Session 6: The Japanese Air Campaign against China , 1937-1941, and Chinese Air Defense

There are critical historical issues surrounding the Japanese strategic air campaign against China . These can be readily identified. Most importantly , the Japanese air campaign against China, 1937-1941, was undertaken as a consequence of the onset of a military stalemate on the ground and therefore to attempt to achieve what Japanese ground operations had not been able to achieve: to force the Nationalist government to the bargaining table. The means employed were terror bombing of Chinese cities and secondarily the interdiction of China 's road and rail communications with the outside world. The central questions surrounding this campaign are: 1) Why was Japan unable to achieve this objective? and 2) Did the failure of the Japanese air campaign against China hold lessons for the use of airpower that should have been heeded in the West before the onset of the war in Europe ?