Second Sino-Japanese War
Also called: Marco Polo Bridge Incident, War of Resistance against Japan, China Incident
A clash at the Marco Polo Bridge near Beiping on 7 July 1937 became the occasion for Japan’s full-scale invasion of China. China resisted for eight years through the United Front; from 1941 the war merged with the Pacific War, ending with Japan’s surrender in 1945.
Unknown photographer, Ministry of the Navy · Public domain · Source
On the night of 7 July 1937 Japanese troops on night manoeuvres near the Marco Polo Bridge, citing shots and a missing soldier, clashed with Chinese troops in the walled town of Wanping (the Marco Polo Bridge Incident). The Konoe Fumimaro cabinet sent large forces; the Japanese army took Beiping and Tianjin and in August attacked Shanghai. After three months of fighting there, the capital Nanjing fell in December.
The National Government withdrew via Wuhan to Chongqing and fought a war of attrition, “trading space for time”. In 1938 Japan declared it would “no longer deal with the National Government”, proclaimed a “New Order in East Asia”, and used the National Mobilization Law to put Japan and its colonies on a war footing. The Japanese army held the main cities and railways but could not control the vast countryside, and the bombing of Chongqing and mopping-up campaigns in north China killed many civilians. In 1940 Japan set up a collaborationist government in Nanjing under Wang Jingwei.
As the war dragged on, Japan pushed into Southeast Asia in search of resources and in 1941 started the Pacific War. Many estimates put Chinese military and civilian casualties above 10 million; the Chinese government puts the figure at 35 million. Korean independence forces fought alongside China in the Korean Volunteer Corps and the Korean Liberation Army, while Korea itself was made a supply base, stripped of goods and people.