<P> China fought Japan, with aid from the Soviet Union and the United States . After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, the war merged with other conflicts of World War II as a major sector known as the China Burma India Theater . Some scholars consider the start of the full - scale Second Sino - Japanese War in 1937 to have been the beginning of World War II . The Second Sino - Japanese War was the largest Asian war in the 20th century . It accounted for the majority of civilian and military casualties in the Pacific War, with between 10 and 25 million Chinese civilians and over 4 million Chinese and Japanese military personnel dying from war - related violence, famine, and other causes . </P> <P> The war was the result of a decades - long Japanese imperialist policy to expand its influence politically and militarily in order to secure access to raw material reserves, food, and labor . The period after World War I brought about increasing stress on the Japanese polity . Leftists sought universal suffrage and greater rights for workers . Increasing textile production from Chinese mills was adversely affecting Japanese production . The Great Depression brought about a large slowdown in exports . All of this contributed to militant nationalism, culminating in the rise to power of a militarist fascist faction . This faction was led at its height by the Hideki Tojo cabinet of the Imperial Rule Assistance Association under edict from Emperor Hirohito . In 1931, the Mukden Incident helped spark the Japanese invasion of Manchuria . The Chinese were defeated and Japan created a new puppet state, Manchukuo; many historians cite 1931 as the beginning of the war . The view has been adopted by the PRC government . From 1931 to 1937, China and Japan continued to skirmish in small, localized engagements, so - called "incidents". </P> <P> Initially the Japanese scored major victories, capturing both Shanghai and the Chinese capital of Nanking in 1937 . After failing to stop the Japanese in the Battle of Wuhan, the Chinese central government was relocated to Chongqing (Chungking) in the Chinese interior . By 1939, after Chinese victories in Changsha and Guangxi, and with Japan's lines of communications stretched deep into the Chinese interior, the war reached a stalemate . The Japanese were also unable to defeat the Chinese communist forces in Shaanxi, which waged a campaign of sabotage and guerrilla warfare against the invaders . While Japan ruled the large cities, they lacked sufficient manpower to control China's vast countryside . During this time, Chinese communist forces launched a counter offensive in Central China while Chinese nationalist forces launched a large scale winter offensive . </P> <P> On December 7, 1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, and the following day the United States declared war on Japan . The United States began to aid China by airlifting material over the Himalayas after the Allied defeat in Burma that closed the Burma Road . In 1944 Japan launched the invasion, Operation Ichi - Go, that conquered Henan and Changsha . However, this failed to bring about the surrender of Chinese forces . In 1945, the Chinese Expeditionary Force resumed its advance in Burma and completed the Ledo Road linking India to China . At the same time, China launched large counteroffensives in South China and retook West Hunan and Guangxi . </P>

How much of china did japan take over
find me the text answering this question