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China after all abandoned the three towns of Wuhan when the battled ended. Most of China’s major cities completely fell into the hands of Japan. Why was it marked as the end of the retreating phase and the beginning of a stalemate between the two sides? |
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See answer below. |
The warship SS Zhongshan, originally known as the SS Yongfeng (永豐艦), witnessed some significant historical events since it went into service in 1912. In 1922, Chen Jiongming (陳炯明) instigated a mutiny. Sun Yat-sen (孫中山) then took shelter on SS Yongfeng to escape from Chen, after which the warship was renamed SS Zhongshan in honour of Sun (Zhongshan was another name of Sun). The 1926 SS Zhongshan Incident almost led to the rupture of the Kuomintang of China (KMT, 中國國民黨) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP, 中國共產黨). In 1938, the SS Zhongshan arrived in Wuhan to resist the Japanese invasion. It was severely damaged after the air bombardment and Captain Sa Junshi was also seriously injured but still insisted fighting. In the end, Sa died and the SS Zhongshan was shot and sank. In 1997, the SS Zhongshan was salvaged from the river and now rests in the Zhongshan Warship Museum in Wuhan, where the public can come to pay their respects.
Although Japan won the Battle of Wuhan, a heavy cost of 100,000 casualties was paid for the victory. Meanwhile, the NRA still managed to maintain its strength despite severe losses. China achieved the following strategic goals after the battle:
(1) Redirecting Japan’s offensive line of combat from north-south to east-west. This eliminated the crisis of being annihilated at the coastal regions faced by the main force of the NRA during the early stage of the battle.
(2) Stalling for time to relocate a portion of the strategic resources and military production equipment from the southeastern coastal regions to the rear area that augmented the resistance force for a protracted warfare. Japan’s ambition of “fast-assault and speedy victory” on China was smashed after the Battle of Wuhan. Japan was faced with a protracted warfare in China, leaving it in a disadvantaged position at the upcoming Pacific War.
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China after all abandoned the three towns in Wuhan after the battle. Most of China’s major cities completely fell into the hands of Japan. Why was it marked as the end of the retreating phase and the beginning of a stalemate between the two sides? |
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Indeed, during the first stage of the war (7 July 1937 to 27 October 1938), China employed the strategies of retreating or defending. Despite combating Japan head-on in locations like Shanghai (上海), Xuzhou (徐州), Tai’erzhuang (台兒莊), and Wuhan, and inflicting significant losses on the enemy, China was in general forced to retreat and adopt a defensive stance. Due to superior strength on the battlefield, Japan was able to capture more than half of China’s territory, including most of the regions in North China, East China, Central China, and South China. In China, most developed economic regions along its southeastern coasts and nearly all its major central cities fell into the enemy’s hands. However, Japan failed to achieve its ambition to destroy China within three months, and all the territory it acquired was plain region. Although the Nationalist Government was forced to move its headquarters to Chongqing (重慶) in the southwest, it was the mountainous terrain there that hindered Japan’s mechanised troops from advancing. As time stretched on, China was slowly able to put into effect its vast territory, huge population, and home advantage. Contrastingly, Japan was stretching its manpower and equipment, which were hard to recover due to inefficient transportation, lack of resources, and isolation. A long period of stalemate between the two sides was resulted. |
