740.0011 Pacific War/3308: Telegram
The Chargé in China (Atcheson) to the Secretary of State
[Received June 29—1:09 p.m.]
1052. Embassy’s 782, May 25, 7 p.m.; 911, June 13, 9 a.m.; 975, June 21 [20], 1 [11] a.m.79; 999, June 23, 9 a.m.; and 1032, June 27, noon [midnight].80
A number of foreign press correspondents have just returned from a two weeks journey to the Yangtze front arranged at their request by the Chinese authorities. They saw no fighting and at such late date were unable to obtain comprehensive or important first hand information in regard to the operations which took place during late May and earlier in June but a number of interesting aspects of the general picture appear to have come to light.
While they were told by the Chinese military that Chinese casualties were 10,000 in round numbers and Japanese casualties were 30,000, it is generally understood (and the Military Attaché so believes) that on the Yangtze sector there were never more than 24,000 Jap troops in action as against some 110,000 Chinese forces and that the number of Jap casualties was approximately 7,000. The success of the Chinese troops and the American Air Force which has resulted into a virtual return to the May status quo was due in part—and with much credit to the American Air Force—to coordinate Sino-American action. It [Page 68] was also due in part to the fact which now appears that the Jap divisions included an appreciable admixture of puppet Chinese soldiers, the Military Attaché’s estimate of the ratio in some of the units being one Jap to two Koreans and six Manchurians. (Whether Wang Ching-wei troops actually took part in combat seems to be unknown.) This appears to have been the first Sino-Jap fighting outside of Manchuria on any scale in which puppet troops participated to a considerable extent.