Editing Second Sino-Japanese War (section)

==Casualties==
[[File:Casualties of a mass panic - Chungking, China.jpg|thumb|Casualties of a mass panic during a June 1941 Japanese [[bombing of Chongqing]]. More than 5,000 civilians died during the first two days of air raids in 1939.<ref>[[Herbert Bix]], ''[[Hirohito and the making of modern Japan]]'', 2001, p. 364</ref>]]

The conflict lasted eight years, two months and two days (from 7 July 1937, to 9 September 1945). The total number of casualties that resulted from this war (and subsequently theater) equaled more than half the total number of casualties that later resulted from the entire Pacific War.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.history.co.uk/study-topics/history-of-ww2/sino-japanese-war |title=Sino-Japanese War |publisher=History.co.uk |access-date=27 November 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151124021032/http://www.history.co.uk/study-topics/history-of-ww2/sino-japanese-war |archive-date=24 November 2015 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

===Chinese===
* Duncan Anderson, Head of the Department of War Studies at the Royal Military Academy, UK, writing for BBC states that the total number of casualties was around 20&nbsp;million.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/nuclear_01.shtml |title=Nuclear Power: The End of the War Against Japan |publisher=BBC |access-date=2010-12-02 |archive-date=28 November 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151128194317/http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/nuclear_01.shtml |url-status=live }}</ref>
* The official [[PRC]] statistics for China's civilian and military casualties in the Second Sino-Japanese War from 1937 to 1945 are 20&nbsp;million dead and 15&nbsp;million wounded. The figures for total military casualties, killed and wounded are: NRA 3.2&nbsp;million; [[People's Liberation Army]] 500,000.{{citation needed|date=November 2015}}
* The official account of the war published in Taiwan reported that the Nationalist Chinese Army lost 3,238,000 men (1,797,000 wounded, 1,320,000 killed, and 120,000 missing) and 5,787,352 civilians casualties putting the total number of casualties at 9,025,352. The [[Kuomintang|Nationalists]] fought in 22 major engagements, most of which involved more than 100,000 troops on both sides, 1,171 minor engagements most of which involved more than 50,000 troops on both sides, and 38,931 skirmishes.<ref name=Hsu>Hsu Long-hsuen "History of the Sino-Japanese war (1937–1945)" Taipei 1972</ref> The Chinese reported their yearly total battle casualties as 367,362 for 1937, 735,017 for 1938, 346,543 for 1939, and 299,483 for 1941.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Clodfelter |first=Michael |title=Warfare and Armed Conflicts: A Statistical Encyclopedia of Casualty and Other Figures, 1492–2015 |date=2015 |publisher=McFarland & Company |edition=4th |pages=393}}</ref> Additionally, the Ministry of Military Affairs recorded a total of 10,322,934 losses from illnesses, reorganizations, and desertions.<ref name="軍政部">[https://ahonline.drnh.gov.tw/index.php?act=Display/image/5258413I-c9E-=#8cF 國史館檔案史料文物查詢系統，抗戰期間陸軍動員人數統計表，典藏號：008-010701-00015-046]</ref>
* The postwar investigation of Chinese losses by the Nationalist Government recorded a total of 3,407,931 military combat casualties (1,371,374 killed, 1,738,324 wounded, and 298,233 missing) and 422,479 military deaths from illnesses. Additionally, there were 2,313 casualties (1,042 killed and 1,271 wounded) from the Air Defense Service and 9,134,569 civilian casualties (4,397,504 dead and 4,737,065 wounded).{{efn|Does not include civilian casualties in Communist-controlled lands}} Yearly casualties for the army are 881,349 in 1937, 517,121 in 1938, 413,853 in 1939, 153,983 in 1940, 258,530 in 1941, 126,557 in 1942, 67,903 in 1943, 322,625 in 1944, and 649,503 in 1945.{{efn|The losses recorded in 1937 included losses in the [[Mukden Incident]], [[January 28 Incident]], and [[Defense of the Great Wall]]. The losses recorded in 1945 included losses in guerilla fighting from 1937 until 1945}}<ref>[https://ahonline.drnh.gov.tw/index.php?act=Display/image/5258400jNZKRN2#03J 國史館檔案史料文物查詢系統，民國二十六年七月至三十四年八月止抗戰軍事損失統計表（陸軍部門），典藏號：008-010701-00015-052]</ref><ref>[https://ahonline.drnh.gov.tw/index.php?act=Display/image/5056428gRuu=_S 國史館檔案史料文物查詢系統，中日戰爭損失統計（三），典藏號：020-010116-0004]</ref>
* The Ministry of Military Affairs recorded the losses of wounded and sick soldiers in hospital directly administrated by the Nationalist Government at 443,398 losses for wounded soldiers (45,710 dead, 123,017 crippled, and 274,671 deserted) and 937,559 losses for sick soldiers (422,479 dead, 191,644 crippled, and 323,436 deserted), for a total of 1,380,957 losses (468,189 dead, 314,661 crippled, and 598,107 deserted).<ref name="何應欽"/>{{rp|430}}
* An academic study published in the United States in 1959 estimates military casualties: 1.5&nbsp;million killed in battle, 750,000 missing in action, 1.5&nbsp;million deaths due to disease and 3&nbsp;million wounded; civilian casualties: due to military activity, killed 1,073,496 and 237,319 wounded; 335,934 killed and 426,249 wounded in Japanese air attacks.<ref>Ho Ping-ti. Studies on the Population of China, 1368–1953. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1959.</ref> This estimate is based on the National Central Research Institute's study of China's losses in six years from 7 July 1937 until 6 July 1943.<ref>國史館檔案史料文物查詢系統，二十六至三十二年中國對日戰事損失之估計（國立中央研究所社會科學研究所韓啟桐編），典藏號：020-010116-0001 [https://ahonline.drnh.gov.tw/index.php?act=Display/image/5376374P9FeQI3#r1e6]</ref><ref>{{cite book |date=1946 |last=Qitong |first=Han |title=中國對日戰事損失之估計 (1937–1943) |publisher=中華書局| pages=15–23}}</ref>
* According to historian Mitsuyoshi Himeta, at least 2.7&nbsp;million civilians died during the "kill all, loot all, burn all" operation ([[Three Alls Policy]], or ''sanko sakusen'') implemented in May 1942 in north China by general [[Yasuji Okamura]] and authorized on 3 December 1941, by Imperial Headquarter Order number 575.<ref>* {{cite book|last=Himeta|first=Mitsuyoshi|trans-title=Concerning the Three Alls Strategy/Three Alls Policy By the Japanese Forces|title=日本軍による「三光政策・三光作戦をめぐって|publisher=Iwanami Bukkuretto|year=1995|isbn=978-4-00-003317-6|page=43}}</ref>
* The property loss suffered by the Chinese was valued at 383&nbsp;billion US&nbsp;dollars according to the currency exchange rate in July 1937, roughly 50 times the [[gross domestic product]] of Japan at that time (US$7.7&nbsp;billion).<ref>[[Ho Ying-chin]], Who Actually Fought the Sino-Japanese War 1937–1945? 1978</ref>
* In addition, the war created 95&nbsp;million [[refugee]]s.<ref>{{Cite book|title=War, nation, memory : international perspectives on World War II in school history textbooks|last1=Crawford|first1=Keith A.|last2=Foster|first2=Stuart J.|publisher=Information Age|year=2007|isbn=9781607526599|location=Charlotte, NC|page=90|oclc=294758908}}</ref>
* [[Rudolph Rummel]] gave a figure of 3,949,000 people in China murdered directly by the Japanese army while giving a figure of 10,216,000 total dead in the war with the additional millions of deaths due to indirect causes like starvation, disease and disruption but not direct killing by Japan.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Rummel |first1=Rudolph |title=China's Bloody Century Genocide and Mass Murder Since 1900 |date=1991 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9781315081328 |page=348 |url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9781315081328 |doi=10.4324/9781315081328 |access-date=29 April 2020 |archive-date=3 June 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180603094240/https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9781315081328 |url-status=live }}</ref> China suffered from famines during the war caused by drought affected both China and [[British Raj|India]], [[Chinese famine of 1942–43]] in [[Henan]] that led to starvation deaths of 2 to 3&nbsp;million people, Guangdong famine caused more than 3&nbsp;million people to flee or die, and the [[Bengal Famine of 1943|1943–1945 Indian famine in Bengal]] that killed about 3 million Indians in [[Bengal]] and parts of Southern India.<ref>{{cite web|date=2008-11-18|title=The Bengali Famine|url=https://winstonchurchill.org/resources/in-the-media/churchill-in-the-news/bengali-famine/|access-date=2020-11-08|website=The International Churchill Society|archive-date=30 December 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141230160807/http://www.winstonchurchill.org/learn/in-the-media/churchill-in-the-news/575-the-bengali-famine|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Japanese===
The Japanese recorded around 1.1 to 1.9&nbsp;million military casualties during all of World War II (which include killed, wounded and missing). The official death toll of Japanese men killed in China, according to the Japan Defense Ministry, is 480,000. Based on the investigation of the Japanese ''[[Yomiuri Shimbun]]'', the military death toll of Japan in China is about 700,000 since 1937 (excluding the deaths in Manchuria).<ref name="Yomiuri Shimbun"/>

Another source from Hilary Conroy claims that a total of 447,000 Japanese soldiers died or went missing in China during the Second Sino-Japanese War. Of the 1,130,000 Imperial Japanese Army soldiers who died during World War II, 39 percent died in China.<ref name="Coox pp. 308"/>

Then in ''[[War Without Mercy]]'', [[John W. Dower]] claims that a total of 396,000 Japanese soldiers died in China during the Second Sino-Japanese War. Of this number, the Imperial Japanese Army lost 388,605 soldiers and the Imperial Japanese Navy lost 8,000 soldiers. Another 54,000 soldiers also died after the war had ended, mostly from illness and starvation.<ref name="Coox pp. 308">ed. [[Alvin Coox|Coox, Alvin]] and Hilary Conroy "China and Japan: A Search for Balance since World War I", pp. 308.</ref> Of the 1,740,955 Japanese soldiers who died during World War II, 22 percent died in China.<ref name="Ref-1">Dower, John "War Without Mercy", pp. 297.</ref>

Japanese statistics, however, lack complete estimates for the wounded. From 1937 to 1941, 185,647 Japanese soldiers were killed in China and 520,000 were wounded. Disease also incurred critical losses on Japanese forces. From 1937 to 1941, 430,000 Japanese soldiers were recorded as being sick. In North China alone, 18,000 soldiers were evacuated back to Japan for illnesses in 1938, 23,000 in 1939, and 15,000 in 1940.<ref name="Ref-1"/>{{efn|This number does not include the casualties of the large numbers of Chinese collaborator government troops fighting on the Japanese side.|group=efn}} From 1941 to 1945: 202,958 dead; another 54,000 dead after war's end. Chinese forces also report that by May 1945, 22,293 Japanese soldiers were captured as prisoners. Many more Japanese soldiers surrendered when the war ended.<ref name="Coox pp. 308"/><ref name="Ref-1"/>

Contemporary studies from the Beijing Central Compilation and Translation Press state that the Japanese suffered a total of 2,227,200 casualties, including 1,055,000 dead and 1,172,341 injured. This Chinese publication analyzes statistics provided by Japanese publications and claimed these numbers were largely based on Japanese publications.<ref name="Press">Liu Feng, (2007). "血祭太阳旗: 百万侵华日军亡命实录". Central Compilation and Translation Press. {{ISBN|978-7-80109-030-0}}. ''Note'': This Chinese publication analyses statistics provided by Japanese publications.</ref>

Both Nationalist and Communist Chinese sources report that their respective forces were responsible for the deaths of over 1.7&nbsp;million Japanese soldiers.{{Sfn|Hsu|page=565}} Nationalist War Minister [[He Yingqin]] himself contested the Communists' claims, finding it impossible for a force of "untrained, undisciplined, poorly equipped" guerrillas of Communist forces to have killed so many enemy soldiers.<ref>ed. Coox, Alvin and Hilary Conroy "China and Japan: A Search for Balance since World War I", pp. 296.</ref>

The Nationalist Chinese authorities ridiculed Japanese estimates of Chinese casualties. In 1940, the National Herald stated that the Japanese exaggerated Chinese casualties, while deliberately concealing the true number of Japanese casualties, releasing false figures that made them appear much lower. The article reports on the casualty situation of the war up to 1940.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6Rknr9XSMggC|title=China monthly review, Volume 95|year=1940|publisher=Millard Publishing Co.|page=187|access-date=2010-06-28}}</ref>

===Use of chemical and biological weapons===
Despite Article 23 of the [[Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907]], article V of the Treaty in Relation to the Use of Submarines and Noxious Gases in Warfare,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://wwi.lib.byu.edu/index.php/Washington_Treaty_in_Relation_to_the_Use_of_Submarines_and_Noxious_Gases_in_Warfare |title=Washington Treaty in Relation to the Use of Submarines and Noxious Gases in Warfare&nbsp;— World War I Document Archive |publisher=Wwi.lib.byu.edu |access-date=2010-12-02 |archive-date=4 October 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091004221650/http://wwi.lib.byu.edu/index.php/Washington_Treaty_in_Relation_to_the_Use_of_Submarines_and_Noxious_Gases_in_Warfare |url-status=live }}</ref> article 171 of the [[Treaty of Versailles]] and a resolution adopted by the League of Nations on 14 May 1938, condemning the use of poison gas by the Empire of Japan, the Imperial Japanese Army frequently used chemical weapons during the war.

According to Walter E. Grunden, history professor at [[Bowling Green State University]], Japan permitted the use of chemical weapons in China because the Japanese concluded that Chinese forces did not possess the capacity to retaliate in kind.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Grunden |first1=W.E. |editor1-last=Friedrich |editor1-first=B. |editor2-last=Hoffmann |editor2-first=D. |chapter-url=https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-51664-6_14 |editor3-last=Renn |editor3-first=J. |editor4-last=Schmaltz |editor4-first=F. |editor5-last=Wolf |editor5-first=M. |title=One Hundred Years of Chemical Warfare: Research, Deployment, Consequences |date=2017 |publisher=Springer, Cham |isbn=978-3-319-51663-9 |doi=10.1007/978-3-319-51664-6_14 |chapter=No Retaliation in Kind: Japanese Chemical Warfare Policy in World War II |pages=259–271 |s2cid=158528688 |access-date=28 October 2022 |archive-date=16 October 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221016161215/https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-51664-6_14 |url-status=live }}</ref> The Japanese incorporated gas warfare into many aspects of their army, which includes special gas troops, infantry, artillery, engineers and air force; the Japanese were aware of basic gas tactics of other armies, and deployed multifarious gas warfare tactics in China.<ref>{{cite book|author=United States. War Department. Military Intelligence Division|issue=24 of Special series, United States War Dept|date=1944|title=Enemy Tactics in Chemical Warfare|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gq1BAAAAIAAJ&dq=japanese+gas+hand+to+hand+combat&pg=PA69|publisher=War Department|pages=69–86|access-date=28 October 2022|archive-date=2 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230402122509/https://books.google.com/books?id=gq1BAAAAIAAJ&dq=japanese+gas+hand+to+hand+combat&pg=PA69|url-status=live}}</ref> The Japanese were very dependent on gas weapons when they were engaged in chemical warfare.<ref>{{cite book|author=United States. War Department. Military Intelligence Division|issue=24 of Special series, United States War Dept|date=1944|title=Enemy Tactics in Chemical Warfare|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gq1BAAAAIAAJ&dq=japanese+gas+hand+to+hand+combat&pg=PA69|publisher=War Department|pages=69|access-date=28 October 2022|archive-date=2 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230402122509/https://books.google.com/books?id=gq1BAAAAIAAJ&dq=japanese+gas+hand+to+hand+combat&pg=PA69|url-status=live}}</ref>

Japan used poison gas at Hankow during the Battle of Wuhan to break fierce Chinese resistance after conventional Japanese assaults were repelled by Chinese defenders. Rana Mitter writes, {{blockquote|Under General Xue Yue, some 100,000 Chinese troops pushed back Japanese forces at Huangmei. At the fortress of Tianjiazhen, thousands of men fought until the end of September, with Japanese victory assured only with the use of poison gas.{{Sfn|Mitter|2013|p=166}}}}

According to [[Freda Utley]], during the battle at Hankow, in areas where Japanese artillery or gunboats on the river could not reach Chinese defenders on hilltops, Japanese infantrymen had to fight Chinese troops on the hills.<ref name="fredautley1">{{cite book |last=Utley |first=Freda |date=1939 |title=China at War |url=http://www.fredautley.com/pdffiles/book19.pdf |location=London |publisher=Faber and Faber |pages=110–112, 170 |access-date=28 October 2022 |archive-date=28 October 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221028055717/https://fredautley.com/pdffiles/book19.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> She noted that the Japanese were inferior at hand-to-hand combat against the Chinese, and resorted to deploying poison gas to defeat the Chinese troops.<ref name="fredautley1"/> She was told by General [[Li Zongren]] that the Japanese consistently used [[tear gas]] and [[mustard gas]] against Chinese troops.<ref name="fredautley1"/> Li also added that his forces could not withstand large scale deployments of Japanese poison gas.<ref name="fredautley1"/> Since Chinese troops did not have gas-masks, the poison gases provided enough time for Japanese troops to bayonet debilitated Chinese soldiers.<ref name="fredautley1"/>

During the battle in Yichang of October 1941, Japanese troops used chemical munitions in their artillery and mortar fire, and warplanes dropped gas bombs all over the area; since the Chinese troops were poorly equipped and without gas-masks, they were severely gassed, burned and killed.<ref>{{cite book|author=United States. War Department. Military Intelligence Division|issue=24 of Special series, United States War Dept|date=1944|title=Enemy Tactics in Chemical Warfare|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gq1BAAAAIAAJ&dq=japanese+gas+hand+to+hand+combat&pg=PA82|pages=82–83|access-date=28 October 2022|archive-date=2 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230402122514/https://books.google.com/books?id=gq1BAAAAIAAJ&dq=japanese+gas+hand+to+hand+combat&pg=PA82|url-status=live}}</ref>

According to historians [[Yoshiaki Yoshimi]] and Seiya Matsuno, the chemical weapons were authorized by specific orders given by Hirohito himself, transmitted by the Imperial General Headquarters. For example, the Emperor authorized the use of toxic gas on 375 separate occasions during the Battle of Wuhan from August to October 1938.<ref>Y. Yoshimi and S. Matsuno, ''Dokugasusen Kankei Shiryō II (Materials on poison gas warfare), Kaisetsu, Hōkan 2, Jugonen Sensō Gokuhi Shiryōshu'', 1997, pp. 27–29</ref> They were also used during the invasion of Changde. Those orders were transmitted either by [[Prince Kan'in Kotohito]] or General [[Hajime Sugiyama]].<ref>Yoshimi and Matsuno, ''idem'', [[Herbert Bix]], Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan, 2001, pp. 360–364</ref> Gases manufactured in [[Okunoshima]] were used more than 2,000 times against Chinese soldiers and civilians in the war in China in the 1930s and 1940s<ref>{{cite web | first=Nicholas D. | last=Kristof | title=Okunoshima Journal; A Museum to Remind Japanese of Their Own Guilt | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1995/08/12/world/okunoshima-journal-a-museum-to-remind-japanese-of-their-own-guilt.html | archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20190508142011/https://www.nytimes.com/1995/08/12/world/okunoshima-journal-a-museum-to-remind-japanese-of-their-own-guilt.html|archivedate=8 May 2019 | newspaper=The New York Times | date=12 August 1995|accessdate=17 March 2024}}</ref>

[[Bacteriological weapons]] provided by [[Shirō Ishii]]'s units were also profusely used. For example, in 1940, the Imperial Japanese Army Air Force bombed [[Ningbo]] with [[flea]]s carrying the [[bubonic plague]].<ref>''Japan triggered bubonic plague outbreak, doctor claims'', [https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/japan-triggered-bubonic-plague-outbreak-doctor-claims-704147.html] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110912142325/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/japan-triggered-bubonic-plague-outbreak-doctor-claims-704147.html|date=12 September 2011}}, Prince [[Tsuneyoshi Takeda]] and [[Prince Mikasa]] received a special screening by [[Shirō Ishii]] of a film showing imperial planes loading germ bombs for bubonic dissemination over Ningbo in 1940. (Daniel Barenblatt, ''A Plague upon Humanity'', 2004, p. 32.) All these weapons were experimented with on humans before being used in the field.</ref> During the [[Khabarovsk War Crime Trials]] the accused, such as Major General Kiyashi Kawashima, testified that, in 1941, some 40 members of Unit 731 air-dropped plague-contaminated fleas on [[Changde]]. These attacks caused epidemic plague outbreaks.<ref>Daniel Barenblatt, ''A Plague upon Humanity'', 2004, pages 220–221.</ref> In the Zhejiang-Jiangxi Campaign, of the 10,000 Japanese soldiers who fell ill with the disease, about 1,700 Japanese troops died when the biological weapons rebounded on their own forces.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Implementation of Legally Binding Measures to Strengthen the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention: Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Study Institute, Held in Budapest, Hungary, 2001|editor1-first=Marie Isabelle|editor1-last=Chevrier|editor2-first=Krzysztof|editor2-last=Chomiczewski|editor3-first=Henri|editor3-last=Garrigue|volume=150 of NATO science series: Mathematics, physics, and chemistry|edition=illustrated|year=2004|publisher=Springer|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lILltXBTo8oC&pg=PA19|page=19|isbn=1-4020-2097-X|access-date=10 March 2014|archive-date=12 October 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221012014429/https://books.google.com/books?id=lILltXBTo8oC&pg=PA19|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Weapons of Mass Destruction|editor1-first=Eric A.|editor1-last=Croddy|editor2-first=James J.|editor2-last=Wirtz|others=Jeffrey A. Larsen, Managing Editor|year=2005|publisher=ABC-CLIO|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZzlNgS70OHAC&pg=PA171|page=171|isbn=1-85109-490-3|access-date=10 March 2014|archive-date=12 October 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221012014931/https://books.google.com/books?id=ZzlNgS70OHAC&pg=PA171|url-status=live}}</ref> According to statistics from the Nationalist government, the Japanese army from July 1937 until September 1945 used poison gas 1,973 times. Based on available data, a total of 103,069 Chinese soldiers and civilians died from biological and chemical weapons.<ref>國史館檔案史料文物查詢系統，八年血債：七七事變前日寇對我之逼迫、日軍侵華戰爭中暴行（毒虐、屠害、炸擄、縱火）、我軍官兵傷亡及財產損失概況、領袖對日以德報怨、日背信忘義，典藏號：002-110500-00009-008 [https://ahonline.drnh.gov.tw/index.php?act=Display/image/5620671x=zm26c#eOs3]</ref>

Japan gave its own soldiers [[methamphetamines]] in the form of [[Philopon]].<ref>{{cite news |last1=Morgans |first1=Julian |title=A Brief History of Meth |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/from-kamikaze-pilots-to-footy-players-heres-a-short-history-of-ice/ |work=VICE News |date=22 October 2015 |access-date=29 April 2020 |archive-date=6 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200806162920/https://www.vice.com/en_asia/article/4wb78m/from-kamikaze-pilots-to-footy-players-heres-a-short-history-of-ice |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Use of suicide attacks===
Chinese armies deployed "dare to die corps" ({{lang-zh|s=敢死队 |t=敢死隊 |p=gǎnsǐduì |w= |first=t}}) or "suicide squads" against the Japanese.<ref>{{cite book|title=Modern China: the fall and rise of a great power, 1850 to the present|first=Jonathan|last=Fenby|year=2008|publisher=Ecco|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8VIUAQAAIAAJ&q=dare+to+die+corps+swords|page=284|isbn=978-0-06-166116-7|access-date=24 April 2014|archive-date=12 October 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221012014932/https://books.google.com/books?id=8VIUAQAAIAAJ&q=dare+to+die+corps+swords|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[File:Chinese infantry soldier preparing a suicide vest of Model 24 hand grenades at the Battle of Taierzhuang against Japanese Tanks.jpg|thumb|Chinese suicide bomber putting on an explosive vest made out of Model 24 hand grenades to use in an attack on Japanese tanks at the [[Battle of Taierzhuang]]]]

[[Suicide bombing]] was also used against the Japanese. A Chinese soldier detonated a grenade vest and killed 20 Japanese at [[Defense of Sihang Warehouse#29 October|Sihang Warehouse]]. Chinese troops [[Explosive belt|strapped explosives, such as grenade packs or dynamite to their bodies]] and threw themselves under Japanese tanks to blow them up.<ref>{{Cite thesis|last=Schaedler |first=Luc |title=Angry Monk: Reflections on Tibet: Literary, Historical, and Oral Sources for a Documentary Film |degree=PhD |url=http://www.zora.uzh.ch/17710/3/Angry_Monk_Dissertation.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140719204815/http://www.zora.uzh.ch/17710/3/Angry_Monk_Dissertation.pdf |archive-date=19 July 2014 |date=Autumn 2007 |page=518 |publisher=University of Zurich |access-date=24 April 2014 |url-status=dead }}</ref> This tactic was used during the Battle of Shanghai, where a Chinese suicide bomber stopped a Japanese tank column by exploding himself beneath the lead tank,<ref>{{cite book|title=Shanghai 1937: Stalingrad on the Yangtze|first=Peter|last=Harmsen|edition=illustrated|year=2013|publisher=Casemate|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jpPUAgAAQBAJ&q=shanghai+grenade+tanks+japanese&pg=PT127|page=112|isbn=978-1-61200-167-8|access-date=24 April 2014|archive-date=12 October 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221012014932/https://books.google.com/books?id=jpPUAgAAQBAJ&q=shanghai+grenade+tanks+japanese&pg=PT127|url-status=live}}</ref> and at the Battle of Taierzhuang, where dynamite and grenades were strapped on by Chinese troops who rushed at Japanese tanks and blew themselves up.<ref>{{cite journal|date=Summer 2001 |title=Chinese Tank Forces and Battles before 1949 |url=http://mailer.fsu.edu/~akirk/tanks/Stories/emagazine-3/tanks/Chinese_Tank_Forces_and_Battles_before_1945_ed.htm |journal=TANKS! E-Magazine |issue=#4 |access-date=2 August 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121007212422/http://mailer.fsu.edu/~akirk/tanks/Stories/emagazine-3/tanks/Chinese_Tank_Forces_and_Battles_before_1945_ed.htm |archive-date=7 October 2012 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=China Condensed: 5000 Years of History & Culture|first=Siew Chey|last=Ong|edition=illustrated|year=2005|publisher=Marshall Cavendish|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bt7q8hfiZ4gC&q=taierzhuang+suicide+bombers&pg=PA94|page=94|isbn=981-261-067-7|access-date=24 April 2014|archive-date=12 October 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221012014932/https://books.google.com/books?id=bt7q8hfiZ4gC&q=taierzhuang+suicide+bombers&pg=PA94|url-status=live}}</ref> During one incident at Taierzhuang, Chinese suicide bombers destroyed four Japanese tanks with grenade bundles.{{citation needed|date=November 2019}}