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| 'Eastern Battlefield': The Main Winners of World War II - the USSR and China |
| 2025-09-04 |
| Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Mikhail Moshkin and Mikhail Kucherov [REGNUM] On September 3, a military parade was held in Beijing on Tiananmen Square to celebrate the 80th anniversary of Victory in World War II. The main guest was undoubtedly Russian President Vladimir Putin. "This has already become a good tradition in bilateral relations. And this convincingly demonstrates the great responsibility of China and Russia as the main countries that won World War II," emphasized Chinese President Xi Jinping at a meeting with the Russian leader. The meeting took place on September 2, the 80th anniversary of Japan's capitulation, which - something that is often forgotten not only in the West but also in our country - was attended by representatives of the USSR and China, among other allies. On the eve of Victory Day in World War II, the Chinese leader's reminder of this was not superfluous. The Soviet Union and China bore the brunt of the bloodiest war in human history. The Second World War took away, according to various estimates, from 75 million to 80 million inhabitants of the Earth. The peoples of the USSR and China paid a comparable price for the defeat of Nazi Germany in Europe, and in East Asia - Hitler's closest ally Japan. According to modern estimates by historians and demographers, 26.6 million Soviet citizens died in the Great Patriotic War. These are only what are called in statistical language "direct losses from military action." "Indirect losses," including hunger and disease, took the lives of almost six and a half million more. Western historians, estimating the losses of the Chinese civilian population from Japanese aggression, speak of 17-22 million dead. Together with the soldiers killed on the fronts, stretching for thousands of kilometers, the number of victims of the war may reach 27 million people. THE REAL SECOND FRONT Donald Trump seems to seriously believe that the main winner in World War II was the United States. That if it were not for the United States, the world would “speak German and maybe a little Japanese.” It is no longer surprising that not only overseas, but also in Europe, they prefer to “forget” who took Berlin and opened the gates of Auschwitz. It is also not surprising that the Americans consider themselves the “exclusive” opponents and victors of Japan in the Pacific. Yes, the naval battles of 1941–1945—from the repulse of the attack on Pearl Harbor to the landing on Iwo Jima—are far more significant in the American version of World War II than the US participation in the battles in Europe in 1944–1945. Thank you. However, by the time of the treacherous Japanese attack on the American base in Hawaii, the Chinese armies had already been fighting for several years to liberate territories where at least 250 million people were under occupation. There can be no doubt about that. But the Eurocentric view of World War II leaves everything that happened outside the continent in the shadows. Although the real second front of the global war ran in Asia - from the banks of the Amur to the islands of Indonesia. The Eurocentric view suggests that Poland was the first victim of Axis aggression. But in fact, World War II began not on September 1, 1939, but on July 7, 1937, with the “ Marco Polo Bridge Incident,” after which Japan’s full-scale aggression against China began. Or even earlier, in 1931, with the capture of Manchuria by the Japanese (which they turned into the puppet “state” of Manchukuo ). That is, in any case, the war began before the Western democracies, as part of the policy of appeasing Hitler, “fed” Czechoslovakia to the Nazis – which was transformed into the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia and the “state” of Slovakia. Yes, Europe does not forget the atrocities of the Nazis in the occupied territories, the French village of Oradour-sur-Glane wiped off the face of the earth, Dachau, Treblinka, Auschwitz and the “experiments” of SS Hauptsturmführer Josef Mengele. But China has to remind the Western world (and Japan) of the Nanking Massacre of December 1937. Almost two years before the "official start" of World War II, Emperor Hirohito's troops killed up to 500,000 civilians and disarmed Chinese soldiers in occupied Nanking. Thanks to historians and filmmakers, the world learned about the war crimes of Unit 731, led by Medical General Shiro Ishii, who surpassed "Dr. Death" Mengele in cruelty. But few people know about the fate of the prisoners of the death camp near the city of Anda in Heilongjiang Province, from where the "human material" for Unit 731 was supplied. But China, even if it was the first victim of aggression, was not defenseless. Even in 1937, a peaceful year for Europe (if we “forget” about the war in Spain, in which Western democracies remained neutral), from September to November there was a battle on the Suzhou River near Shanghai. Then the Chinese managed to gain time to evacuate factories from the coast to the interior. In the spring of 1938, when Hitler was “peacefully annexing” Austria, in the Battle of Taierzhuang, General Li Zongzhen’s 200,000-strong army took the Japanese group in Shandong Province in pincers. In the autumn of the same year, when England and France were “peacefully” surrendering Czechoslovakia, more than 1 million soldiers of the Kuomintang army held back the Japanese advance on the city of Wuhan. In the summer of 1942, during the most difficult months of the Battle of Stalingrad, on the other side of the continent, the 8th and New 4th Armies of the Chinese Communist Party bore the brunt of more than 60% of the Japanese occupation forces. But China was not alone. NOT LEND-LEASE, BUT AID Western sources usually talk about the support that the United States provided to the government and army of Chiang Kai-shek in the last stage of the Second World War. American supplies to the Republic of China under Lend-Lease amounted to $1.6 billion. For comparison, Britain received supplies worth $31.4 billion. But since the 1930s, the Soviet Union had been providing assistance to its struggling neighbor. Since the beginning of the aggression, the two countries have maintained a common front against the aggressor. Aid has been sent through Soviet Central Asia to Chinese Xinjiang and further to the central provinces. The USSR transferred to its neighbor about 1,300 aircraft, 1,600 guns, 82 T-26 tanks, 14 thousand machine guns, 110 thousand rifles. Soviet specialists repaired and built airfields and roads in border areas. By 1939, by agreement between the USSR and the Republic of China, an aircraft factory was built near Urumqi, which produced more than a hundred Soviet I-16 fighters. And in 1945, the Soviet Union came to China's aid, defeating one of the enemy's most combat-ready groups, the Kwantung Army. The last major operation of World War II, the Red Army's Japanese campaign was quick, but far from easy. THE LAST ENEMY In the summer of 1945, with fascist Italy and Germany out of the war, the Japanese Empire remained a serious threat. The 7-million-strong army, scattered across the Pacific region, had no intention of surrendering, nor of putting up with losses: it was common practice to use single submarines with explosives and suicide pilots against the advancing allies. "If these white devils land on our islands, the Japanese spirit will go to our great citadel, Manchuria, where we have the invincible and valiant Kwantung Army," said Hideki Tojo, Prime Minister and Army Minister of Japan. Manchuria was indeed a military and resource stronghold for Tokyo. The area, the size of Germany and Italy combined, produced coal, ore, non-ferrous metals, and 55% of Japan's synthetic fuel. There was also a little-known plan called "Jasper to Shattered Pieces," which proposed evacuating the imperial family to the Manchurian steppes if the islands of the Japanese archipelago were captured. The US military leadership understood that an invasion of the Japanese archipelago under the "Downfall" plan developed for this purpose would cost hundreds of thousands, if not millions of soldiers, and the war would drag on for at least one and a half to two years. The most favorable outcome for the allies was the defeat of the Manchurian group by the Red Army, which would force Japan to capitulate. Generalissimo Joseph Stalin agreed, promising to begin the operation no later than three months after Germany's capitulation, but securing for the Soviet Union the coveted Southern Sakhalin, the Kuril Islands and, something that is not customary to remember, the island of Hokkaido. On April 5, Stalin, fulfilling his obligations, denounced the Soviet-Japanese Neutrality Pact, thereby “warning” Tokyo of his intention. "THE SECOND RUSSO-JAPANESE WAR" Western leaders decided not to stand on ceremony with Tokyo, and on July 25, Harry Truman, Winston Churchill and the President of the Chinese National Government Chiang Kai-shek issued the "Potsdam ultimatum", according to which, if Japan refused to surrender, they promised to subject it to "the most speedy and complete destruction." In Western historiography, it is generally accepted that the turning point in the war came after the nuclear bombings of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9, 1945. After this, on August 15, Mikado Hirohito read out an appeal to the subjects of the empire about surrender. But in reality, the bombs dropped on unarmed cities did not force the Japanese command to peace. The Kwantung Army (in Soviet terminology - an army group or direction) stationed in Manchuria, numbering 1.5 million people, remained combat-ready. The Kwantung Group did not receive an order to lay down their arms; the Imperial General Staff only instructed its commander, Otsuzo Yamada, to burn the banners, portraits, and important decrees of the Mikado. Japanese troops built 17 fortified areas near the Soviet and Mongolian borders. The enemy expected that the USSR military units, having passed through them, would suffer losses that would force them to go on the defensive under the onslaught of the main forces of the Kwantung group. The strategy was reminiscent of the actions of the Japanese during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905. But this time the enemy forgot that the supply of the neighboring country’s units no longer depended on the Trans-Siberian Railway alone, and the capabilities of the Red Army had increased significantly by 1945. The commander of the operation, Marshal Alexander Vasilevsky, was already selecting those who would liberate East Asia during the fighting in Europe, realizing that the honor of putting an end to the war would be given to him: "I first learned that I would have to go to the Far East in the summer of 1944. During the Belorussian operation, Joseph Stalin said that I would be entrusted with command of the troops in the war with Japan," the military leader recalled. By the beginning of August, having covered more than 10 thousand kilometers, 1.7 million soldiers, 5,500 tanks and 5,200 aircraft reached the Soviet-Manchurian border. A six-month supply of food and fodder was brought to arid Manchuria, and more than 1 thousand wells were dug on the spot to supply the troops with water. "WHO? - PETROV!" The offensive began from Transbaikalia and Primorye on the night of August 8-9, within the timeframe Stalin had promised the allies and before the start of the rainy season, during which the operation could not have been carried out. They attacked without artillery preparation, which meant that the Japanese troops did not have time to recover. To avoid getting lost in the dark, the Red Army soldiers had white armbands on their hands, and when they shouted “Who?” everyone, without exception, had to answer “Petrov.” With the start of our offensive on August 10, the commander-in-chief of the communist PLA (People's Liberation Army of China) Zhu De gave the order to begin an offensive against the Japanese along the entire front line. The following day, Chiang Kai-shek gave a similar order to his troops. The surprise effect of the Soviet offensive worked - in some areas, Japanese soldiers who had not yet woken up were caught in their barracks. The speed of advance of the Transbaikal units was record-breaking: 110 kilometers per day in featureless terrain with an undeveloped road network. "EVERYONE HAS A RED FLAG" According to eyewitnesses, the Japanese were morally broken and tried not to leave their numerous pillboxes, which did not stop them from setting up “traps” even after the capitulation, as infantryman Dmitry Krutskikh witnessed : "From the side of the height covered with sorghum, the Japanese opened heavy rifle fire. We had to lie down right next to the plane. The officer remained silent when we demanded that we cease fire. The paratroopers... in a short but brutal skirmish routed the Japanese company... I immediately interrogated the company commander, who was clearly lying, stating that he did not know about the capitulation and therefore conducted military operations." Chinese greet Soviet soldiers on the streets of a city in Manchuria Despite the continued resistance, the Japanese surrendered en masse. They sought to get under the protection of Soviet soldiers as quickly as possible because of the danger of reprisals against them by local residents, towards whom they sometimes acted even more cruelly during the occupation than the Nazis in Europe. "At the very beginning, as soon as we found ourselves in Manchuria for the second time, we often saw such scenes: an ox pulling a cart, and a red flag tied to its horn. Or, let's say, several Chinese going to work - each with a red ribbon on their clothes, and someone else carrying one red flag," recalled artilleryman Viktor Gurov. PEACE ON BOARD THE MISSOURI General Yamada gave the order to the troops to stop fighting on August 16. However, individual Japanese units and divisions continued active resistance until September 7–8. At the same time, the landings on South Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands, lost after the Russo-Japanese War, were coming to an end (here we should mention the last major operation of the Second World War - the battle for the island of Shumshu ). Stalin cancelled the occupation of Hokkaido, since this step had lost its expediency and would inevitably have led to great losses. In Japan, the defeat in the war provoked a wave of suicides - soldiers and officers who could not bear the shame committed seppuku. However, one of the generals had another duty to fulfill to the descendant of the goddess Amaterasu. Hirohito ordered the Chief of the Imperial General Staff, General Yoshijiro Umezu, a staunch opponent of the surrender, to sign the humiliating document. The political power of the empire was represented by the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Shigemitsu Mamoru, one of the architects of the aggression against China. On September 2, 1945, at 9:02 am Japanese standard time (18:02 Moscow time), an act was signed on board the American battleship Missouri, anchored in Tokyo, beginning with the words: “We, acting by order and on behalf of the Emperor, the Japanese Government and the Japanese Imperial General Staff, hereby accept the terms of the Declaration issued on July 26 in Potsdam by the Heads of Government of the United States, China and Great Britain, to which the USSR subsequently acceded…”. The names of the American "signatories" of the capitulation often appear in popular materials. Unlike the other allies, the United States was represented by two military leaders. The Harry Truman administration was represented by the Commander-in-Chief of the Pacific Fleet, Chester Nimitz, who had won several naval battles under his belt: at Midway Atoll, in the Solomon Islands campaign, during the landing on Saipan, and in the multi-day battle in the Philippine Gulf of Leyte. Army General Douglas MacArthur, hero of the defense and then counteroffensive in the Philippines, figured as the Allied commander-in-chief. Less often remembered is the British representative, Admiral Bruce Fraser, whose fleet covered the American landing on Okinawa and went on raids to the Japanese archipelago. And the representatives of the main winners find themselves completely in the shadows. The representative of the Supreme Command in the Far East, Lieutenant General Kuzma Derevyanko, accepted the capitulation from the USSR. It should be remembered that this military leader distinguished himself at the Kursk Bulge, in the Battle of the Dnieper, in the Korsun-Shevchenkovsk Operation (when his small homeland, the Cherkasy Region, was liberated) and in the Iasi-Kishinev " Cannes ". The troops under his command participated in the capture of Budapest and Vienna. Less well known is that Derevyanko's track record also included a secret "proxy war" with the Japanese. And not only before the start of World War II, but also before the battles at Khalkhin Gol. In 1938, Derevyanko, then a military intelligence officer, served in the border regions of the Kazakh SSR and coordinated military supplies to the Chinese Communist Party units fighting against the Japanese invaders. On behalf of the Republic of China, the act of surrender was signed by First Class General Xu Yongchang. He had been waging war against the Japanese since 1931, with the Mukden Incident – the blowing up of the railway near the present-day city of Shenyang, after which the Kwantung Army began occupying Manchuria. Later, General Xu served on the General Staff of Chiang Kai-shek’s army, and after the Kuomintang lost to the Communists, he emigrated to Taiwan. But it should be noted that on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, the victory over the Japanese in World War II is considered a common one, not “white” or “red.” As PRC Chairman Xi Jinping recalled on August 31, “the Chinese people’s war of resistance against the Japanese invaders became the main battlefield of the world anti-fascist war in the East, making a colossal contribution to the struggle for peace throughout the world.” President Putin also spoke about the fact that the victory over Nazism and Japanese militarism was the common merit of the USSR, China and the allies in his speech at the parade in honor of the 80th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War: “We highly value the contribution to our common struggle of the soldiers of the allied armies, the participants in the resistance, the courageous people of China - all who fought for a peaceful future. We faithfully preserve the memory of these historic, triumphant events. ” |
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