Bombing of Chongqing

Significance

The bombing of Chongqing, extending from February 1938 to December 1944, constituted one of the most sustained terror bombing campaigns of the Second Sino-Japanese War. Authorized by Imperial General Headquarters and conducted jointly by the IJAAF and IJNAF, the operations targeted Chongqing in its role as China's provisional wartime capital, making the city a focal point of Japanese strategic pressure against the Nationalist government of Chiang Kai-shek. By striking the seat of Chinese wartime administration, Japan sought to break civilian and governmental will to continue resistance after the fall of coastal and central Chinese territories. The campaign ran across nearly seven years of the wider conflict, reflecting both the importance Japan placed on collapsing Nationalist authority and the failure of the bombing to achieve that political objective. Chinese air and anti-aircraft forces maintained organized resistance throughout, and the Nationalist government remained in Chongqing, underscoring the limits of strategic bombing against a dispersed, interior capital.

Commanders (6)