On July 7, 1937, an incident occurred between the Japanese and Chinese military on the Chinese Lugouqiao Bridge.
As a result, a clash in the suburbs of Beijing led to the start of a full-scale war between the two countries.
The hostilities between Japan and China lasted more than eight years and significantly influenced the balance of power on the world stage during and after World War II.
The beginning of the war
According to historians, the prerequisites for a large-scale war between Japan and China began to emerge at the end of the 19th century.
“The rapidly growing Japanese economy needed a resource base and sales markets, which official Tokyo decided to look for in mainland Asia,” said Alexander Arsentiev, a scientific methodologist at the Victory Museum, in an interview with RT.
As a result of the war of 1894-1895, Japan forced China to give up its vassal rights to Korea, established control over Taiwan, and achieved the opening of a number of Chinese ports.
According to Alexander Arsentiev, in the future, Japan continued to exert diplomatic and military pressure on China.
“After the suppression of the uprising of 1898-1901 by a coalition of foreign states, Japan achieved the deployment of its garrisons in China.
In 1931-1932, she captured Manchuria and created the puppet state of Manchukuo on its territory.
Then, as a result of several military incidents and limited-scale operations, she established control over the northwestern part of China, ”the expert said.
As Dmitry Surzhik, Associate Professor of GAUGN, noted in an interview with RT, the domestic political situation in China in the 1930s was extremely difficult.
Formally, all power in the country belonged to the Kuomintang party, but on the ground the situation was controlled by militarist generals, who often submitted to the central government purely formally.
In addition, the Communist Party of China waged a fight against the Kuomintang.
Sino-Japanese War 1937-1945
Legion Media
© Pictures From History
“Despite numerous military incidents, the Chinese authorities tried to avoid a full-scale war with Japan, but after the events of July 1937, this became impossible,” Surzhik said.
According to him, in early July 1937, the Japanese units conducted exercises in the Beijing area.
On the morning of July 7, the Japanese command informed the Chinese authorities about the disappearance of one of their soldiers, who allegedly could have been taken hostage and kept in the Wanping fortress (outskirts of modern Beijing).
The Japanese demanded that they be given the opportunity to independently search for a soldier on Chinese territory.
The Chinese authorities considered this a violation of their sovereignty and refused.
The attempts of the Japanese to enforce their demands led to a skirmish in the area of the Lugouqiao bridge.
As historians note, after the skirmish, the Japanese side sharply tightened its requirements.
Despite the fact that the soldier was found safe and sound, the Japanese military demanded that they be given control over the local Chinese authorities and that those who resisted them be punished.
Representatives of the Kuomintang resolutely rejected these demands.
In response, Japanese troops launched full-scale military operations against China.
Episode of the Sino-Japanese War
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© UtCon Collection
“Among historians, there is no unequivocal opinion as to whether this incident was planned by someone or was a coincidence.
But given the general situation in China, the confrontation reaching a new level was in any case only a matter of time, ”said Yaroslav Levin, associate professor at Samara State Technical University, candidate of historical sciences, in a conversation with RT.
"Huge Losses"
According to historians, the Kuomintang had a large - about 2.9 million troops, but poorly armed and poorly trained army.
The Kuomintang's problems with military control allowed the Japanese troops to capture most of the main industrial centers and transport hubs of China by the end of 1937.
In December, the city of Nanjing, which had previously served as the seat of the Kuomintang government, fell.
In Nanjing, the Japanese army carried out a massacre, organizing massacres of prisoners of war and civilians.
The number of those killed during these events, known in historiography as the "Nanjing massacre", is estimated in various sources from 200 to 500 thousand people.
According to experts, the Chinese Communists suggested that the Kuomintang forget about internal differences and come out against the aggressor with a united front.
After the signing of a cooperation agreement between the Communist Party and the Kuomintang, the communists began to form new armies.
Meanwhile, Japanese troops continued to win local victories.
In 1938 they captured Guangzhou and Wuhan.
However, the Japanese could not achieve the complete defeat of the Chinese army.
The conflict began to take on the character of a war of attrition.
Despite the fact that the only foreign power providing active military assistance to China was the Soviet Union, the Chinese were not going to give up and continued to resist.
The USSR provided loans to China, supplied artillery, aviation and small arms, sent pilots and military advisers.
Episode of the Nanjing Massacre
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© Pictures From History
In mid-1939, Japan temporarily curtailed large-scale offensive operations in China, concentrating on clearing the territories under its control.
According to historians, Japanese military medics in China tested chemical and biological weapons on living people.
Biological weapons were also used in the field.
For example, vessels filled with plague-infected fleas were dropped on the positions of the Chinese army.
At the same time, settlements controlled by the Kuomintang and the Communists were subjected to massive bombing.
In 1940, the Japanese authorities created a puppet "government of China" in Nanjing and began to attract collaborators to solve military problems in the rear.
But in general, according to experts, "the Chinese continued to provide massive resistance to the enemy."
Victims of the Nanjing Massacre
© Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain
After the official Tokyo entered the war with Great Britain and the USA, the Americans and the British began to provide assistance to China in the form of loans and military supplies.
An American aviation group was also stationed in China.
In 1944, the Japanese troops went on a large-scale offensive, trying to break communications between various regions of China not under their control, and achieved partial success.
But, as historians note, as soon as they withdraw troops from one of the sectors of the front for regrouping, the Chinese offensive begins there.
Japanese troops in China
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© Photo12/Ann Ronan Picture Library
“The invaders, purely physically, could not control the vast expanses of China: they did not have enough strength for this, communications were stretched.
But still, until 1945, the Chinese could not achieve a turning point in the war - the Japanese retained the ability to successfully conduct offensive operations, ”said Alexander Arsentiev.
According to Dmitry Surzhik, the presence of a large grouping in the Asian mainland made the Japanese believe that even if the Americans captured the Japanese Islands, they would be able to shift the stakes and continue to resist the enemy.
However, the entry into the war of the Soviet Union deprived them of this opportunity.
The Red Army, with the support of the Mongolian troops, completely defeated the Kwantung Army of Japan by the beginning of September 1945.
With the end of World War II, the Sino-Japanese confrontation also ended.
Soviet troops liberate China
© Mil.ru/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY 4.0
As Alexander Arsentiev noted, China suffered huge losses in the war: according to various estimates, from 20 to 35 million people, most of whom were civilians.
In addition, the Chinese economic infrastructure was almost completely destroyed.
However, according to the expert, China's sacrifice affected the entire course of World War II.
“Among historians today there is even an opinion that the beginning of World War II should be counted not from September 1939, but from July 7, 1937.
The need to maintain significant forces in China weakened Japan on other fronts and may have influenced the decision to abandon the attack on the Soviet Union in 1941,” Arsentiev said.
Soviet troops liberate China
Legion Media
© Pictures From History
According to Dmitry Surzhik, the opposition to Japanese aggression in the history of China plays the same role as the Great Patriotic War in our history.
“This war has certainly rallied the Chinese people.
She played an important role in the formation of China in the form in which we see it today, ”the expert emphasized.
In turn, Yaroslav Levin believes that the Sino-Japanese War significantly influenced the entire course of world history.
“The Japanese-Chinese war eventually significantly influenced the strategic balance of power in Asia, and on a global scale too.
Japan was weakened, in China the communists were soon able to come to power.
The world in the form in which it exists today was largely formed taking into account the results of that war, ”summed up Levin.