The Marco Polo Incident

The Japanese drive to become a great power required the domination of China. They defeated the Chinese in war in the 1890s and took away Korea. They soon invaded Manchuria, which had rich reserves of coal and other minerals, and began to build up industry there. In 1937, the Marco Polo Bridge Incident occurred. Due to the Boxer Protocol of 1901, China had granted nations with legations in Beijing the right to station guards at twelve specific points along railways connecting Beijing with Tianjin. This was to ensure open communications between the capital and the port. Small numbers of both Japanese and Chinese soldiers were stationed near what was called the Marco Polo Bridge, near the town of Wanping outside Beijing. It is not entirely clear what happened, but the Japanese were carrying out training exercises without giving the customary notice and a few shots were exchanged between them and the startled Chinese troops. The Japanese discovered that one of their soldiers was missing, thought the Chinese might have captured him, and demanded to be allowed to search Wanping for him. The Chinese said they would do the searching themselves, with one Japanese officer accompanying them. Japanese infantry then tried to force their way into Wanping, but were driven back. Both sides sent more troops to the area and early in the morning of July 8th Japanese infantry and armored vehicles attacked the bridge and took it, but were driven off again. Attempts were made to settle things, but the incident gave Japanese hawks the excuse to mount a full-scale invasion of China. Hundreds of thousands of troops were sent in. Japan had more advanced Western military training, technology and weapons, but the Republic of China did not have such advanced technologies. The Soviet Union came to China’s aid, but major cities Beijing, Shanghai, and Nanjing still fell in 1937. The Marco Polo Bride Incident is seen as the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War. The fighting was accompanied by vicious atrocities. As many as 100,000 Chinese may have been slaughtered in the so-called Rape of Nanjing, including thousands of Chinese women raped before being murdered. Victims were buried or burned alive, dismembered alive or drowned. The conflict continued until it blended into the Second World War.

Source:

"The Marco Polo Bridge Incident." History Today. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Sept. 2013.

BY Lauren and Kristina