World War II involved dozens of countries and killed tens of millions of people, while China, the main battlefield in Asia, successfully attracted one of the Axis powers, Japan, for the vast majority of its combat strength. Seventy percent of the total strength of the Japanese army in World War II was in China, and China's move not only greatly delayed the Pace of the Japanese Army's attack on Southeast Asia through the mainland, but also gave the Japanese army an extremely painful blow through the continuous efforts of all our soldiers and civilians.
After 14 years of China's War of Resistance, nearly one million Japanese troops were unable to advance on the land of our country, neither with Germany to attack the Soviet Union, nor to advance into the Indo-Pacific. However, after the end of the war, China and Japan differed slightly in the statistics of war losses, and even for a certain period of time there was a world of difference. According to the first statistics of the Japanese side after the war, the number of deaths in the war in the 14 years from 1931 to 1945 was only 190,000, which is very different from the 800,000 statistics in China.
For various historical reasons, statistics on how many people were killed by the Japanese army in the Battlefield of China have always been relatively confusing. The statistics and published data of the former National Government and the data published after the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949 are not correct. According to the statistics of the Japanese Ministry of Health and Welfare in 1964 after the war, the death toll of the Japanese army was about 440,000, plus the death toll of 160,000 in India and other regions, a total of about 600,000. American scholars also referred to the statistical data of the Japanese army in the war, and finally determined that the death toll was about 440,000.
However, Professor Liu Danian of the Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, who graduated from the fifth term of the Anti-Japanese Military and Political University, calculated that the number of Japanese casualties in China exceeded 800,000 according to the Kuomintang army field statistics. The difference between 800,000 and 440,000 is almost double, and we naturally cannot doubt the computing power of many scholars, but the problem lies in the record of the number of deaths in each battle. Take the Battle of Taierzhuang, the Japanese army announced that the losses of the Japanese army were 12,000 people, while the Japanese army recorded less than 2,000, a difference of nearly 6 times, of which the reason is self-evident.
In order not to cause panic in the army, the Japanese army deliberately lied about the data, which can also show the strength of the army, even if they lose in a certain battle, the losses are only a dime for them. Moreover, in order to make an example for the high-level people on the other side of the ocean, as the saying goes, "report good news but not worry," and lying about the number of losses can not only boost morale, but also confuse our army and make our army unclear. Therefore, the Japanese army will deliberately conceal the number, and the number of deaths recorded in the book is just a false number.
However, having said that, the true number of Japanese casualties in the war is still unknown, and there is still no accurate figure under the debate of many parties. No matter how many soldiers died in the War of Resistance, we do not want the war to happen again, and we always believe that the historical tragedy of 80 years ago will never be repeated.