ON THIS DAY ·
Changsha fire
13 Nov 1938 — Alarmed by the fall of Wuhan, the garrison set fire to Changsha while the enemy was still 100 km away. The accidental inferno killed some 20,000–30,000 people, a terrible loss inflicted by China’s own side. Changsha went on to repel three Japanese offensives in 1939–42, remaining a stubborn hinge of the war.
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The moment in context
For six years after 1938, Japan occupied a network rather than the whole of China. Its garrisons held cities, railways and river valleys, but the countryside between these points and lines was much harder to govern. Communist base areas spread across the north, and government guerrillas held mountain districts. Even with about a million troops in China, Japan could guard the routes more securely than it could control the land around them.
From Sino-Japanese War stalemate, chapter 9 of China in Revolution, 1911–1949 (1944).
The place: Changsha fire — map and full story →
Teach this in 5 minutes
- Why it happened — Why the front froze. By late 1938, each Japanese advance created another stretch of railway to protect. Guerrillas could cut the line between garrisons, while Chinese…
- The turn — Hengyang, June–August 1944. Hengyang held for 47 days in June–August 1944. Its defenders’ courage could not prevent the city’s fall, after which Ichigo advanced essentially…
- What it changed — The starting positions of the next war. The armies Ichigo wrecked and displaced would be needed again after Japan surrendered. Some of the Nationalists’ best remaining forces were far away…
Then ask the room: How did the Nationalists and Communists fight Japan, and why did their different roles matter afterward? The argued answer is on the chapter page →
The atlas that shows it
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