Chinese battlefield played major role in victory

World Today

Wednesday marks the Chinese victory over Japan in 1937, which helped the Allies’ victory in World War II.

China was the first country to be invaded by a fascist state, and the first to fight back. Japan invaded the northeast of China in 1931. It launched a full scale invasion in 1937.

When China began the national war of resistance, it was up against two thirds of Japan’s land forces and much of its naval and air forces.

By some estimates, 1.5 million Japanese soldiers were killed or wounded. Chinese soldiers and civilians killed or wounded were estimated at more than 35 million. However, that resistance defeated the Japanese plan to take China in three months and further expand into the rest of Asia. It also gained time for the allies in the European battlefield to defeat Germany and Italy.

CCTV’s Wu Guoxiu reports.