China was aided by the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Nazi Germany before its alliance with Japan. Around 20 million people, mostly civilians, were killed.
Seeking raw materials to fuel its growing industries, Japan invaded the Chinese province of Manchuria in 1931. By 1937 Japan controlled large sections of China, and war crimes against the Chinese became commonplace.
In 1871, the Sino-Japanese Friendship and Trade Treaty was signed between Qing government and Japan, which formally established diplomatic relations between the two countries for the first time in history in the form of a treaty.
In 1940 and 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt formalized U.S. aid to China. The U.S. Government extended credits to the Chinese Government for the purchase of war supplies, as it slowly began to tighten restrictions on Japan.
Joining in widespread international condemnation of Japan's aggression, the United States circumspectly supported China. President Roosevelt approved $25 million in military aid to China on 19 December 1940, permitting the Chinese to purchase one hundred P 40 pursuit aircraft.
The Chinese Nationalists sought German military and economic support to help them consolidate control over factional warlords and resist Japanese imperialism. Germany sought raw materials such as tungsten and antimony from China.
By 1941, the Soviet-built aircraft sent to China would amount to 885, including two-engine and four-engine bombers, though the latter were never used in combat. Apart from the aforementioned I-15, I-16 and UT-4, the Soviets also supplied Tupolev TB-3, Tupolev SB, and Ilyushin DB-3 bombers.
Despite the prolonged onslaught of Japan's modern military machine for eight long years, a divided China, mostly on its own, put up a heroic fight against steep odds, pinning down 600,000 of its troops and playing a crucial role in weakening Japan by inflicting heavy casualties on forces that were better armed, ...
To be clear, China could not have won the war on its own. The defeat of Japan was dependent on western, and in particular, American finance, military support and supplies (although western ground troops did not fight in China).
Bilateral Relations:
There are various concerns between Japan and China, as they are neighboring countries. At the same time, the relationship with China is one of Japan's most important bilateral relationships, and the two countries have close economic relations, as well as people-to-people and cultural exchanges.
The conflict is often termed the second Sino-Japanese War, and known in China as the War of Resistance to Japan. There are arguments that the conflict began with the invasion of Manchuria in 1931, but between 1937 and 1945, China and Japan were at total war.
The war in China, 1937–41
In 1931–32 the Japanese had invaded Manchuria (Northeast China) and, after overcoming ineffective Chinese resistance there, had created the Japanese-controlled puppet state of Manchukuo.
This month marks the 50th anniversary of China's attack on India, the only war Communist China has won despite involvement in multiple military conflicts since 1950. Its decisive victory over India, however, failed to end bilateral disputes, with the war's legacy continuing to weigh down the relationship.
Russo-Japanese War, (1904–05), military conflict in which a victorious Japan forced Russia to abandon its expansionist policy in East Asia, thereby becoming the first Asian power in modern times to defeat a European power.
After the declaration of the First Sino-Japanese War on August 1, 1894, Japanese troops scored quick and overwhelming victories on both land and sea. By March 1895, the Japanese controlled Shandong province and Manchuria and commanded the sea approaches to Beijing. The Chinese sued for peace.
September 29, 1972: Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka said to the people of the People's Republic of China: "The Japanese side is keenly conscious of the responsibility for the serious damage that Japan caused in the past to the Chinese people through war, and deeply reproaches itself.
According to Rummel, in China alone, from 1937 to 1945, approximately 3.9 million Chinese were killed, mostly civilians, as a direct result of the Japanese operations and a total of 10.2 million Chinese were killed in the course of the war.
Japan had possession of roughly 25% of China's enormous territory and more than a third of its entire population.
The Sino-Japanese War killed between 14 and 20 million Chinese people.
China entered into diplomatic relations with Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, Bangladesh and Maldives in Southeast Asia and South Asia, seven countries including Iran, Turkey and Kuwait in West Asia and the Middle East and five countries in South Pacific such as Fiji and Papua New Guinea.
Firstly Japan simply did not have the manpower and resources to occupy all of China. Even in the territories she had Japan usually stuck to the major cities and rail hubs. Japan even needed collaborator troops just to hold onto this.
China was aided by the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Nazi Germany before its alliance with Japan. Around 20 million people, mostly civilians, were killed.
Nevertheless, China and Russia currently enjoy the best relations they have had since the late 1950s. Although they have no formal alliance, the two countries do have an informal agreement to coordinate diplomatic and economic moves, and build up an alliance against the United States.
Low morale, a bad economy, dysfunctional, corrupt politics, all lay in sharp contrast to Japan's extremely nationalistic, modern, brutally well organised army. Population size is hardly relevant when faced with these facts. That explains much of China's weakness in WW2.