In 1931, Japan launched the September 18 Incident and occupied northeast China. Then, on July 7, 1937, the Lugou Bridge Incident broke out, marking the beginning of Japan's all-out war of aggression against China. In the 8-year War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Chinese successfully repelled Japan and killed more than 450,000 Japanese troops, but the Soviet Union eliminated 750,000 Japanese troops in 6 days. Why?
I. When the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression broke out, the Chinese people rose up in resistance
On the night of July 7, 1937, the Japanese troops near the Lugou Bridge attempted to enter the county seat of Wanping county in China to search on the pretext that a Japanese soldier was missing. Our garrison soon realized that this was a conspiracy of the Japanese army and refused the Japanese army's request to enter our territory. Embarrassed and angry, Japan immediately launched an attack on the Wanping County town and the Lugou Bridge area of our country, and the 219th Regiment of the 37th Division of the 29th Army of our country exchanged fire with the Japanese army in order to safeguard China's territorial sovereignty, and this Lugou Bridge incident also marked the beginning of Japan's all-out war of aggression against China.
Both the Communist Party and the Kuomintang also put aside their grievances and cooperated to resist Japan. At that time, the Kuomintang army had advanced military equipment and a large number of people, was responsible for blocking the Japanese army head-on, and successively carried out famous battles such as the Battle of Songhu, the Battle of Taiyuan, and the Battle of Xuzhou, which slowed down the advance of the Japanese army with huge sacrifices. On the one hand, the Communist Party of China fought the Japanese army head-on and won victories in battles such as the Pingxing Guandajie; on the other hand, the Communist Party carried out guerrilla warfare behind enemy lines and opened up battlefields behind enemy lines, so that the Chinese War of Resistance formed a form of front-to-back attack, posing a huge threat to the Japanese army.
However, the good times did not last long, in October 1938, the Battle of Wuhan ended, the Japanese army due to the long front line, the strength of the troops can not be replenished, it slowed down the suppression of the frontal battlefield, diverted attention and began to target the battlefield behind the enemy. As soon as the pressure on the frontal battlefield weakened, the Kuomintang began to gradually fight passively and began to target the Communists, so that the Communists were under pressure from both sides. But the CCP was not defeated, and they continued to fight against Japan on the one hand, while maintaining relations with the Kuomintang on the other. Under these circumstances, the Communist Party of China began to gradually become the main force of the anti-Japanese resistance, and the battlefield behind the enemy lines began to become the main battlefield of the War of Resistance Against Japan. In December 1941, greedy Japan chose to attack their "big brother" the United States, causing heavy losses to the United States, and the United States of course could not stand this anger, chose to join World War II, and began a crazy revenge against Japan. However, the Chinese Communist Party is still holding Japan back in the face, Japan cannot defend itself, there are problems at home, and China cannot play an advantage in the battlefield, which makes Japan completely panic. In July 1943, the Eighth Route Army began a counteroffensive behind enemy lines in North China. Subsequently, the Chinese Expeditionary Force and other units also began to launch counter-offensives in various parts of the country, which completely angered the desperate Japanese army. In the spring of 1944, the Japanese army began to become crazy due to many defeats, chose to make a desperate bet, and launched the "No. 1 Operation" on the frontal battlefield in China, facing the counterattack of the Japanese army, the Kuomintang army was gradually defeated and retreated, completely at a disadvantage.
The Eighth Route Army, led by the Communist Party of China, chose to avoid a frontal conflict with the Japanese army and engage in local combat with the Japanese army, gradually depleting the strength of the Japanese army. Before long, most of the Chinese territory occupied by the Japanese army was returned to the hands of Chinese.
In early August 1945, the United States dropped two atomic bombs in the Japanese army, the Soviet Union also chose to send troops to Japan, coupled with the full suppression of the Chinese battlefield, this time Japan really could not hold back.
Second, the United States airdropped atomic bombs into Japan, and the Soviet Union sent all-round troops to Japan
In June 1942, the Battle of Stalingrad broke out in the Soviet Union, and this battle was also a turning point. Since the Battle of Stalingrad, Germany has been unable to defeat the Soviet Union. In 1943, the Soviet Union thwarted the last German strategic offensive on the Eastern Front at the Battle of Kursk and began to enter the stage of strategic counteroffensive. Subsequently, the Soviet Union began a series of strategic offensives, recovering most of the territory and capturing the German capital Berlin on April 30, 1945.
After the capture of Berlin, the Soviet Union rested for a while. At about 8 a.m. on August 6, two American B-29 bombers appeared over Japan carrying two atomic bombs, and at 8:15 a.m., the two planes dropped two atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, destroying more than 60 percent of the city's buildings and killing hundreds of thousands. The nuclear radiation caused by the atomic bomb still affects Japan today, and the area is still no man's land. To make matters worse, on the night of August 8, the Soviet government declared war on Japan. In the early morning of the 9th, the Soviet military sent 1.75 million troops, 30,000 artillery pieces, 5,250 tanks, homemade artillery and more than 5,000 aircraft to Japan, launching an all-out attack on the Japanese Kwantung Army entrenched in northeast China. The battle lasted only 6 days before it ended, and eventually the Soviet army wiped out 750,000 Japanese troops. Then many people will wonder, China killed 450,000 Japanese troops in the 8 years of the War of Resistance, while the Soviet Union eliminated 750,000 Japanese troops in just 6 days.
Why was the Soviet Union able to wipe out 750,000 Japanese troops in 6 days?
It is undeniable that the Soviet Union, as the only country that could compete with the United States, was indeed very strong militarily. China has always been in war, and the country's development is slow, so the gap between China and the Soviet Union is indeed not small. But this is not the main reason why the two countries have killed so many enemies, there are other hidden reasons. First, the Japanese Kwantung Army, which fought against the Soviet Union in 1945, was just a "paper tiger." The Kwantung Army was one of Japan's ace armies during the September 18 Incident, and as the scope of the war expanded, this force had reached a strength of 700,000 people in 1942, and was the elite force of the Japanese army.
However, the defeat of the Chinese battlefield and the outbreak of the Pacific War forced the Japanese army to withdraw most of the strength of the Kwantung Army to other battlefields, and the remaining forces were basically old, weak, sick and disabled. Although in 1945 the Kwantung Army cobbled together another 750,000 or so troops, these soldiers were all new recruits, and many of them were ordinary civilians, without any combat experience and no combat skills to speak of, such a force faced with the Soviet Union's elite generals, completely fell into a unilateral massacre. Second, when the Soviet Union attacked the Kwantung Army, Japan lost the frontal battlefield in China, and the backyard was on fire again, in this case, how could the Japanese army still be in the mood to fight.
At this time, the Japanese army was already considering when to surrender, so they had no resistance, and many Japanese troops chose to surrender. On the other hand, the Soviet Union, they had just repelled Germany, morale was high, facing the frightened Japanese army, it was a completely crushing attack, and the Soviet Union sent twice as many troops as the Japanese army, so it is not surprising that the Soviet Union ended the battle in 6 days. For all these reasons, the Soviet Union ended the battle so quickly. Although China killed 450,000 Japanese troops in the War of Resistance Against Japan, Chinese were slaughtered by the Japanese army by nearly 35 million. Fortunately, after experiencing the War of Resistance Against Japan, the history of Chinese being bullied came to an end. Today's China is no longer the "soft persimmon" of the past.