Zhejiang-Jiangxi Campaign

Battle context

The Zhejiang-Jiangxi Campaign, also known as Operation Sei-go, was fought between the Imperial Japanese Army's China Expeditionary Army under Shunroku Hata and Chinese 3rd War Area forces under Gu Zhutong across the provinces of Zhejiang and Jiangxi from mid-May to early September 1942. The disparity in force sizes was stark: Japan committed 180,000 troops against a Chinese strength of roughly 22,000, and the outcome reflected this imbalance — China suffered 23,637 casualties against Japanese losses of 1,284. The campaign represented a significant Japanese offensive effort within the broader Second Sino-Japanese War, targeting a strategically sensitive corridor in eastern China. Chinese forces were unable to prevent Japanese operational objectives from being pursued across both provinces, and the scale of Chinese losses relative to the forces engaged underscored the continued difficulty facing Nationalist armies in defending against concentrated Imperial Japanese Army thrusts in this phase of the war.