Other men are the carving knife and serving dish; we are the fish and the meat.
—Dr. Sun Yat-sen
Keep men, lose land: land can be taken again. Keep land, lose men: land and men are both lost.
— Mao Zedong, 1939
We shall not lightly talk about sacrifice until we are driven to the last extreme which makes sacrifice inevitable.
— Chiang Kai-Shek, 1939
In the event of a sustained nuclear bombing, the protection of the Japanese nation would be rather difficult.
— Emperor Hirohito, 1945
The war has developed not necessarily to Japan's advantage.
— Emperor Hirohito, 1945
The Greater East Asian War was righteous and justified.
— General Hideki Tojo, 1946
There's no solution except to break the power of Chiang Kai-shek by capturing Nanking. That is what I must do.
— General Iwane Matsui
KILL ALL CAPTIVES
— Memo from Prince Yasuhiko Asaka, ordering the Nanking massacre
I investigated reported Japanese atrocities committed by the Japanese Army in Nanking and elsewhere. Verbal accounts of reliable eyewitnesses and letters from individuals whose credibility is beyond question afford convincing proof that the Japanese Army behaved and is continuing to behave in a fashion reminiscent of Attila and his Huns. Not less than 300,000 Chinese civilians were slaughtered, many in cold blood.
— Prime Minister Koki Hirota
The war created the conditions for our victory! If I ought to thank anyone, it should be the Japanese militarists.
— Mao Zedong, when a Japanese delegation offered an apology for wartime atrocities in the early 1960s.
The Great Depression is bad, and Japan's economy is now crappy. But the military is doing just fine and invades Manchuria. And the League of Nations is like "Nooo, don't do that, if you're in the League of Nations you're not supposed to take over the wooorld!" And Japan said "How 'bout I do, anyway~?" And Japan invaded more and more and more and more of Chinanote , and was planning to invade the entire East!
The rise and fall of Shanghai means the birth or death of the whole nation.
— Chiang Kai-shek, 1937
You must all be aware that modern war is not a mere matter of military operations. It involves the whole strength and resources of the nation. Not only soldiers, but all citizens without exception, take part.
— Chiang Kai-shek
Give me fifty DC-3s and the Japanese can have the Burma Road.
— Chiang Kai-shek
War is not only a matter of equipment, artillery, group troops or air force; it is largely a matter of spirit, or morale.
— Chiang Kai-shek
We must use every inch of our blood to take back every inch of our land, you ten thousand youths and soldiers.
— Chiang Kai-shek
If and when the war starts, no matter where or whoever you are or if you are young or old, Northerner or Southerner, you all have the responsibility of protecting our home and repelling the enemy, you all must have the will to achieve ultimate sacrifice.
— Chiang Kai-shek
The guerrilla must move amongst the people as a fish swims in the sea.
— Mao Zedong
We the Chinese nation have the spirit to fight the enemy to the last drop of our blood, the determination to recover our lost territory by our own efforts, and the ability to stand on our own feet in the family of nations.
— Mao Zedong
We stand for self-reliance. We hope for foreign aid but cannot be dependent on it; we depend on our own efforts, on the creative power of the whole army and the entire people.
— Mao Zedong
Thousands upon thousands of martyrs have heroically laid down their lives for the people; let us hold their banner high and march ahead along the path crimson with their blood!
— Mao Zedong
We labored for you in the Great War, and you rewarded us...with empty promises. We slowly dragged our nation into the modern age, and you took every opportunity to exploit us. We warned you of the Japanese imperialists, and you cowered behind your appeasements. We have been bleeding and dying in ditches for years. You haven't lifted a finger to help us. Now, our war is your war. We will stand against the nation that threatens the continent, side by side...for now. But, we will never forget the price China paid for its freedom!
Let the League of Nations say whatever it pleases, let America offer whatever interference, let China decry Japan's action at the top of her voice, but Japan must adhere to her course unswervingly.
— Baron Sadao Araki
The China Incident has resulted in massive loss of life through the mutual killing of neighboring friends. This is the greatest tragedy of the last one thousand years. Nevertheless this is a holy war to save the peoples of East Asia.... Invoking the power of Avalokitesvara, I pray for the bright future of East Asia.
—- General Iwane Matsui
I am confident that the day is not far distant when the light of peace shall shine again.
— General Iwane Matsui, in 1937
As the rising sun melts thinly frozen ice, so the Japanese Army is overcoming Chinese troops.
— General Shunroku Hata, 1939
Fire on anything that moves on the river.
— Kingoro Hashimoto, shortly before the sinking of the USS Panay in 1937
