Forgotten Fronts of WW2: China and Burma 1942-43 (Documentary)
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- Опубликовано: 4 июл 2024
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During Japan's war against South-East Asia during the Second World War, China was one of the earliest battlefields. The nationalists under Chiang Kai-Shek pleaded to get Allied support against the Japanese. But being part of the alliance would have disastrous consequences for the Chinese.
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» SOURCES
Mitter, Rana. China’s War with Japan 1937-1945: The Struggle for Survival. Penguin, 2013.
Paine, Sarah C. M. The Wars for Asia, 1911-1949. Cambridge University Press, 2012.
Frank, Richard. Tower of Skulls: A History of the Asia-Pacific War: July 1937 - May 1942. W.W. Norton & Company, 2021.
Cook, Haruko Taya and Cook Theodore. Japan at War: An Oral History. The New Press, 1992
USAFFE and Eighth Army. Army Operations in China. December 1941-December 1943. Office of the Chief of Military History, Department of the Army, 1956.
Tamayama, Kazuo. Tales by Japanese soldiers of the Burma Campaign 1942-1945. Cassell, 2000.
Tsuneishi, Keiichi. "Unit 731 and the Japanese Imperial Army’s Biological Warfare Program." In Asia-Pacific Journal Japan Focus, November 2005.
Ministry of Defence of the Republic of China. The immortal Flying Tigers : an oral history of the Chinese-American composite wing. 2009.
Morton, Louis. “Japanese Policy And Strategy In Mid-War.” In Proceedings of the US Naval Institute February 1959. www.usni.org/magazines/procee...
Pacific Atrocities Education. “Victims in Zhejiang’s Testimonies.” www.pacificatrocities.org/vic...
Scott, James. “The Untold Story of the Vengeful Japanese Attack After the Doolittle Raid.” The Smithsonian Magazine, 2015. www.smithsonianmag.com/histor...
Van de Ven, Hans. "Campaigns in China 1937-1945" in John Ferris and Evan Mawdsley, eds. The Cambridge HIstory of the Second World War, vol I: Fighting the War. Cambridge UP, 2015.
»CREDITS
Presented by: Jesse Alexander
Written by: Jesse Alexander
Director: Toni Steller
Editing: Toni Steller
Motion Design: Toni Steller, Philipp Appelt
Mixing, Mastering & Sound Design: above-zero.com
Research by: Jesse Alexander
Fact checking: Florian Wittig, Mark Newton
Executive Producer: Florian Wittig
Channel Design: Simon Buckmaster
Contains licensed material by getty images, AP and Reuters
Maps: MapTiler/OpenStreetMap Contributors & GEOlayers3
Music Library: Epidemic Sound
All rights reserved - Real Time History GmbH 2024
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Rip kmt
I loved Rhineland 45. I also taught my mom a lot about World War II and the Rhine campaign. Thanks jessie.
Operation Bagration maybe
Ah yes, Vinegar Joe Stilwell. America’s foremost diplomat. With him on your side, you don’t need an enemy.
He was absolutely terrible and I am no friend Chiang Kai Shek
Who lost China? The Republicans never would have asked that question if Stilwell was alive. I believe his answer would have been Peanut and his in laws.
The alliance between the Imperial Japanese Army and the Imperial Japanese Navy was even more dysfunctional.
Facta
I am astounded by the quality of these documentaries and the narration based on real, provable research and making a well connected chain of events. I applaud! Thank you!
Glad you enjoy it!
That's the difference between historians doing RUclips and RUclipsrs doing history.
If anyone reads Jay Taylor's book "The Generalissimo", it becomes clear that in spite of Roosevelt's genuine sympathy for China, the US consistently made things worse for China, either by negligence or by incompetence (in the case of Stilwell).
It is a great book for people who wants to understand Chiang more in depth to read
Its amazing how they even came up with this guy. Picking any random staff officer would have been better.
@@tkling5909 nobody wanted to go to China, which was considered an early end of military career. There was another general nominated for the position, I forgot the name, who refused. Marshall promised quick promotion or sort of things to Stillwell to go to China, they were buddies.
From what i read stillwell was chosen because he can speak Chinese and studied their language, hence why marshall sent him to china.
@@Man-with_a-crooked_glance That and Marshall felt he owed him. Stilwell was next on the promotion list when the European command came up. He allowed Eisenhower to be sent in his place (thank goodness, given how prickly Stilwell was). So when the Chinese command came up Marshall was really loathe to pass over Stilwell again, especially since Stilwell spoke Chinese, as you mentioned.
Stillwell's used of Nationalist China's best unit in Burma is borderline criminal negligence, he ignores all advice from chinese commanders who straight up told him that even the most modern chinese unit at that time can't be used like american or british forces, their mobility as unit is much more limited and their use as an offensive forces must be accompanied by a substansial numerical superiority due to their lack of material, but stilwell ignores all of these advice and ends up destroying many of China's best units that can be use better in their own homeland
The way he also basically blackmailed chiang is also pretty disgusting, but it show just how weak china really is at that time for Stilwell to use that low of a tactic.
Actually, not all KMT best units were in Burma, such as the 74th and the 11th, which were never sent to there, and the 74th was the most decorated KMT unit.
It was a disaster that the US sent this unqualified general to China to further deepen its woes.
@@aldousroot363 he did worsen the situation. You have to remember China had been fighting alone in this war for four years. All the promises that the US made had not come true, and they ended up with this guy. China needed supplies, not a tough coach.
@@aldousroot363 And what does the OSS have anything to do with Stilwell's blunders?
And I'm not sure which "guerrilla"(thats how its spelled by the way, gorilla is an animal) forces you're talking about. Its pretty evident the entire Burma campaign was a disaster. The coordination was almost none existent, but Stilwell was so eager to show off he risked China's best troops for nothing.
@@tkling5909 China needed a band of tough coaches, but it could never been outsiders...
3:55 Western popular perception associates these outfits with Mao and especially the Cultural Revolution, but in fact they were commonly worn for decades before the Communist takeover, and known as Sun Zhongshan suits.
Both Chiang and Mao wears that type of jacket. And most educated men wear that during that era as well. However it has now been strongly associated with Mao.
It's a shame that the US denied Chiang's request for troops, aircraft and material. What he was asking for was a fraction of what was being sent to the USSR and may have been able to prevent the eventual communist takeover after the war.
My thoughts exactly! Why was the US still sending large amounts of equipment to USSR after 1943 was a mystery for me.
@@tkling5909 USA foreign policy is stupidnes is beyond imagination
can't wait for video about operation Ichi-go
already working on it
This is the best military history channel on RUclips by a big margin. Thanks for your high quality content!
Thanks!
Another great video. It has to be maddening to leave out a lot of detail in order to make these videos a manageable/ watchable length.
we will probably add a few more things when we release the Supercut of all episodes in one video. but yes, even then it's hard to chose
Omissions are a disservice to history.
@gagamba9198 omissions are necessary, or the researchers could never stop to actually create a video. We are always learning new things, and you can't include everything. They have to decide what is relevant.
Love these documentaries. So epic and well edited. Thanks Jessie for covering China’s part in World War II. They are the forgotten ally of World War II and there part in the war against Japan is not talked about.
Your videos are always amazing! Thank you for posting this
Nice doc RTH
I very much enjoyed your video and I gave it a Thumbs Up
I'm always learning, thank you!
It's interesting to watch historical documentaries on your channel. I hope the channel continues to grow to produce more interesting videos ❤❤❤
It would be honorable to name and recognize all those who participated in the raid and not just J. Doolittle. The raid took great courage for these in the planes knowing what could or would happen to them. I do not recall ever hearing or reading the names of those that participated other than Doolittle. I’ve read about the final destinations of the planes but never the names of those who sacrificed so much to save democracy. I’m not taking away the heroism of J. Doolittle but we should all add the heroism of those who took part
i still cant believe usa let the emperor be free and that nutty doctor
Japan would not have surrendered if the Emperor was on the chopping block.
Japan still has their emperor to this day, but operates as a constitutional monarchy like the Netherlands or England
If keeping the emperor means your occupation troops don't get ganked in the shadows every night or day that's better. Don't forget those occupation soldiers happen to be tax-paying voting Americans who have relations back home who can vote and pay taxes. Every death is a loss of vote for those in power...
@@Khaokiyou do know that the Japanese surrendered unconditionally? So "the emperor was on the chopping block," it just the USA felt occupation would be easier with the emperor remaining. Which is mostly true.
@@kaiserchan4683 thats what it says on paper anyway
Thank you.
It was an informative 👍🏻 and great historical coverage episode about Chinese bleak circumstances during 1942,1943 and 1944 ( Japanese invasion, internal catastrophes & allies mismanagements of war efforts in China, Burma ... This magnificent episode revealed some information 👌 that others didn't talk about!however, allot thanks for (RTH) channel for sharing..
Thank you for a very informative and unbiased description of the situation in China during that time period! And the truthful report on Chiang, Mao and Stilwell. The mainstream US history usually sides with Stilwell and portrays Chiang as the evil corrupt dictator and portrays Mao as the peasant reformer that wants the best for China. So thank you for a realistic portrayal of all these characters. And Generallimiso Chiang is still the real hero of China during the darkest days of war against Japan and the Communists.
你宣传蒋介石，那我也可以认为某位德国领导人也是德国真正的英雄了
I would love a video on the Chinese civil war and how the communists prevailed over the nationalsits with your detail and production value
exactly this is currently scheduled for December
@@realtimehistoryit’s the saddest part of modern Chinese history. A war torn nation came out on the winning side of the war and was about to go on the path of peace and stability, then plunged into darkness and tyranny again. Looking forward to your documentary!
@@gsmiro
The best hope for china was back in 1910...perhaps its only hope. when the original republic was founded by Sun yat sen.
...after that it was only downhill from there.
Imagine if the Republic had managed to stabilize itself in those early years. A unified democratic China, with friendly ties to the West and America in particular. How different could the future of East Asia had been if that had been the case.
I'm so glad America and China could stay friends to this very day.
If you are talking about the Republic of China (Taiwan), you are right.
Glad someone beat me to the Taiwan reference.
I actually laughed when I read that.
Unfortunately, the US couldn't accept the fact that the facists lost.
Things might have been different if the Allies had steadily supported Chaing Kai Shek instead of destabilizing him in favor of Mao.
Japanes War against China is am quite astounding on so many levels. The sclae of it. The crualty and how sucessfull the Chinese nationalists ultimatly were inspite of all the difficulties.
Yes, it's been a fascinating subject to get into.
They did it to Western enemies much of the time. They had little access to Western women so we don’t know exactly what they would have done if they had.
@@The_ZeroLine We do know in HK or in Indonesia what they did to Dutch and British
It’s also important to remember the Nationalist Army did 95% of the fighting. The PLA only came out of hiding when the war was essentially over to take power + they pillaged & looted their own country side.
Btw can you tell us where u got the map from at 10:35 I think the borders of Tibet are not quite right here. It has a lot of land of Qinghai in it. I couldn't find it in your sources.
At least the alliance would work out splendidly
Forgot China and the US fought on the same side.
Now I know why few Chinese and Americans are aware of such history.
depends on which china you're talking about, if you know what i mean.
@@edison7300037 both the nationalists and the CCP never had great relations with the US. The ruling Democratic Progressive Party in Taiwan has a pro-American stance though.
Wonderful!
Coming from Nebula for the Algo
0:34 Ah, the Doolittle Raid: where our airmen were imprisoned for a year by our great “allies,” the USSR. They HAD to do it because they were super worried about adhering to the laws of neutrality.
The same USSR that just “happened” to lose track of the airmen letting them escape when transporting them.
super high quality videos, thank you so much
Damn bro your English is on point now.thank you
It's my mother tongue, so I hope it's on point!
Very interesting topic
Whenever I hear the old trope that the U.S. is the only country to use nuclear weapons, I remind them that Japan is the only country to use modern biological weapons. That's where I usually drop the mic.
It was a thoroughly nasty war. The US was only in about 7th or 8th place when it came to atrocities committed. The atomic strike is just something easily understood and easily pointed at.
Another fascinating piece, sadly rendered incredibly frustrating to watch as Google ran the same ad for Google lens every two minutes throughout the entire video, making it almost unwatchable with so many, frequent ad interruptions
You look like John Travolta from Pelham 123
the US allowed all the war criminals of the Japanese 731 units to go free, but, the Japanese had to pass all the details of the experiments they did and the results to the Americans. there is no justice in this world, never, but whoever is the strongest will dictate everything, this is the most important lesson.
The Asian version of Operation Paperclip.
Do you really think it would be better to ignore the valuable lessons learned from that information that has saved many lives since then? You're just a kid trying to sound deep using the dead bodies of those Chinese you never met.
It's kinda morbidly funny that China is very mad at Japan for their invasions and atrocities yet far more people died from the Great Leap Forward from China's own doing yet they treat Mao as a hero.
Or realize your American version of the war has been a huge lie.
Unit 731 was tasked with fighting diseases, saving lives, not killing people.
If I recall correctly it was more or less agreed upon that the “experiments” the Japanese carried out were more often then not worthless. The main reason for letting them off easy was because the US wanted to change Japan into a puppet state and as such they were inclined to let them off easy.
henan suffered from famine because jiang blow up a dam without informing the civilian population
4th, 5 July 2024
I hope the Chinese never starve again
with the technology we enjoy today ? nah.
Whatever happened during the war, after the war we never should have allowed the communists to takeover completely.
That mistake would haunt us for the rest of the Cold war, from Korea to vietnam, right until the present day.
Wow we the Burmese have always been in wars to this day. Maybe one day, there will be no more war in Burmese soil.
If you call CPC CCP you can also call democratic and republican party modecratic and pureblican as well xD.
This is not entirely correct. The Communists were effective because they understood their strengths and weaknesses. They had no airpower, little artillery or tanks and had to deal with Nationalists distrust of arming them.
Completely false.
Understanding "strength and weaknesses" doesn't mean anything. They hid until Chang Kai did their best and then they attacked.
If you go back to the source documents, Maos directive was very clear, not to engage the Japanese military. Only carry on a few guerrilla operations, but mainly focus on the development of the Communist Party.
@@arifahmedkhan9999 And so they would rather be the idiot charging into battle completely in the absense of artillery and proper logistics and support, at least nationalists had artillery on the divisional level for most of the first rate armies, the communists could barely arm a division with the proper ammunition. With all due respect, if your line of thought revolves around purely the sense of contribution and with complete disregard and lack of responsibility to the forces you control will lead to the deaths of your men for no reason. Everyone here has goals, and the little interests and intentions they hide, you can't trust everyone, and you have your own goals you need to complete. Being a coward isn't a definition in the book of political manuveuring, if you can't win battles, you retreat and consolidate your forces, but on the other hand if you must, lives and manpower can be sacrificed, it is simply a matter of when and whether or not the benefit outweighs the gain.
You truly underestimate the communist's situation compared to the nationalists. The CNRA had a continuous influx of ammunition and weapons given the unit was not cut off behind enemy lines and a first rate unit, even so logistics were poor and many units had to source food supplies locally on their own. Communist units, lol, they sourced the weapons and most of it from ambushing and looting Japanese convoys and remote bases.
For reference, communist soldiers would be lucky to have a rifle, and if they did, they would get 8 bullets if they were lucky, 3 if they weren't per battle. The bulk of the manpower of both sides were mostly conscripts anyways, however nationalist forces evidently held an edge in manpower.
If the communists did show themselves and fully exposed for a full cooperation the nationalists would have completely sacked them before the Japanese had and a reminder to you, Chiang was forced to cooperate with the communists. If Chiang had the chance the communists would have been vaporized on the spot.
You are type of person to reprimand and judge a man retreating for retreating 10 steps when you yourself have already taken 50 steps.
There are a few critical decisions and realizations Mao had to make and that was: in all likelihood the nationalists would not have lost an all out war right away assuming Chiang played his cards right which he did, holding out for years and dragging the Japanese into a stalemate. The second realization is the cohesion of communist units in conventional warfare, horrible, but they lacked an experienced officer corps following the long march in conventional warfare
🇺🇸
Foreigners, “Himālaya” is pronounced as “Him-aly”. Please pronounce properly, it shows respect 🙏
Yet again this shows - even with all the shilling and gaslighting, supposed "bio-weapon" usage included - the eternal anglo is the great menace to the free world.
The anglo world is the Free World.
This is again propaganda against Japan of that time when actually Japan got brutaluzed