The Second Sino-Japanese War (July 7, 1937-September 9, 1945) was a major war fought between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan before and during World War II. It was the largest Asian war in the twentieth century. Although the two countries had fought intermittently since 1931, full-scale war started in earnest in 1937 and ended only with the surrender of Japan in 1945. The war was the result of a decades-long Japanese imperialist policy aiming to dominate China politically and militarily to secure its vast raw material reserves and other resources.
After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the Second Sino-Japanese War merged into the greater conflict of World War II. Japan, like Italy, was late in launching the extra-territorial imperial project. This was not an expression of the will of the people, but of the militaristic leaders of the nation at the time. However, it was also an assertion of Japan's status as a power in her own right. Having successfully warded off the interference by the European colonial powers of the U.S., she now aspired to become an imperial power in the image of those who had tried to dominate her, so blame for atrocities that were committed ought properly to be shared. All imperial powers, including those who censured Japan's actions as immoral, have committed crimes against humanity.
In September 1945, China's long and bloody war with Japan finally came to an end - millions had died and thousands of foreigners were held in internment camps. As Japan surrendered, my great-uncle was sent to Shanghai to find out what had happened to British citizens trapped during World War Two.
By 1945, China had been fighting for eight years, longer than any other Allied power. It had lost perhaps 14 million people, second only to the Soviet Union.
In 1938, as the Japanese swept across eastern China, Chiang's nationalist regime had taken refuge in Chongqing, deep in the mountains of western China, clinging to the banks of the Yangtze River. Mao Zedong and his communist guerrilla army were far to the north in the caves of Yanan on the high Loess plateau of Shaanxi.
For years the people of Chongqing had been terrorised by Japanese aerial bombing. Japan wanted China out of the war and was trying to force Chiang Kai-shek to negotiate a truce.
The ceremony for Japan's surrender in China Theater was held in the auditorium of the Central Military Academy in Nanjing on September 9, 1945.
The surrender of Japan to the Allies was announced by Emperor Hirohito by broadcast on August 15 and was formally signed on the United States Navy Battleship USS Missouri on September 2.
Since the Japanese government had accepted the terms of the Potsdam Declaration and called for an unconditional surrender, it was asked by the Chinese government to cease all the military operations in China.
The ceremony lasted for 15 minutes and General He Yingqin, Commander-in-Chief of the Chinese Army, and Okamura Yasutsugu, Commander-in-Chief of Japan's China Expeditionary Army, represented their respective governments.
Yasuji Okamura signed the Act of Surrender-China Theater, which was later handed to He Yingqin. Japan declared its unconditional surrender.
The Japanese surrender party departed for Nanjing on August 23. A party of 160 Chinese officers also arrived in Nanjing on August 27 to establish an advance headquarters for the ceremony.
Also in attendance were representatives from the United States, Britian, France, Russia and other counties of the Allies of World War II.
This ceremony is one of the most important moments in Chinese history. It signifies the victory of China's eight-year War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression.
One of the invitation letters of the ceremony was displayed in the Museum of the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression in Beijing, which was from General Gou Jitang.
The letter of invitation to the ceremony listed some notes asking not to offend the representatives of Japan verbally or physically and not to smoke or make noise during the ceremony.
—New World Encyclopedia