Operation Ichi-Go
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Operation Ichi-Go () was a campaign of a series of major battles between the
Imperial Japanese Army The Imperial Japanese Army (IJA; , ''Dai-Nippon Teikoku Rikugun'', "Army of the Greater Japanese Empire") was the principal ground force of the Empire of Japan from 1871 to 1945. It played a central role in Japan’s rapid modernization during th ...
forces and the
National Revolutionary Army The National Revolutionary Army (NRA; zh, labels=no, t=國民革命軍) served as the military arm of the Kuomintang, Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang, or KMT) from 1924 until 1947. From 1928, it functioned as the regular army, de facto ...
of the
Republic of China Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...
, fought from April to December 1944. It consisted of three separate battles in the Chinese provinces of
Henan Henan; alternatively Honan is a province in Central China. Henan is home to many heritage sites, including Yinxu, the ruins of the final capital of the Shang dynasty () and the Shaolin Temple. Four of the historical capitals of China, Lu ...
,
Hunan Hunan is an inland Provinces of China, province in Central China. Located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze watershed, it borders the Administrative divisions of China, province-level divisions of Hubei to the north, Jiangxi to the east, Gu ...
and
Guangxi Guangxi,; officially the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the China, People's Republic of China, located in South China and bordering Vietnam (Hà Giang Province, Hà Giang, Cao Bằn ...
. These battles were the Japanese Operation Kogo or Battle of Central Henan, Operation Togo 1 or the Battle of Changheng, and Operation Togo 2 and Togo 3, or the Battle of Guilin–Liuzhou, respectively. The two primary goals of Ichi-go were to open a land route to
French Indochina French Indochina (previously spelled as French Indo-China), officially known as the Indochinese Union and after 1941 as the Indochinese Federation, was a group of French dependent territories in Southeast Asia from 1887 to 1954. It was initial ...
, and capture air bases in southeast China from which American bombers were attacking the Japanese homeland and shipping. In Japanese the operation was also called ''Tairiku Datsū Sakusen'' (), or "Continent Cross-Through Operation", while the Chinese refer to it as the Battle of Henan-Hunan-Guangxi ().


Background


Japanese planning

By early 1944, Allied victories in the Pacific were eroding the Japanese defensive perimeter. Japan decided to attack in
Burma Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and ha ...
and China to improve its position; these became Operation U-Go and Ichi-Go respectively. Ichi-Go corresponded with a Imperial General Staff contingency plan to the loss of the Western Pacific; the plan was for securing an overland rail route through French Indochina and China for raw materials from south-east Asia, which would be used to develop offensives in 1946. The objective for Ichi-Go approved by Emperor
Hirohito , Posthumous name, posthumously honored as , was the 124th emperor of Japan according to the traditional order of succession, from 25 December 1926 until Death and state funeral of Hirohito, his death in 1989. He remains Japan's longest-reigni ...
on 24 January 1944 was the neutralization of USAF bases in China, particularly the
XX Bomber Command The XX Bomber Command was a United States Army Air Forces bomber formation. Its last assignment was with Twentieth Air Force, based on Okinawa. It was inactivated on 16 July 1945. History The idea of basing Boeing B-29 Superfortresses in ...
bases near
Chengdu Chengdu; Sichuanese dialects, Sichuanese pronunciation: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: ; Chinese postal romanization, previously Romanization of Chinese, romanized as Chengtu. is the capital city of the Chinese province of Sichuan. With a ...
,
Sichuan Sichuan is a province in Southwestern China, occupying the Sichuan Basin and Tibetan Plateau—between the Jinsha River to the west, the Daba Mountains to the north, and the Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau to the south. Its capital city is Cheng ...
.
China Expeditionary Army The was a general army of the Imperial Japanese Army from 1939 to 1945. The China Expeditionary Army was established in September 1939 from the merger of the Central China Expeditionary Army and Japanese Northern China Area Army, and was ...
(CEA), commanded by General Shunroku Hata, expanded the objectives in its operational planning to include securing overland routes and neutralizing China by destroying Chinese forces. Ichi-Go may also have been intended to force the Allies to open peace negotiations, and give Japan a better negotiating position. General
Yasuji Okamura was a general of the Imperial Japanese Army, commander-in-chief of the China Expeditionary Army from November 1944 to the end of World War II, and appointed to surrender all Japanese forces involved in the China Burma India theater. He was trie ...
was placed in charge of Ichi-Go. By early February, preparations along the
Yangtze The Yangtze or Yangzi ( or ) is the longest river in Eurasia and the third-longest in the world. It rises at Jari Hill in the Tanggula Mountains of the Tibetan Plateau and flows including Dam Qu River the longest source of the Yangtze, i ...
included repairs to a major bridge and air field maintenance. The IJA mobilized 500,000 troops, 100,000 horses, 1,500 pieces of artillery, 800 tanks, 15,000 mechanised vehicles, and 200 bombers for the offensive. They were supplied with eight months of fuel and two years of ammunition. According to historian Hara Takeshi, it was "the largest military operation carried out in the history of the Japanese army".


Chinese planning

The Chinese economy started collapsing in 1941. China entered the war in 1937 with a primarily agrarian economy and quickly lost much of its industrial capacity to the Japanese. Maintaining the forces needed to stay in the war imposed an unsustainable burden on an economy further weakened by blockade, shortages of staple goods, poor weather, and inflation; there was widespread famine from 1942. The government responded to the economic pressure, reduced Japanese activity after December 1941, and the lack of offensive capability by encouraging the military to produce its own food. Some troops went further by entering industry and smuggling. The self-sufficiency drive and the lack of military action reduced military prepardness and increased corruption. By Ichi-Go, the effectiveness of the Chinese military had "plummeted". Allied strategy affected Chinese preparations. At the
Cairo Conference Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...
in November 1943, China agreed to major combined operations in Burma on the condition that the Western Allies committed significant resources. No such commitment occurred. A few days later at the
Tehran Conference The Tehran Conference (codenamed Eureka) was a strategy meeting of the Allies of World War II, held between Joseph Stalin, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Winston Churchill from 28 November to 1 December 1943. It was the first of the Allied World Wa ...
, the Western Allies and the
Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
agreed to prioritize the European theater. In January 1944, Chiang warned US President
Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to have served ...
that prioritizing Europe would encourage Japan to attack and knock China out of the war. In late-March, China believed a Japanese offensive was "imminent"; the US received corroborating reports from Clarence E. Gauss, the American ambassador to China. China sought to reinforce the defense with
Yunnan Yunnan; is an inland Provinces of China, province in Southwestern China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 47.2 million (as of 2020). The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders the Chinese provinces ...
-based Y Force, which was earmarked for Burma; Y Force was an American trained and equipped
National Revolutionary Army The National Revolutionary Army (NRA; zh, labels=no, t=國民革命軍) served as the military arm of the Kuomintang, Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang, or KMT) from 1924 until 1947. From 1928, it functioned as the regular army, de facto ...
(NRA) unit and some of the best troops available to China. In early April, the US threatened to halt
Lend-Lease Lend-Lease, formally the Lend-Lease Act and introduced as An Act to Promote the Defense of the United States (),3,000 Hurricanes and >4,000 other aircraft) * 28 naval vessels: ** 1 Battleship. (HMS Royal Sovereign (05), HMS Royal Sovereign) * ...
to China if Y Force was withheld from Stilwell in Burma. Ultimately, Y Force joined the Allied campaign in Burma in mid-May as Ichi-Go was underway. Chinese intelligence also misassessed indicators. It estimated that the Yangtze bridge would not be usable until May, and that Japanese troop movements in the north were a feint. On 27 April, after the start of Ichi-Go, China received French intelligence from Indochina of the Japanese goal of securing the rail corridor. The intelligence was disregarded as Japanese misinformation to draw forces away from Burma. The Chinese could not independently verify significant Japanese movements in central and southern China. Only 30,000 Japanese troops were detected operating in the north, which suggested a localized effort. The Chinese expected a larger attack in southern China, a belief that persisted into May.


Campaign


Henan

The first phase of Ichi-Go, codenamed Kogo, was for capturing the Beijing–Hankou railway in
Henan Henan; alternatively Honan is a province in Central China. Henan is home to many heritage sites, including Yinxu, the ruins of the final capital of the Shang dynasty () and the Shaolin Temple. Four of the historical capitals of China, Lu ...
and destroying the ROC's First War Zone. Kogo involved 60,000–70,000 Japanese troops. The First War Zone was commanded by General Jiang Dingwen with General Tang Enbo as deputy. It had only 6,000-7,000 troops, or 60% to 70% of its authorized strength. USAF General Claire Chennault described the troops as a "poorly disciplined mob". Overall, there were 400,000 Chinese troops in northern China. Kogo opened on 17 April, broke through the defenses by the end of the 18 April, and took
Xuchang Xuchang ( zh, s=, t= ; postal: Hsuchang) is a prefecture-level city in central Henan province in Central China. It is bordered by the provincial capital of Zhengzhou to the northwest, Kaifeng to the northeast, Zhoukou to the east, Luohe ...
a week later. Divisional commander Lu Gongliang (呂公良), deputy divisional commander Huang Yonghuai (黃永淮), and two regimental commanders were all killed the day Xuchang fell on 1 May and none of the officers of the divisional headquarters was found after the defenders broke out from the city. Tang's 31st Army Group reported the casualties of the New 29th Division - fighting in central Henan and Xuchang - as 4,092 killed, wounded, or missing. '' Senshi Sōsho'', the official Japanese military history, put Chinese losses at 2,432 killed and 858 captured and Japanese losses at 50 killed and 149 wounded. Chinese communications was poor and the defense of
Luoyang Luoyang ( zh, s=洛阳, t=洛陽, p=Luòyáng) is a city located in the confluence area of the Luo River and the Yellow River in the west of Henan province, China. Governed as a prefecture-level city, it borders the provincial capital of Zheng ...
was uncoordinated. Chiang intended to allow the Japanese to close around Luoyang - the city was fortified and contained provisions for weeks - and then attack the flanks once the Japanese became overextended; this tactic had been used successfully before to defend
Changsha Changsha is the capital of Hunan, China. It is the 15th most populous city in China with a population of 10,513,100, the Central China#Cities with urban area over one million in population, third-most populous city in Central China, and the ...
. According to Jiang, he requested permission to attack as early as 23 and 24 April, but did not receive Chiang's permission until 1 May; by that time the Japanese had advanced too far. Poor communications also hampered the direction of reinforcements to Luoyang. The Japanese encircled Luoyang on 14 May and captured the city on 25 May. The Chinese lost more than 19,000 troops from the three divisions defending the city. On 26 May, the Japanese Army reported Chinese casualties as 4,386 killed and 6,230 captured, and Japanese casualties as 80 killed and 281 wounded. At the same time as the battle of Luoyang, Chinese 36th Army Group retreated and its commander, Lieutenant general Li Jiayu, was killed. The Japanese pursued Tang's westward retreat as far as the
Tong Pass Tongguan or Tong Pass, was a former mountain pass and fortress located south of the confluence of the Wei and Yellow Rivers, in today's Tongguan County, Weinan, Shaanxi, China. It was an important chokepoint, protecting Xi'an and the surroundi ...
. Combined with an advance north from
Wuhan Wuhan; is the capital of Hubei, China. With a population of over eleven million, it is the most populous city in Hubei and the List of cities in China by population, eighth-most-populous city in China. It is also one of the nine National cent ...
, the Japanese captured the railway. Contemporary Chinese analysis identified additional factors for the collapse of the First War Zone, some of which were related to the general degeneration of the Chinese military. According to one critic, Tang's command and control was poor and he abandoned his army; Tang was generally seen to have been in effective control of the First War Zone. The local population - alienated by wartime deprivation, state corruption, and the First War Zone's aggressive requisitions - also withheld support. Incidents included civilians attacking Chinese troops, stealing abandoned weapons, and refusing to obey orders to destroy highways. According to American reports, Kogo met only "token resistance". Theodore H. White observed Chinese officers neglecting their duties and that within three weeks "a Chinese army of 300,000 men had ceased to exist". The First War Zone suffered heavy casualties in the battle for central Henan. Tang Enbo's 31st Army Group alone reported its losses as 58,036 killed, wounded, or missing. Combined with the losses of other regular Chinese units in major battles in Henan, the total casualties of the First War Zone are as high as 100,000. Senshi Sōsho put Chinese losses from the start of the operation until the capture of Luoyang at approximately 37,500 killed and approximately 15,000 captured and Japanese losses in the same period at approximately 850 killed and approximately 2,500 wounded.


Hunan

The next phase was Togo 1 with the objective of securing the Guangzhou–Hankou railway from Wuhan to
Hengyang Hengyang (; ) is the second largest city of Hunan Province, China. It straddles the Xiang River about south of the provincial capital of Changsha. As of the 2020 Chinese census, Its total population was 6,645,243 inhabitants, of whom 1,290,71 ...
. Togo 1 started on 27 May and involved 200,000 Japanese troops advancing south from Wuhan to Changsha. Central China was defended by another 400,000 troops. The ROC's Ninth War Zone, commanded by General Xue Yue, defended Changsha; it had held the city against three Japanese campaigns from 1939 to 1942; as in those engagements, Ninth War Zone strategy was a fighting withdrawal to the city combined with
scorched earth A scorched-earth policy is a military strategy of destroying everything that allows an enemy military force to be able to fight a war, including the deprivation and destruction of water, food, humans, animals, plants and any kind of tools and i ...
. Togo 1 was much larger than the previous campaigns, advancing in three - rather than one - columns over a 150 kilometer-wide front; it was also adequately supplied. On 29 May, the ROC Military Affairs Commission ordered Changsha to be held to defend USAF air bases and maintain American confidence; the option of abandoning railway and retreating south-east to
Guilin Guilin (Standard Zhuang: ''Gveilinz''), postal map romanization, formerly romanization of Chinese, romanized as Kweilin, is a prefecture-level city in the northeast of China's Guangxi, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. It is situated on the we ...
was rejected. Chiang refused to send supplies to Changsha because he believed Xue was disloyal. The Japanese reached Changsha in early June. The city was defended by three understrength Chinese divisions commanded by General Zhang Deneng; two of the divisions and the artillery were on Yuelu Mountain south of the city across the
Xiang River The Xiang River is the chief river of the Lake Dongting drainage system of the middle Yangtze, the largest river in Hunan Province, China. It is the second-largest tributary (after the Min River) in terms of surface runoff, the fifth-largest ...
. Unlike the previous campaigns, it was the Chinese who were outnumbered with 10,000 troops against 30,000 Japanese. One of the two attacking Japanese divisions had
urban warfare Urban warfare is warfare in urban areas such as towns and cities. Urban combat differs from combat in the open at both Military operation, operational and the Military tactics, tactical levels. Complicating factors in urban warfare include the p ...
training. Japanese bombers attacked the artillery on Yuelu, while infantry moved around the city to attack from the south. Zhang's redeployment of troops from the city to reinforce Yuelu disorganized the defense; Chinese staff officers were unable to organize movement over the Xiang, leaving many units "stranded", and unclear orders made many troops believe that they were to retreat. The Japanese took Changsha on 18 June after three days of fighting. The Chinese withdrew from Yuelu the same day leaving two companies in the city. Xue retreated south to Hengyang. The city was defended by 18,000 troops. USAF
Fourteenth Air Force The Fourteenth Air Force (14 AF; Air Forces Strategic) was a numbered air force of the United States Air Force Space Command (AFSPC). It was headquartered at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. The command was responsible for the organizatio ...
, commanded by Chennault, provided limited support; it was also tasked with protecting USAF XX Bomber Command's bases and supporting the Allied Burma offensive. The defenses included concrete fortifications, and was well provisioned with artillery, anti-tank guns, and supplies. Two large reserve groups were placed to threaten the Japanese flanks. Chiang assigned General Fang Xianjue, whom he trusted, to command the city, A relief force from Guangdong was organized. On 25 June, the Japanese captured a major nearby US air base. Afterwards, the Japanese 68th and 116th Division attacked Hengyang from the west and south. The flooded paddy fields and canals to the west made the use of tanks difficult. To the south were hills. The attack was halted with heavy casualties on both sides. The Japanese paused to reinforce their air forces and resupply. On 11 July, after five days of heavy fighting, the Chinese fell back to another line. The Japanese paused again to bring up reinforcements of one division and several brigades. The Japanese sought to destroy Chinese reserves to reduce the defenders' morale. Air attack destroyed much of the city. By the end of July, there was a food shortage in Hengyang. Chiang did not resupply the city. Stilwell - who controlled Lend-Lease in the Chinese theater - refused Chennault's request to divert 1,000 tons of supplies to Hengyang; according to the
United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...
's official history, Stilwell believed that Chinese politics would prevent the supplies from being used against the Japanese. Five Japanese divisions resumed the attack on 3 August, broke through the northern wall 7 August, and captured the city by the morning of 8 August.


Guangxi and Guizhou

Japanese forces entered
Guangxi Guangxi,; officially the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the China, People's Republic of China, located in South China and bordering Vietnam (Hà Giang Province, Hà Giang, Cao Bằn ...
in early September 1944 and quickly captured US air bases at Guilin,
Liuzhou Liuzhou (; , Standard Mandarin: , Liuzhou Yue dialect: International Phonetic Alphabet, iəu53 ʦəu44 is a prefecture-level city in north-central Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, People's Republic of China. The prefecture's population was 4 ...
, and
Nanning Nanning; is the capital of the Guangxi, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in South China, southern China. It is known as the "Green City (绿城) " because of its abundance of lush subtropical foliage. Located in the South of Guangxi, Nanning ...
. The 170,000 Nationalist troops defending northern Guangxi were largely unwilling to fight and units disintegrated. Leaders of the Guangxi Clique like General
Bai Chongxi Bai Chongxi (18 March 1893 – 2 December 1966; , , Xiao'erjing: ) was a Chinese general in the National Revolutionary Army of the Republic of China (ROC) and a prominent leader of the Kuomintang. He was of Hui ethnicity and of the Muslim faith ...
decided that neither Guilin nor Liuzhou could be successfully defended and Chinese forces abandoned those cities. In late November 1944, the Japanese advance slowed approximately from Chongqing as it experienced shortages of trained soldiers and
materiel Materiel or matériel (; ) is supplies, equipment, and weapons in military supply-chain management, and typically supplies and equipment in a commerce, commercial supply chain management, supply chain context. Military In a military context, ...
. Although Operation Ichi-Go achieved its goals of seizing US air bases and establishing a potential railway corridor from
Manchukuo Manchukuo, officially known as the State of Manchuria prior to 1934 and the Empire of Great Manchuria thereafter, was a puppet state of the Empire of Japan in Northeast China that existed from 1932 until its dissolution in 1945. It was ostens ...
to
Hanoi Hanoi ( ; ; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Vietnam, second-most populous city of Vietnam. The name "Hanoi" translates to "inside the river" (Hanoi is bordered by the Red River (Asia), Red and Black River (Asia), Black Riv ...
, it did so too late to impact the result of the broader war. American bombers in Chengdu were moved to the
Mariana Islands The Mariana Islands ( ; ), also simply the Marianas, are a crescent-shaped archipelago comprising the summits of fifteen longitudinally oriented, mostly dormant volcanic mountains in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, between the 12th and 21st pa ...
where, along with bombers from bases in
Saipan Saipan () is the largest island and capital of the Northern Mariana Islands, an unincorporated Territories of the United States, territory of the United States in the western Pacific Ocean. According to 2020 estimates by the United States Cens ...
and
Tinian Tinian () is one of the three principal islands of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI). Together with uninhabited neighboring Aguiguan, it forms Tinian Municipality, one of the four constituent municipalities of the Northern ...
, they could still bomb the Japanese home islands. The Japanese also failed to destroy the British and Australian Commando operation, ' Mission 204' which had been working with the Chinese. Before the US bases were overrun, the mission had left China and returned to Burma. Toward the end of Ichi-Go, ROC 8th War Zone in
Guizhou ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = , image_map = Guizhou in China (+all claims hatched).svg , mapsize = 275px , map_alt = Map showing the location of Guizhou Province , map_caption = Map s ...
− with five armies and used to contain the Chinese Communists − was redeployed to fight the Japanese. Overextended supply lines and mounting casualties caused the Japanese to end Ichi-Go.


Aftermath

According to Cox, China suffered 750,000 casualties, including soldiers who simply "melted away" and those rendered combat ineffective besides being killed or captured. After the battle of central Henan, Chiang convened with his generals in a series of meetings starting from the 21st of July that would be known as the Huangshan Conference (黃山整軍會議). In the meetings, Chiang gave several speeches regarding the performance of the First Military Front in the battle. He assessed that there were too many vacancies in each unit in the army, reducing their fighting capabilities and requiring the Chinese army to outnumber the Japanese army by 6 or 7 to 1. He ordered
He Yingqin He Yingqin (; April 2, 1890 – October 21, 1987) also Ho Ying-chin, was a Chinese politician and one of the most senior generals of the Kuomintang (KMT) during Nationalist China, and a close ally of Chiang Kai-shek. Early years A native of ...
to verify that each division was at full strength and that the sick and wounded should be eliminated, reducing the army from 6.5 million in 321 divisions to 5 million in 200 divisions. In November 1944, He Yingqin resigned as the Ministry of Military Affairs and
Chen Cheng Chen Cheng (; ; January 4, 1898 – March 5, 1965), courtesy name Tsi-siou (), was a Chinese political and military leader, and one of the main commanders of the National Revolutionary Army during the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Chinese C ...
took over his position. There were still 5.9 million troops by then, with a reduction of 600,000 personnel. Since the goal of reducing the army to 5 million men had not been achieved, Chen Cheng pushed for further reforms in the army. From January until March 1945, Chen Cheng worked to eliminate the unneeded and reduce the amount of vacancies in the army, removing 1 million from the establishment and reducing the army to 4.9 million military personnel. By the end of the war, Chen Cheng had reduced the army to 4.3 million personnel, but further reorganization was interrupted due to Chiang's insistence on incorporating the surrendered puppet soldiers into the National Revolutionary Army. The poor performance of Chiang's forces in opposing the Japanese advance became widely viewed as demonstrating Chiang's incompetence. The campaign further weakened the Nationalist economy and government revenues. Throughout the war, but especially after the Ichi-Go campaign, the Nationalist government could not pay its bills. Because of the Nationalists' increasing inability to fund the military, Nationalist authorities overlooked military corruption and smuggling. The Nationalist army increasingly turned to raiding villages to press-gang peasants into service and force marching them to assigned units. With the rapid deterioration of the Nationalist forces, Stilwell saw Operation Ichi-Go as an opportunity to win his political struggle against Chiang and gain full command of all Chinese armed forces. He was able to convince General
George Marshall George Catlett Marshall Jr. (31 December 1880 – 16 October 1959) was an American army officer and statesman. He rose through the United States Army to become Chief of Staff of the United States Army, Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army under pres ...
to have President Roosevelt send an ultimatum to Chiang threatening to end all American aid unless Chiang "at once" placed Stilwell "in unrestricted command of all your forces". Stilwell immediately delivered this letter to Chiang despite pleas from Patrick Hurley, Roosevelt's special envoy in China, to delay delivering the message and work on a deal that would achieve Stilwell's aim in a manner more acceptable to Chiang. Seeing this act as a move toward the complete subjugation of China, a defiant Chiang gave a formal reply in which he said that Stilwell must be replaced immediately and he would welcome any other qualified US general to fill Stilwell's position. In Chiang's view, Stillwell had moved too many Chinese forces into the Burma campaign, leaving China insufficiently protected. Stilwell was replaced as Chief of Staff to Chiang and commander of the US Forces, China Theater (USFCT) by Major general Albert Wedemeyer. Stilwell's other command responsibilities in the China Burma India Theater were divided up and allocated to other officers. Although Chiang was successful in removing Stilwell, the public relations damage suffered by his Nationalist regime was irreparable. Right before Stilwell's departure, ''New York Times'' war correspondent
Brooks Atkinson Justin Brooks Atkinson (November 28, 1894 – January 14, 1984) was an American theater critic. He worked for ''The New York Times'' from 1922 to 1960. In his obituary, the ''Times'' called him "the theater's most influential reviewer of his ...
interviewed him in Chongqing and wrote:
The decision to relieve General Stilwell represents the political triumph of a moribund, anti-democratic regime that is more concerned with maintaining its political supremacy than in driving the Japanese out of China. The Chinese Communists... have good armies that they are claiming to be fighting guerrilla warfare against the Japanese in North China—actually they are covertly or even overtly building themselves up to fight Generalissimo's government forces... The Generalissimo hiang Kai-sheknaturally regards these armies as the chief threat to the country and his supremacy... has seen no need to make sincere attempt to arrange at least a truce with them for the duration of the war... No diplomatic genius could have overcome the Generalissimo's basic unwillingness to risk his armies in battle with the Japanese. quoting ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
''
Atkinson, who had visited
Mao Zedong Mao Zedong pronounced ; traditionally Romanization of Chinese, romanised as Mao Tse-tung. (26December 18939September 1976) was a Chinese politician, revolutionary, and political theorist who founded the People's Republic of China (PRC) in ...
in the communist capital of Yenan, saw his Communist Chinese forces as a democratic movement (after Atkinson visited Mao, his article on his visit was titled ''Yenan: A Chinese Wonderland City''), and the Nationalists in turn as hopelessly reactionary and corrupt. This view was shared by many U.S. journalists in China at the time, but due to pro-Chiang Allied press censorship, it was not as well known to their readers until Stilwell's recall and the ensuing anti-Chiang coverage forced it into the open. The Japanese successes in Operation Ichi-Go had a limited effect on the war. The US could still bomb the Japanese homeland from Pacific bases. In the territories seized, Japanese forces controlled only the cities, not their surrounding countryside. The increased size of the occupied territory also thinned out the Japanese lines. A great majority of the Chinese forces were able to retreat out of the area, and later come back to attack Japanese positions. As a result, future Japanese attempts to fight into Sichuan, such as in the Battle of West Hunan, ended in failure. All in all, Japan was not any closer to defeating China after this operation, and the constant defeats the Japanese suffered in the Pacific and Burma meant that Japan never got the time and resources needed to achieve final victory over China. The Japanese suffered 11,742 killed in action by mid-November, and the number of soldiers that died of illness was more than twice this. The total death toll was about 100,000 by the end of 1944. Operation Ichi-Go created a great sense of social confusion in the areas of China that it affected. Chinese Communist guerrillas were able to exploit this confusion to gain influence and control of greater areas of the countryside in the aftermath of Ichi-Go. This along with the aforementioned rapid deterioration of the Nationalist forces, Nationalist unpopularity both internally and abroad, Communist popularity both internally and externally, Kuomintang corruption and other factors allowed the Communists to gain victory in the resumed Chinese Civil War after World War II. Historian Hans van de Ven argues that the impact Ichi-Go had on the political situation in China was as important to the post-war world order as
Operation Overlord Operation Overlord was the codename for the Battle of Normandy, the Allies of World War II, Allied operation that launched the successful liberation of German-occupied Western Front (World War II), Western Europe during World War II. The ope ...
and
Operation Bagration Operation Bagration () was the codename for the 1944 Soviet Byelorussian strategic offensive operation (), a military campaign fought between 22 June and 19 August 1944 in Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic, Soviet Byelorussia in the Eastern ...
were in Europe.van de Ven, Hans. ''China at War: Triumph and Tragedy in the Emergence of the New China''. Harvard University Press, 2018, p.181 In the spring of 1945, the US agreed to train and equip 36 Chinese divisions. China also wanted to withdraw some of its troops from China. China began planning a counter-offensive for fall of 1945, called "White Tower" and "Iceman", to recapture the coastal ports in south-west China as routes for Allied aid.


In popular culture

The 1958 novel ''The Mountain Road'', by Theodore White, a ''
Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...
'' magazine correspondent in China at the time of the offensive, was based on an interview with former OSS Major Frank Gleason, who led a demolition group of American soldiers during the offensive that were charged with blowing up anything left behind in the retreat that might be of use to Japan. His group ultimately destroyed over 150 bridges and 50,000 tons of munitions, helping slow the Japanese advance. In 1960, it was adapted into a film by the same name starring
James Stewart James Maitland Stewart (May 20, 1908 – July 2, 1997) was an American actor and military aviator. Known for his distinctive drawl and everyman screen persona, Stewart's film career spanned 80 films from 1935 to 1991. With the strong morali ...
and Lisa Lu, noteworthy for being one of Stewart's few war films and the only one in which he plays a soldier, as he opposed war films because of their inaccuracy. It is generally believed he made an exception for this film because it was antiwar.


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Further reading

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ichi-Go 1944 1944 in China 1944 in Japan Battles and operations of World War II involving the United States Campaigns of the Second Sino-Japanese War Military campaigns involving the United States Ichi-Go Changsha in World War II History of Hengyang Military history of Guangxi Military history of Henan Military history of Hunan