Proposed Japanese invasion of Sichuan
1942 failed plan to destroy the Republic of China
The proposed Japanese invasion of Sichuan was the Imperial Japanese Army's failed plan to destroy the Republic of China during the Second Sino-Japanese War. It was to be a stepping stone for the Empire of Japan's final control of the Chinese mainland.
The operation started in spring of 1942, after the first phase of operations had been concluded in south China, and continued through spring of 1943. The operation is noted for Japan's sustained bombing of cities in central west China.
Basic plan
The basic plan was to make a multi-front breakthrough to Sichuan from northern Shanxi, central Hubei and southern Hunan. Heavy aerial support and bombing of Chongqing was to support the advance of the Japanese Army and their Collaborationist Chinese Army puppets. Japanese Navy patrol boats from the Yangtze river were to provide further bombardment. Chiang Kai-shek discussed the invasion in his book Soviet Russia in China, stating:
The Imperial General Headquarters sent the order for drawing down 16 divisions and logistics support units from Japan reserves, Manchukuo and Southern Areas (including New Guinea and Solomon islands also) to reinforce the Japanese expeditionary forces in central China area, to prepare the principal force of ten divisions in south Shaanxi and other support group conformed by six Divisions of Yichang in Hubei amongst other Divisions located in Changde, in Hunan, for striking Sichuan and the occupation of Chongqing in September 1942.
By coincidence, September 1942 was also the time when the German Wehrmacht was closing in on Stalingrad. The invasion phase was to involve Japanese units first occupying Wanxian, from where the Japanese could advance to Chongqing-proper in echelon.
The public source identifies “Proposed Japanese invasion of Sichuan” as 1942 failed plan to destroy the Republic of China. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Proposed, Japanese and invasion.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7507448. Authority coordinates are 30.000, 103.000. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1942 and 1943.
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This entry incorporates text from “Proposed Japanese invasion of Sichuan” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.