IB History Impact of the Second Sino-japanese War Key Definitions

Women, primarily Korean but also Chinese and other Asian nationals, who were coerced or deceived into sexual servitude for the Japanese military during the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II. An estimated 200,000 women were held in "comfort stations" across Japanese-occupied Asia. The issue remains a major point of historical grievance between Japan and its Asian neighbours and has been a recurring source of diplomatic tension.

The collapse of China's currency value during and after the Second Sino-Japanese War. The GMD government financed the war primarily by printing money, producing inflation that accelerated after 1945. By 1948, prices were doubling every few weeks. The failed Gold Yuan Reform (August 1948) made things worse, wiping out urban savings and destroying the credibility of the GMD government. Hyperinflation severely undermined support for the GMD among the urban middle class during the Civil War.

A renewed alliance between the Guomindang and the Chinese Communist Party to resist Japanese invasion, formed after the Xi'an Incident (December 1936). Unlike the First United Front, cooperation was minimal and often hostile: both sides prioritised building their own military strength for the anticipated post-war conflict. The CCP used the period to expand its territorial base and army, emerging from the war far stronger than it had entered it.

A Japanese counter-insurgency strategy applied in occupied China, roughly translating as "kill all, burn all, loot all." It was designed to deprive the CCP's guerrillas of civilian support by destroying entire villages suspected of sheltering resistance fighters. The policy killed millions of Chinese civilians and caused enormous destruction across northern China, fuelling hatred of Japanese occupation and strengthening support for the Communist guerrillas among the rural population.

A strategic concept used by Chinese forces in the Second Sino-Japanese War to describe the deliberate exchange of territory for the opportunity to wear down the Japanese military over a prolonged conflict. Rather than defending fixed positions against superior Japanese firepower, Chinese commanders (particularly GMD generals) chose strategic retreat to avoid destruction of their armies, accepting territorial losses in the expectation that Japan's limited capacity for a prolonged war would eventually force a negotiated settlement.