaung,
and come under Stilwell's command beginning on May 17.
By threatening to withdraw aid for the reequipment of his
armies, the Americans at last obtained Chiang's agreement to the Yunnan
armies taking the offensive across the Salween on April 10. This offensive,
however, failed to help Stilwell to capture Myitkyina, for an inferior Japanese
force brought the Chinese to a halt by the end of June before a line of defended
walled towns not more than 20 miles west of the Salween.
Special Force established its new block south of Mogaung
on May 7 but was forced to abandon it with heavy loss May 25. The Japanese
were now free to reinforce Kamaing or Myitkyina but did not move quickly enough
to do either. Stilwell occupied Kamaing on June 16, and a brigade of Special
Force, with some assistance from a Chinese division, occupied Mogaung on June
26. Stilwell was now able to use the road to Myitkyina; his forces were reinforced
and finally occupied the town on August 3. The capture of Myitkyina was of
great value for, once airfields had been constructed and a pipeline built
from Ledo to them, the air ferry could operate into China without flying across
the "hump.
There was little more than sporadic fighting in China during
1942 and 1943. By the beginning of 1944, Chennault had established a base
for the B-29's at Chengtu and a chain of airfields in eastern China astride
the Hankow-Canton railway, from which the Fourteenth Air Force could support
the Chinese armies. Since these latter airfields constituted a danger, the
Japanese decided to eliminate them. In April and May, they cleared the Peiping
(Peking)-Hankow railway, and at the end of May began to advance southward.
Despite the support of the Fourteenth Air Force and at times of the B-29's,
the Chinese armies were no match for the Japanese. By mid-December, assisted
by an advance westward from Canton, the Japanese
had occupied all but two of the American airfields in eastern China, had made
contact with their garrison in Indochina, and had created a threat to both
Kunming and Chungking. Meanwhile, in June, the B-29's from Chengtu had begun
to bomb targets in Manchuria and western Japan.
Recovery of Burma and Final Operations Against Japan: 1944-1945
In October 1944, Stilwell was recalled to Washington,
and the CBI theater was divided. Maj. Gen. (later Lt. Gen.) Albert C. Wedemeyer
replaced Stilwell as commanding general of the China theater and Lt. Gen.
Daniel I. Sultan took command of the Burma-India theater, which remained part
of SEAC. Soon after taking up his command, Wedemeyer, conscious of the threat
to Chungking and Kunming, advised Chiang Kai-shek to concentrate a force of
30 Chinese divisions to meet it. To provide a trained nucleus for this force,
he asked for the eventual return to China of all the Chinese divisions (by
now numbering 5) operating in northern Burma; 2 were sent him in January 1945.
In Burma the Fourteenth Army relentlessly pursued the defeated
Japanese throughout the monsoon. Despite appalling climatic conditions, which
turned roads and tracks into quagmires, Kalewa was captured and bridgeheads
were established across the Chindwin at many points by the first week in December
1944. Slim was now ready to advance into central Burma. He sent his 33d Corps
in a wide sweep toward the Irrawaddy with Mandalay as its objective, and with
great secrecy passed the 4th Corps southward from Kalewa to Pakokku, with
Meiktila on the main enemy communications between Rangoon and Mandalay as
its objective. By Feb. 1, 1945, supplied almost entirely by air, the Fourteenth
Army had closed up to the Irrawaddy from a point 40 miles north of Mandalay,
where it had seized bridgeheads across the river, to Pakokku 140 miles farther
downstream. On the Arakan coast the 15th Corps began to advance as soon as the monsoon abated and occupied Akyab, which had
been abandoned by the Japanese two days earlier, on January 3. An amphibious
attack was launched on Ramree Island on January 21, and the island was finally
occupied during February. Airfields were rapidly built at Akyab and on Ramree
Island to make it possible for the Fourteenth Army to be supplied by air in
its drive toward Rangoon from the Irrawaddy.
In northern Burma the southward advance from Myitkyina,
begun by Stilwell in October 1944, made slow progress, and it was not until
December 15 that Bhamo was occupied. Sultan, who now had an American brigade
(which incorporated the Marauders), a British division, and three Chinese
divisions, pressed on and made junction with the Yunnan armies on the
old Burma Road on Jan. 20, 1945. The road from Ledo to China was now clear,
and the first convoy from India passed along it to reach Kunming on February
4. Work was immediately begun on extending the Ledo-Myitkyina oil pipeline
to Kunming. Meeting with little opposition, for the Japanese were forced by
the threat to Mandalay to withdraw southward, Sultan's forces occupied Lashio
on March 7. Meanwhile, using Myitkyina as a staging post, the Air Transport
Command had doubled the monthly air deliveries to China. With this increase
and a road and pipeline from India, China was no longer isolated from her
allies.
The Japanese sea communications with the Southern Regions,
already precarious owing to the activities of the American submarine fleet,
were completely severed when Leyte and Luzon in the Philippines were reoccupied
in the winter of 1944-1945. The Japanese armies in the Southern Regions,
forced to exist on the countries they had occupied and such reserves of war
material as they had stored, withdrew divisions from outlying territories,
including Burma, to reinforce Indochina, now open to invasion from the Philippines,
and thus weakened their ability to defend the other areas.
By the end of February 1945, a fleet of river craft had
been assembled on the Chindwin at Kalewa to supplement air supply and, with
adequate supplies ensured, Slim began to cross the Irrawaddy in mid-February.
The 4th Corps captured Meiktila by surprise on March 3, and shortly thereafter
Mandalay was invested from both the north and the south. In a desperate attempt
to stave off final defeat, the Japanese concentrated their remaining forces
in Burma and launched a counteroffensive to recapture Meiktila; a fierce battle
raged throughout March, but by the end of the month Mandalay had been captured,
and the Japanese had been thrown back with very heavy losses, their armies
losing all cohesion. This offensive proved to be their last in Burma. Slim
immediately resumed the pursuit toward Rangoon along both the main railway
and the Irrawaddy. Toungoo was occupied on April 22 and Prome on May 2, and
Pegu was reached on April 29. To ensure that Rangoon was occupied before the
monsoon broke, an amphibious landing, preceded by a parachute drop, was made
near the mouth of the Rangoon River on May 2, and the city, which had been
hastily evacuated by the Japanese a few days before, was entered without opposition
on May 3. The campaign for the reoccupation of Burma was now over, except
for extensive mopping-up operations, and SEAC began to prepare for the invasion
of Malaya. With the virtual end of the Burma campaign, all the American and
Chinese resources remaining in India and Burma were gradually transferred
to China, and plans were made in Chungking for an offensive by 39 divisions
to capture a port in eastern China in the fall of 1945.
The swift progress of the American offensive in the Pacific
. War in the Central and Northern Pacific culminated
in the capture of Iwo Jima in March and of Okinawa in June 1945. The Americans
now had forward bases for an invasion of Japan, and the Japanese were forced
to withdraw troops from Manchuria, Korea, and China to defend their homeland.
In China, to forestall any amphibious landing, they began to withdraw toward
its coast and concentrated their forces in the Canton area, the lower Yangtze
Valley, and Shanghai, thus enabling the Chinese, with American assistance,
to reoccupy many of the airfields in eastern China which had been lost the
previous year.
Japan opened negotiations for peace on August 10 after atomic
bombs had been dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and August 9.
On August 14, she surrendered unconditionally. The USSR declared war on Japan
on August 8 (effective August 9) and, using a massive force of three strong
army groups, invaded Manchuria, K |