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1938

By January 1938, most conventional Kuomintang forces had either been defeated or no longer offered major resistance to Japanese advances. Communist-led rural resistance to the Japanese remained active, however.

At the start of 1938, the leadership in Tokyo still hoped to limit the scope of the conflict to occupy areas around Shanghai, Nanjing and most of northern China. They thought this would preserve strength for an anticipated showdown with the Soviet Union, but by now the Japanese government and GHQ had effectively lost control of the Japanese army in China.