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| A scene from the 2020 Chinese movie, The 800, depicting the Battle of Shanghai |
The Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945), also known as the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression in China, involved a fragile United Front between the Kuomintang (KMT, or Nationalists) led by Chiang Kai-shek and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) led by Mao Zedong. The two factions had been engaged in civil war prior to Japan's full-scale invasion, but they nominally allied to resist the Japanese Imperial Army.
However, their contributions differed significantly in scale, strategy, and impact. The KMT bore the brunt of conventional warfare and major engagements, while the CCP focused on guerrilla operations, sabotage, and building political influence in rural areas.
Comparing the KMT and the CCP
Aspect | KMT (Nationalists) | CCP (Communists) |
|---|---|---|
Troop Strength (1937) | ~1.7 million | ~30,000–640,000 (including militias) |
Troop Strength (1945) | ~5.7 million | ~1.2 million (plus 2.7 million militias) |
Military Casualties | 3.2–4 million total (1.3–1.8 million killed, 1.7–1.8 million wounded, 120,000–300,000 missing) | 446,000–584,000 total (160,000 dead, 290,000 wounded, 87,000 missing) |
Major Engagements | 22 large-scale battles, primary defender in urban/frontline warfare | Limited; focused on guerrilla actions, e.g., 1 major offensive (Hundred Regiments) |
Controlled Territory (1945) | Urban centers and southern/western China | 19 rural base areas (~95–100 million people) |
Historians generally agree that the KMT conducted the majority of direct combat against Japanese forces, suffering far higher casualties and engaging in large-scale battles. The CCP's military role was more limited.
The KMT participated in 23 major campaigns and over 1,100 significant engagements (with CCP involvement in just one), while CCP forces accounted for only about 3% of Chinese casualties against Japan through mid-1939, per internal CCP reports.
Furthermore from 1937 to 1945, there were 23 recorded engagements where both the Chinese and the Imperial Japanese fielded at least one regiment each. The CCP only participated in one (Battle of Pingxingguan), and was not a major force in that battle. Of the 40,000 recorded skirmishes between the Chinese and Japanese, CCP was involved in 200 of them (or 0.5%).
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| Japan plane over China (c 1940) |
Conclusion
Officially, particularly in official People's Republic of China (PRC), narratives portray the CCP as the primary or "bulwark" force in defeating Japan. While the CCP did engage in guerrilla warfare, sabotage, and rural mobilization—such as the Hundred Regiments Offensive in 1940, which disrupted Japanese infrastructure—these efforts were strategically limited to preserve strength for the impending civil war against the KMT.
In reality, the KMT bore the overwhelming brunt of conventional battles, suffering the majority of casualties and tying down Japanese forces in large-scale engagements like Shanghai, Wuhan, and Changsha.
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