The most famous incidents of Banzai charges (Attu, Saipan, Guadalcanal, etc) all occurred in the Pacific - Were there any incidents of similar attacks on the other fronts, such as Burma and China?

by [deleted]
wagerpascal

To answer your question directly, yes, there were. Remember that Banzai charges were used against opponents that were heavily dug in, and were initially used as a way to break the opposing's side will to right (regardless of how the balance of power lies). Banzai charges were reported to have worked well on the Chinese front due to the poorly armed and disciplined Chinese soldiers, and were used as scare tactics just as often as a desperation tactic (at least for the majority of the sino-japanese conflict). Unfortunately I can't cite any specific Chinese accounts, but if you look into the Soviet-Japanese clashes prior to the European outbreak of WWII (especially the Nomohan Incident/Khalkin Gol), you can find accounts of charges there as well. You'll also find some accounts of how the Soviets adapted to aggressive charges.

The reason why we typically hear of the charges from the American perspective is that primarily the massive push of US forces into Japanese territory put Japan into a very bad position, and increasingly led to more and more desperate tactics. In addition, the Americans cited it well- this may be due to a mixture of the fact that the idea of Banzai charges were somewhat jarring from typical warfare, as well as the initial charges that worked well against Allied forces. However, after experiencing numerous charges, it's not surprising that Allied forces soon figured out that holding their position and laying suppressing fire was enough to deal with most charges.