The Second Sino-Japanese War was a military conflict fought primarily between the Republic of China and

the Empire of Japan from July 7, 1937 to September 9, 1945. It began with the Marco Polo Bridge Incident in
1937 in which a dispute between Japanese and Chinese troops escalated into a battle. [a] The conflict escalated
afterward. It ended with the unconditional surrender of Japan on September 2, 1945 to the United Nations allies
of World War II.

Events leading to World War II

Pacification of Libya 19231932

Japanese invasion of Manchuria 1931
Franco-Soviet-Czech Pact 1935
Second Italo-Ethiopian War 193536
Remilitarization of the Rhineland 1936
Spanish Civil War 193639
Anti-Comintern Pact 1936
Second Sino-Japanese War 1937
Anschluss 1938
Munich crisis 1938
German occupation of Mar. 1939
Czechoslovakia
German ultimatum to Lithuania Mar. 1939
British guarantee to Poland Mar. 1939
Invasion of Albania Apr. 1939
Pact of Steel May 1939
MolotovRibbentrop Pact Aug. 1939

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China fought Japan, with minor aid from the Soviet Union and the United States. After the Japanese attack on
Pearl Harbor in 1941, the war merged with other conflicts of World War II as a major sector known as the China
Burma India Theater. Some scholars consider the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937 to have
been the beginning of World War II.[23][24] The Second Sino-Japanese War was the largest Asian war in the 20th
century.[25] It accounted for the majority of civilian and military casualties in the Pacific War, with between 10 and
25 million Chinese civilians and over 4 million Chinese and Japanese military personnel dying from war-related
violence, famine, and other causes.
The war was the result of a decades-long Japanese imperialist policy to expand its influence politically and
militarily in order to secure access to raw material reserves, food, and labor. The period after World War One
brought about increasing stress on the Japanese polity. Leftists sought universal suffrage and greater rights for
workers. Increasing textile production from Chinese mills was adversely affecting Japanese production. The
Depression brought about a large slowdown in exports. All of this contributed to militant nationalism,
culminating in the rise to power of a militarist fascist faction. This faction was led at its height by the Imperial
Rule Assistance Association's Hideki Tojo cabinet under the edict from Emperor Hirohito. In 1931, the Mukden
Incident helped spark the Japanese invasion of Manchuria. The Chinese were defeated and Japan created a
new puppet state, Manchukuo; some historians, including the PRC government, cite 1931 as the beginning of
the war. From 19311937, China and Japan continued to skirmish in small, localized engagements, so-called
"incidents".

World War II (often abbreviated to WWII or WW2), also known as the Second World War, was a global
war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the
world's countriesincluding all of the great powerseventually forming two opposing military alliances:
the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million
people from over 30 countries. In a state of "total war", the major participants threw their entire economic,
industrial, and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, erasing the distinction between civilian and military
resources. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust (in which approximately 11 million
people were killed)[1][2] and the strategic bombing of industrial and population centres (in which approximately
one million were killed, and which included the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki),[3] it resulted in an
estimated 50 million to 85 million fatalities. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history.[4]

On 27 December, the Japanese 3rd, 6th, and 40th Divisions massed at Yueyang and advanced
southward in three columns and crossed the Xinqiang River, and tried again to cross the Miluo
River to reach Changsha. However, the Chinese formed a deep pocket around the city and set up
ambush parties around the Luoyang River. Halfway from Miluo River and Changsha, the Japanese
columns faced strong resistance from the Chinese and the eastern column was forced to take a
detour further east, and the other two columns had to move closer together than originally planned.
During the southward advance the Japanese encountered three Chinese army divisions that were
pushed aside but not crushed; they retreated into the eastern mountains.

Changsha was evacuated except for the Chinese army and some 160 civilians who wished to stay to
help the defense. The defense was also stiffened by a significant number of British-supplied mortars,
two batteries of French-supplied 75mm field guns and several 2 pdr anti-tank guns. Also of great
importance were eight new U.S.-supplied M2A1 tanks which were deployed within the city itself.
These vehicles proved to be of extraordinary value to the defense due to their all-round machine gun
fire capability.[5] On 31 December 1941, the Japanese troops attacked the southeastern defenses of
the city but failed to make any gains. Subsequently, they attacked the southern and then the eastern
parts of the defenses. Meanwhile, the northern part of the city suffered heavy bombardment from
Japanese artillery. The Japanese eventually cut through the first line of defense, but were unable to
breach the second line of defense near the city center.

On 1 January 1942 the Chinese counter-attack surprised the Japanese with a bombardment using
heavy guns, inflicting high casualties on them. At about the same time, the army units that had
retreated to the mountains during the Japanese advance swept down to attack the Japanese supply
lines with the aid of local guerillas. The Japanese line collapsed on 4 January. The three Japanese
divisions were besieged and requested the help of the Japanese 9th Independent Brigade stationed
in Yueyang. However, on 9 January this unit faced heavy fighting with the Chinese and was unable
to relieve the besieged Japanese divisions.

The besieged Japanese then attempted to retreat across the Luoyang River, not knowing that an
ambush party was already stationed in the region. Losing heavily at the river crossing, the Japanese
eventually reached the Xinqiang River on 15 January to complete the retreat.

The Empire of Japan aimed to dominate Asia and the Pacific and was already at war with the Republic of
China in 1937,[5]but the world war is generally said to have begun on 1 September 1939 [6] with
the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany and subsequent declarations of war on Germany by France and
the United Kingdom. Supplied by the Soviet Union, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns
and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance
with Italy and Japan. Under the MolotovRibbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet
Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and
the Baltic states. The war continued primarily between the European Axis powers and the coalition of the
United Kingdom and the British Commonwealth, with campaigns including the North Africa and East
Africa campaigns, the aerial Battle of Britain, the Blitz bombing campaign, the Balkan Campaign as well as the
long-running Battle of the Atlantic. On 22 June 1941, the European Axis powers launched an invasion of the
Soviet Union, opening the largest land theatre of war in history, which trapped the major part of the Axis'
military forces into a war of attrition. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European
colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific.

Under the orders of Yasuji Okamura, the Japanese 106th Division intended to cross the Wanjialing
Region in hopes to cut through to the rear of De'an as direct approach from Jiujiang along the railway
line south and approach by 101st Division by pushing through from the eastern foothills of Mount Lu was
getting nowhere. The plan was discovered by Xue Yue, and the Chinese Army managed to surround the 106th
Division with 16 divisions at Lushan. After capturing Jiujiang, 106th Division tried to push south using the
Jiujiang to Nanchang railway as the axis and capture De'an. It got a mauling at Shahe just south of
Jiujiang. On August 21, the Japanese 101st Division's Sato Detachment (Major General Sato Shozaburo
, 101 Brigade) consisting of two infantry battalion supported by a battalion of artillery captured Xingzi as
part of the push to De'an, but faced fierce resistance from Wang Jingjiu's 25th Corps and Ye Zhao's 66th
Corps. Reinforced with Saeda's detachment (Major General Saeda Yoshishige , 101st division) both
forces was still unable to break through the Chinese lines, Japanese deployed poison gas. Although the
Chinese had a severe shortage of protective equipment against chemical weapons, they were still able to repel
the Japanese attack.

At the beginning of September, Okamura ordered the 9th and 27th Divisions to relieve the 106th division, but
they were halted by fierce Chinese resistance. On September 24, the Japanese Army finally managed to punch
through the Chinese lines in the west, but were then confronted by Ou Zhen's 4th Corps and Yu Jishi's elite
74th Corps and were once again surrounded. Desperate to break open a safe path for their trapped ground
forces, the Japanese Air Force began heavy bombing on Chinese positions with incendiary bombs, resulting in
many Chinese deaths.

On October 7, the Chinese suddenly launched fierce counter-attacks and the remaining Japanese units that
were still intact hastily retreated. Combat ended on October 10, which was coincidentally the Chinese National
Celebration Day. On October 13, the Chinese forces withdrew from the battlefield.