Japanese War Crimes in China 1937-45

China’s war against Japan was one of the largest, bloodiest and most consequential theatres of the Second World War — yet it is still too often treated as peripheral to the wider conflict.

In this episode of the Explaining History podcast, we examine China’s experience of war through Max Hastings’ All Hell Let Loose, exploring the struggle between Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalists and Mao Zedong’s Communists, the immense strain placed on Japanese military resources, and the devastating human consequences of occupation.

We look at the strategic importance of China to both Japan and the United States, the brutal campaigns fought across the country, and the extraordinary scale of civilian suffering. The episode also explores Japanese biological warfare and Unit 731, the racial ideology underpinning imperial expansion, the exploitation of so-called “comfort women,” and the enduring trauma left by wartime sexual violence.

Along the way, we consider a larger question: how should we understand China’s role in the defeat of Imperial Japan, and how did the experience of occupation shape the political and historical memory of East Asia after 1945?

This episode contains discussion of war crimes, sexual violence and other distressing material.

Part one of a continuing exploration of China’s Second World War.

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