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| Second Sino-Japanese War | |||||
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| Part of the Pacific theatre of World War II | |||||
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 Mongolia (1945) Soviet Union (1945)Supported by  Nazi Germany (1937–1938) Soviet Union (1937–1941, 1945) United Kingdom (1941–1945) United States (1941–1945) |
 Kingdom of Italy (1937–1943) Nazi Germany (1937–1945) Italian Social Republic (1943–1945) | ||||
The Second Sino-Japanese War, also known in China as the Anti-Japanese War, the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (Simplified Chinese: 抗日戰爭; Traditional Chinese: 抗日战争; Pinyin: Kàngrì Zhànzhēng), the Eight Years' War of Resistance, the Fourteen Years' War of Resistance, or simply the War of Resistance, was a major war waged against China by Japan from 7 July 1937 to 9 September 1945. It resulted in the deaths of around 20 million people, mostly Chinese civilians, making it the deadliest war in Asia during the 20th century. The Second Sino-Japanese War is commonly viewed as part of the Pacific theatre of World War II, and indeed some historians consider the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War to be the start of World War II.
Japan had previously invaded China on numerous occasions, most notably in 1931, when they occupied Manchuria and established a puppet state known as Manchukuo. Many observers consider this to be the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War; however, the situation didn't escalate into a full-scale war until 1937. Prior to then, China had been bogged down in a decade-long civil war between the Nationalists (led by Chiang Kai-shek) and the Communists (led by Mao Zedong), but this was interrupted by the Japanese aggression, leading two Nationalist generals to place Chiang under house arrest and force him to form an alliance with the Communists to combat Japan.[citation needed]
On 7 July 1937, the Marco Polo Bridge incident occurred. Chinese troops exchanged fire with Japanese troops who had been conducting military exercises outside Wanping, and a Japanese soldier went missing. The Japanese issued an ultimatum demanding to be able to search the city for the missing soldier, but the Chinese refused. The missing soldier turned up soon after, but the Japanese troops attacked the city the following day anyways, failing to cross the Marco Polo Bridge. A ceasefire agreement was reached on 9 July, but the Japanese quickly broke the conditions of the agreement by bombarding Wanping, and both sides continued to mobilise troops. The Japanese Army demanded that the Chinese withdraw to the west bank of the Yongding River, but the Chinese refused that ultimatum as well, leading the Japanese to attack Beijing and Tianjin in late July.[citation needed]
The outnumbered and poorly-equipped Chinese troops were no match for the combined forces of the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy. Facing heavy casualties, Song Zheyuan's forces retreated, and the Japanese took Beijing and the Taku Forts in Tianjin on 29 and 30 July, respectively. The Japanese Army crossed the Yellow River and occupied Jinan, the capital of Shanxi province, before heading west, travelling as far as Hohhot in Inner Mongolia, where a Japanese puppet state called Mengjiang was established. Communist forces waged a guerrilla war against Japanese and pro-Japanese forces.[citation needed]
Konoe Fumimaro, the Japanese Prime Minister, opened peace negotiations with Chiang; however, on 9 August, a Japanese naval officer was shot to death in Shanghai. The incident resulted a breakdown of negotiations. Hoping to garner international support and open up a second front, thereby slowing the Japanese advance in the north, Chiang ordered Zhang Zhizhong to attack the Japanese garrison in Shanghai. The Chinese troops were unable to penetrate the Japanese defences however, giving the enemy ample time to send reinforcements. 300,000 Japanese troops arrived to face an army of 700,000 Chinese troops. The Chinese were outmatched, but they nevertheless fought anyways, hoping for foreign intervention. Chiang's army was decimated in the process, resulting in the loss of hundreds of thousands of lives and the destruction of his elite German-trained divisions. The foreign support Chiang had hoped for never materialised. Chiang eventually had to retreat to avoid encirclement, and Shanghai fell on 11 November.[citation needed]
Chiang attempted to slow the Japanese advance towards the capital city of Nanjing through a policy of scorched earth, but his army was devastated and could offer little resistance. Nanjing fell on 13 December 1937. Once Japanese troops occupied the Chinese capital, they initiated the Nanjing massacre, raping and murdering hundreds of thousands of Chinese civilians indiscriminately. Oskar Trautmann, the German ambassador to China, attempted to broker a peace deal between China and Japan, but Chiang rejected the very brutal terms offered to him by Prince Konoe.[citation needed]