Japanese Navy. Nanjing Raiders Battle

The Anti-Japanese War broke out in 1937, Japanese navy, as an important waterway and air offensive forces, coordinated Japanese ground force to launched an attack against Nanjing. China has always elaborated this war as a defensive war, and neglects the tasks undertaken by Japanese navy and their role for a long time, also, there are some disputes over the starting time of the war. This paper will analyze the major activities and role of Japanese navy during Nanjing Defensive War which is based on the fact of the bombardment against Nanjing by Japanese naval air force, August 15th,1937.The major force Japan Navy dispatched in this war are marine air force, naval vessel army which belongs to the Third Fleet, and a small number of marine force for auxiliary. This paper will start from the strategic intention and deployment of Japanese invasion of China in Nanjing, give an analysis through two main aspects:Japanese marine air force and the Surface vessel force. In the marine air force aspect, on the basis of the bombardment of Nanjing by Japanese army, through a series of the contrast of archival material, the writer preliminarily analyzes the property of the bombardment of Nanjing and meanwhile gives an analysis to the "Panay ship" incident. In the Japan naval surface forces aspect, the writer mainly take the Japanese Navy in Jiangyin, Zhenjiang, and Jiangning three fort area's successive fighting process as the clue, and gave an elaboration of Japan's aggression to Nanjing through Yangtze River waterway.Finally, according to a series of historical studies and comparisons, the paper come to the conclusion that Japanese navy is an unnegligible force under the Japan's strategic intention to force Chinese government to give in through the strategy of "Great circuity, Great besieging" carried out by Japanese navy to annihilate Chinese major force.