Zhejiang-Jiangxi campaign
The Zhejiang-Jiangxi campaign or the Chekiang–Kiangsi campaign (Japanese: 浙贛作戦, simplified Chinese: 浙赣战役; traditional Chinese: 浙赣戰役; pinyin: Zhè-Gàn Zhànyì), also known as Operation Sei-go (Japanese: せ号作戦), was a campaign by the China Expeditionary Army of the Imperial Japanese Army under Shunroku Hata and Chinese 3rd War Area forces under Gu Zhutong in Chinese provinces of Zhejiang and Jiangxi from mid May to early September 1942.
| Zhejiang-Jiangxi campaign | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Second Sino-Japanese War, World War II | |||||||
A Japanese soldier with 50 mm heavy grenade discharger during the Zhejiang-Jiangxi Campaign, 30 May 1942 | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
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China United States | Japan | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
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Gu Zhutong Shangguan Yunxiang Tang Shih-Tsun Wang Jingjiu Li Jue Xue Yue Ou Zhen Shi Zhongcheng Wang Yaowu Xia Chuzhong Sun Du Feng Sheng-Fa Ding Zhipan Wang Tieh-Han Chang Wen-Ching Tao Kuang Liu Yu-Ching Fan Tse-Ying Mo Yu-Shuo |
Shunroku Hata Shigeru Sawada Korechika Anami Sanji Ōkido Tetsuzo Ide Takayuki Uchida Toshijiro Takeuchi Johkichi Nanbu Haruo Yamamura Hachiro Tagami Tagaji Takahashi Shigeru Ōga Saburo Takehara Takejiro Imai Tokutaro Ide Giichi Hirano Naotsugu Sakai † | ||||||
| Units involved | |||||||
| Republic of China Army |
Imperial Japanese Army Unit 731 | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 300,000 | 180,000 | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 70,000 killed in action | 36,000 | ||||||
| 250,000 civilians massacred | |||||||
Japanese troops used biological weapons against Chinese soldiers and civilians alike. Japanese soldiers also committed massacres throughout the battle, resulting in over 300,000 Chinese deaths. Shunroku Hata, the commander of Japanese forces involved in the massacre of the 250,000 Chinese civilians, was sentenced in 1948 in part due to his "failure to prevent atrocities". He was given a life sentence but was paroled in 1954 after only serving six years.