The Marco Polo Bridge Incident...a spark that ignited a war between China and Japan

Chinese soldiers behind a dirt berm in one of the battles that took place after the Marco Polo Bridge Incident on July 8, 1937 (Associated Press)

The Marco Polo Bridge Incident is a battle that occurred between the Chinese and Japanese armies in 1937 as a result of Japan's expansion into Chinese territory and the population's weariness with the increasing number of Japanese soldiers in China. A dispute broke out that led to gunfire at the bridge, which developed into a war between the two sides that lasted 8 years and in which about 10 million participated. soldiers from both sides, and resulted in more than 22 million casualties, most of them Chinese civilians. The number of Japanese casualties reached about 2.1 million, while the Chinese side lost 3.2 million.

the reasons

After the Japanese Empire took control of Manchuria Province (northeastern China) in 1931, and formed the Manchukuo government loyal to it, it wanted to expand and occupy more lands in China and Southeast Asia.

Chinese nationalists were dismayed by the increasing number of Japanese forces, exceeding the agreed quota for their presence on the railway lines between Beijing and the port of Tianjin, according to the “Boxer Protocol”, which was concluded in 1901 between China and the Group of Eight countries (Britain, Austria, the United States, Japan, Russia, Hungary and France). Germany and Italy).

Photo of Chinese Communist Party members taken in 2022 (Associated Press)

This protocol was drawn up after the Boxer Rebellion, carried out by groups of Chinese peasants spread across northern China, who rely on methods of spiritual and physical preparation and ancient martial arts for self-defense.

The rebellion began in the late nineteenth century, and was directed against the Western imperial powers in addition to Japan. The rebels saw that the Western powers were tampering with the Buddhist fabric in the country through the activity of Western Christian missionaries, who had already been able to convert the religion of millions of Chinese to Christianity. They also saw that Japan was seeking To gain commercial and economic influence in China.

The rebellion left heavy human losses among the rebels and Christian Chinese, and in limited numbers of the international force that was formed under the leadership of British General Alfred Gasly, and was called the “Eight Nations Alliance,” and its number reached 54 thousand soldiers, most of whom were from Japan, in addition to Russia, Britain, France, America, Germany, Austria-Hungary. .

The international force entered Beijing, the capital of the Chinese Empire, in August 1900, and on September 7, 1901, these forces forced China to sign the “Boxer” Treaty, according to which China pledged to pay $333 million to the eight-nation alliance, in addition to pledging to execute 10 senior figures. Rebellion leaders.

Visitors look at wartime photos displayed on the Marco Polo Bridge on the 70th anniversary of the war (Reuters)

The beginning of the war

On the night of July 7, 1937, a Japanese military division stationed in the Fengt area crossed the border to conduct a military exercise. This division was targeted by gunfire, resulting in a skirmish near Wanning, 16 kilometers southwest of Beijing.

As they returned to their areas, the Japanese became aware of the absence of soldier Shimura Kikujiro, so they sent to the Chinese military official in the region and asked him to allow them to enter Wanning to search for their missing colleague. When the Chinese refused, the Japanese began to mobilize more forces near Wanning and wrote to the Chinese military official again and threatened him with military intervention. imminent.

In response, the commander of the Chinese 37th Infantry Division, General Feng Zhiyan, ordered the forces stationed near Wanning to be on alert in preparation for a possible Japanese attack.

In the midst of these events, everyone on the Japanese side was surprised by the return of their colleague Shimura Kikujiro to his position intact, confirming that he had lost his way and lost his way in the course of the Japanese army.

Chinese people crossing the Marco Paulo Bridge (Associated Press)

The return of Shimura Kikujiro was not enough to stop the crisis, as the escalation between the Japanese and the Chinese continued and reached the point of no return.

At five o'clock the next morning, a squad of Chinese forces opened fire on Japanese soldiers stationed at the Marco Polo Bridge and the nearby railway site.

Meanwhile, Mayor Wang Lingzai noticed a large gathering of Japanese forces around Wanning coinciding with his return to the city after a round of negotiations. Only 5 minutes later, the mayor saw Chinese artillery shells landing on the Japanese side.

Later, these events, which were known historically as the Marco Polo Bridge Events, developed into an expanded military conflict between China and Japan that lasted more than 8 years and resulted in millions of victims.

This incident was the beginning of a full-scale Chinese war of resistance against Japanese aggression. Japan occupied the resource-rich Manchuria region in northeastern China in early 1931.

A lifeline for the Communist Party

This incident represented a real and vital lifeline for the Chinese Communist Party under the leadership of Mao Zedong. This small emerging party was fiercely fought by the Chinese nationalist parties, and was besieged in limited areas in northwestern China.

The Nationalist leader and head of the Manchurian government, Chiang Kai-shek, initially rejected the seriousness of the Marco Polo Bridge Incident and was unwilling to allow the Communist forces to operate under independent command.

But at the end of July 1937, as the situation worsened, he agreed to reorganize the communist forces into a legitimate army under independent command in exchange for their rapid deployment against Japanese forces in the north.

In September of the same year, Chiang agreed to announce the formation of a united front, in actual recognition of the legitimacy of the Communist Party and its government, and its legitimate control over certain regions, in an attempt to accelerate the deployment of communist forces against the Japanese. This greatly facilitated the subsequent expansion of the Chinese Communist Party.

Leader of the Chinese Communist Party and leader of the Chinese revolution, Mao Zedong (Getty)

Once the Communists obtained key concessions, including the promise of legitimacy, the military strategy turned to guerrilla operations in the mountains, in an attempt to maintain and enhance the party's military power vis-à-vis the nationalist parties.

This strategy was coupled with a massive effort to recruit new members to the organization, and as a result the Chinese Communist Party was able to increase its membership from about 30,000 at the beginning of the war to about 800,000 by 1940, while forming an army of about 500,000 soldiers.

Occupation of Shanghai and Nanjing Massacre

In early August 1937, the Chinese resistance in Shanghai and its suburbs tried to stop the rapid advance of Japanese forces, in order to give the central government more time to transfer defense supplies into the Chinese interior, and the Chinese were able to inflict some losses on the Japanese. About one million soldiers from both sides participated in the Battle of Shanghai.

A recent photo of Shanghai (Getty)

But the second phase of the battle, between the end of August and October, witnessed an amphibious landing of Japanese forces and concentrated strikes by aviation, naval force, and land artillery, and fierce battles took place between the two forces, until the Chinese resistance withdrew at the end of November 1937, and Shanghai fell. And what's around it is in the hands of the Japanese.

In late 1937, within 6 weeks, Japanese forces killed hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians in the Chinese city of Nanjing, in an incident known as the "Nanjing Massacre."

Japanese army forces led by General Matsui Iwan entered the city on December 13, killed thousands of Chinese soldiers, slaughtered entire families, raped women, and bodies remained scattered in the streets. A third of the city's buildings were looted and burned.

The stage of decisiveness and liberation of Manchuria

In early 1940, seeing the ranks of the Communists swell, the Japanese Army began conducting military sweeps of the countryside, especially in the north, in an attempt to root out the Red Army and its supporters. In response, the Communists decided to switch to a new strategy known as the 100-Regiment Offensive.

A modern railway line in one of China's provinces (Getty)

This attack was a large-scale coordinated campaign against Japanese-controlled cities and railways. While the attack succeeded in damaging some Japanese infrastructure and bases, the devastation caused by the Japanese in retaliation was much greater.

The Communists took advantage of the loopholes left by the Japanese, after withdrawing some of their forces deployed in China to other fronts in the Pacific Ocean, and they switched to an offensive position and extended their control along the railway lines and small cities.

The Chinese Communist Party leadership in Yan'an issued instructions to prepare for Soviet operations against Japan and the return of northeastern Manchuria to Chinese control. A statement issued on August 10, 1945 called for the immediate disarmament of Japanese forces and the seizure of cities and transportation in the event of Japan's surrender, which was increasingly likely.

The next day, the Party headquarters instructed the Red Army to advance toward the northeast. During this crucial period, the Chinese Communist Party, thanks to the support and protection of the Soviet Union, was able to find a firm foothold in the northeast.

human losses

This war resulted in more than 22 million casualties, most of them Chinese civilians. About 10 million soldiers from both sides participated in it. The number of Japanese casualties reached about 2.1 million, while the Chinese side lost 3.2 million. This war became one of the examples of war crimes.

Source: Al Jazeera + websites