The Pacific War Online Encyclopedia
|
| Previous: Hailin | Table of Contents | Next: Haiphong |
Hainan is an island in the Gulf of Tonkin in the northwest end of the South China Sea. It has a tropical climate and rugged, jungle-clad terrain, and Chinese emperors had longed used the island as a penal colony. There are important mineral deposits, including the Chengmai iron field (producing approximately 1.9 million tons per year in 1941.)
The Japanese
seized Hainan from China on 10
February 1939 and built up air
and naval bases. Many of
the forces that participated in the early Japanese offensives in
Southeast Asia,
following the attack on Pearl
Harbor, staged through
Sanya on the south
coast of the island. The Chinese
Communists organized a guerrilla
movement in Hainan to harrass the Japanese and, after the Japanese surrender, the Kuomintang.
References
The Pacific War Online Encyclopedia © 2007, 2009, 2015 by Kent G. Budge. Index
