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The Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) was a military conflict that was primarily waged
between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. The war made up the Chinese theater
of the wider Pacific Theater of the Second World War. The beginning of the war is
conventionally dated to the Marco Polo Bridge Incident on 7 July 1937, when a dispute
between Japanese and Chinese troops in Peking escalated into a full-scale invasion. This
full-scale war between the Chinese and the Empire of Japan is often regarded as the
beginning of World War II in Asia. In 2017 the Ministry of Education in the People's
Republic of China decreed that the term "eight-year war" in all textbooks should be
replaced by "fourteen-year war", with a revised starting date of 18 September 1931 provided
by the Japanese invasion of Manchuria. According to historian Rana Mitter, historians in
China are unhappy with the blanket revision, and (despite sustained tensions) the Republic
of China did not consider itself to be continuously at war with Japan over these six years.
The Tanggu Truce of 1933 officially ended the earlier hostilities in Manchuria while the
He-Umezu Agreement of 1935 acknowledged the Japanese demands to put an end to all anti-
Japanese organizations in China.
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 I brought about increasing stress on the
Japanese policy. Leftists sought universal suffrage and greater rights for workers[citation
needed]. Increasing textile production from Chinese mills was adversely affecting Japanese
production and the Great Depression brought about a large slowdown in exports. All of this
contributed to militant nationalism, culminating in the rise to power of a militarist
faction. This faction was led at its height by the Hideki Tojo cabinet of the Imperial Rule
Assistance Association under 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; many historians cite 1931 as the beginning of the
war. This view has been adopted by the PRC government. From 1931 to 1937, China and Japan
continued to skirmish in small, localized engagements, so-called "incidents".
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