Editing Second Sino-Japanese War (section)

===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>