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Battle of Changsha (September 17, 1939 – October 6, 1939) was the first of four attempts by Japan to take the city of Changsha (長沙市), Hunan (湖南省), during the second Sino-Japanese War. It was the first major battle of the war to fall within the time frame of what is widely considered World War II. == Background and strategy == The war had reached a stalemate after two years of fighting. Professor Fu Sinian (傅斯年) noted in July 1939 that while the Chinese army had become stronger, the Japanese army had weakened.〔 On August 15, the 11th Army came up with the general plans for a campaign south of the Yangtze, ranging 250 kilometers from the Xinjiang River to the Gan River (贛江). In early September, Japanese General Toshizō Nishio of the "Japanese Expeditionary Forces to China" and Lieutenant-General Seishirō Itagaki set out to capture Changsha, the provincial capital of Hunan. The Japanese 101st and 106th Divisions were deployed on the western bank of the Gan River in northern Jiangxi (江西), and the 6th, 3rd, 13th, and 33rd Divisions marched southward from southern Hubei (湖北省) to northern Hunan. Two of the primary motivating factors for the Japanese in launching the attack were the signing of a non-aggression pact by their German ally with their Soviet enemy, and their defeat by Soviet forces at Nomonhan. A large attack on the Chinese would therefore restore morale.〔Van De Ven, Hans J., ''War and Nationalism in China, 1925–1945'', pg. 237.〕 In addition, Germany's invasion of Poland on September 1 gave the Japanese further motivation to crush China's will to fight in order to pave the way for the establishment of Wang Jingwei's (汪精衛) puppet government in Central China (華中).〔 Altogether, it became obvious that the 100,000 strong Japanese force was to converge on Changsha. The Chinese strategy was to counter the enemy column in northern Jiangxi and then encircle the line on the path southward. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Battle of Changsha (1939)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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