Comments by "John Walsh" (@johnwalsh4857) on "Why WW2 SHOULD have Started in 1937 - The Forgotten Bloody Prelude of WW2" video.

  1. yaha cause the KMT Chinese leader Chiang Kai Shek identified his ideology with Nazi Germany, the KMT under Chiang Kai Shek was traditionalist Chinese nationalistic with fascistic elements in its ideology. So from 1926 to 1937, Germany was the largest trading partner to KMT China. Germany developed Chinese railways , the KMT military , tech know how in exchange for natural resources like Tungsten. Germany abandoned China for Japan in 1937 but Germany still had close ties with teh KMT gov. and even sold it weapons under the table and the ties ended with the Chinese declaration of war vs. Germany in Dec 1941. Many German military leaders in the Wehrmacht actually liked the KMT Chinese over the Japanese who they were really suspicious of.
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  2. If you want something stranger , the KMT under CHiang cut off ties with the USSR in 1926 and was considred an enemy but when Germany sided with Japan, the KMT which was very anti communist was helped a lot by the biggest commie in the world the USSR. who sent massive amounts of weapons and even advisers , engineers volunteers to fight for the KMT. THe USSR did little to help the Chinese communists as Stalin viewed the KMT to be the best enemy vs. Japan, and Stalin wanted to bog down the Japanese in China.
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  3. I agree many Chinese historians points out the start of the Second Sino Japanese war as not in 1937 but in 1931, from 1931 to 1937 the KMT and the Japanese would fight numerous battles. in a undeclared war. Also the battle of Shanghai in 1937 is the second battle of Shanghai, the first one was in 1932.
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  4.  @arthas640  Quite true.
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  5. a correction The Battle of Wuhan 1938 was the bloodiest battle of the 1937 to 1939 part of the Second Sino Japanese war and the most important, this battle was the start of the stalemate in central China which would not end until 1944 which Operation Ichigo
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  6.  @johnemmert9012  also it was political suicide for any Chinese leader esp. Chiang Kai Shek to agree to any negotiation or armistice from the Japanese, not only political suicide but also literal suicide like someone would probably assasinate or execute him. Also the Japanese demands were so onerous that it was just plain unacceptable to accept any of the Japanese demands for an armistice. So the war was prolonged due to a combination of unreasonable Japanese demands and Chinese political and physical suicide for any chinese leader to do so.
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  7. Battle of Wuhan 1938 was also the largest battle up until operation ichi go in 1944.
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  8. It is arguable that the USSR was the most important ally of the KMT vs. Japan. The gave massive amounts of weapons and gave thousands of advisers pilots and engineers to teh KMT Chinese who btw hated the Communists. Just to bog down the Japanese sicne Stalin at the time viewed them as the main enemy of the USSR. Soviet support to the KMT was critical in their survival vs. Japan. from 1937-1941.
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  9.  @jameshannagan7830  and why did Stalin post like half a million of his best troops or even a million with a thousand tanks at the Manchurian border just to keep the japanese at bay. Stalin had strong memories of the Russian defeat at the Russo Japanese war as well as the Japanese occupation of the Russian far east and Siberia back in the 20s. and the Japanese vice versa viewed the Soviets as a grave threat to their holdings in Manchuria, China and Korea. and they also hated Commies since commies hated their god Emperor.
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  10.  @jameshannagan7830  unfortunately if you think in hindsight that everyone does risk or axis and allies in regards to military history you are quite ignorant and mistaken.
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  11.  @jameshannagan7830  Besides getting beaten in Khalkin gol a number of reasons why the Japanese did not attack the USSR: 1. nothing really to gain, lots of developed oil resources which was critical to Japan was to be had in South East Asia . 2. terrain sucked balls. 3. transportation infrastructure sucked balls. 4. the USSR military was proved to be strong so the japanese shifted to a defensive strategy facing the USSR.
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  12.  @jameshannagan7830  and even if the Japanese lets say in an alternate history invaded the USSR in 41 in confjuction with Barbarossa, it would be a disaster for the Japanese , they would probably be able to take territory but not hold it, lots of casualties and losses and resource expenditure for nothing but forests, and bears.
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  13.  @jameshannagan7830  So the strike south was decided on, to get the oil resources to keep the war in China going. and yes China was quite important to the Japanese. And in hindsight, that was quite a folly, however at the time, the japanese leadership did not think so even though many would think they crazy to do it.
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  14. If you ask the Spanish its 1936
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