Operation Ichi-Go

Operation Ichi-Go
Part of the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Pacific Theater of World War II

Japanese plan for Operation Ichi-Go
Date (1944-04-19) (1944-12-31)April 19 – December 31, 1944
(8 months, 1 week and 5 days)[1]
Location
Result Japanese victory
Belligerents
 Japan  Republic of China
 United States
Commanders and leaders
Empire of Japan Shunroku Hata
Empire of Japan Yasuji Okamura
Empire of Japan Isamu Yokoyama
Empire of Japan Hisakazu Tanaka
Republic of China (1912–1949) Tang Enbo
Republic of China (1912–1949) Xue Yue
Republic of China (1912–1949) Bai Chongxi
Republic of China (1912–1949) Zhang Fakui
Republic of China (1912–1949) Fang Xianjue
Republic of China (1912–1949) Li Jiayu 
United States Joseph Stilwell
United States Albert Coady Wedemeyer
United States Claire Lee Chennault
Strength
500,000
15,000 vehicles
1,500 artillery pieces
800 tanks
100,000 horses
200 bombers
1,000,000[2]
Casualties and losses
100,000 killed[3]
heavy materiel losses[4]
500,000-600,000 casualties (according to "China's Bitter Victory: War with Japan, 1937-45")[2]
Armies totalling 750,000 'destroyed' or put out of action according to Cox[5][6]

Operation Ichi-Go (Japanese: 一号作戦, romanizedIchi-gō Sakusen, lit.'Operation Number One') was a campaign of a series of major battles between the Imperial Japanese Army forces and the National Revolutionary Army of the Republic of China, fought from April to December 1944. It consisted of three separate battles in the Chinese provinces of Henan, Hunan and Guangxi.

These battles were the Japanese Operation Kogo or Battle of Central Henan, Operation Togo 1 or the Battle of Changheng, and Operation Togo 2 and Togo 3, or the Battle of Guilin–Liuzhou, respectively. The two primary goals of Ichi-go were to open a land route to French Indochina, and capture air bases in southeast China from which American bombers were attacking the Japanese homeland and shipping.[7]

In Japanese the operation was also called Tairiku Datsū Sakusen (大陸打通作戦), or "Continent Cross-Through Operation", while the Chinese refer to it as the Battle of Henan-Hunan-Guangxi (simplified Chinese: 豫湘桂会战; traditional Chinese: 豫湘桂會戰; pinyin: Yù Xīang Guì Huìzhàn).

  1. ^ Davison, John The Pacific War: Day By Day, pg. 37, 106
  2. ^ a b Hsiung & Levine 1992, p. 165.
  3. ^ [1] 記者が語りつぐ戦争 16 中国慰霊 読売新聞社 (1983/2) P187
  4. ^ "Operation Ichi-Go" Archived 2015-11-17 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 16 Nov. 2015
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Cox 1980 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Sandler, Stanley. "World War II in the Pacific: an Encyclopedia" p. 431
  7. ^ The U.S. Army Campaigns of World War II: China Defensive, pg. 21