Introduction
On the discussion of World War II, people rarely consider the role that China played in the war, when in fact its struggles were long, its casualties were high, and its influence in the eventual Allied victory was significant. China was the first country to enter what would become World War II. Although WWII officially started in 1939 and ended in 1945, China was in constant conflict with Japan for a total of 14 years prior to and during this time frame. China was part of the allied forces during the second world war and became so just after the bombing on Pearl Harbor in 1941 when it allied with the United States and Great Britain. China’s involvement and focus was mainly in the Second Sino-Japanese war (July 7, 1937 – September 9, 1945), which was merged with the second world war after China also declared war on Germany and Italy. In this struggle, China mainly fought against the Japanese for control of its mainland. In the end, this nation suffered a total of 20 million civilian and military deaths coming in at one of highest death tolls of any country, second only to the Soviet Union, and became one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council for its involvement in the war. In addition, this war was an important factor in the eventual Communist defeat of the Nationalist troops in 1949.