It defended Changsha until it fell in 1944. Japan launched Operation Ichi-Go, a plan to control the railroad from Wuchang to Guangzhou (Yuehan Railway). Hunan was relatively unscathed by the civil war that followed the Japanese defeat in 1945. In 1949, the Communists returned as the Nationalists retreated southward.

As Mao's home province, Hunan supported the Cultural Revolution