Marco Polo Bridge incident
Initial battle of the Second Sino-Japanese War / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Marco Polo Bridge incident, also known as the Lugou Bridge incident[lower-alpha 1] or the July 7 incident,[lower-alpha 2] was a battle during July 1937 in the district of Beijing between China's National Revolutionary Army and the Imperial Japanese Army.
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Marco Polo Bridge incident | |||||||
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Part of the Second Sino-Japanese War | |||||||
Aerial photo of the Marco Polo Bridge (right). Wanping Fortress is on the opposite side of the river. | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
China | |||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Kanichiro Tashiro | |||||||
Strength | |||||||
100 troops at the bridge[2] 900 in reinforcement | 5,600[3] | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
96 killed[2] | 660 killed | ||||||
Marco Polo Bridge incident | |||||||||||||||
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Traditional Chinese | 盧溝橋事變 | ||||||||||||||
Simplified Chinese | 卢沟桥事变 | ||||||||||||||
Literal meaning | Lugou Bridge incident | ||||||||||||||
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July 7 incident | |||||||||||||||
Traditional Chinese | 七七事變 | ||||||||||||||
Simplified Chinese | 七七事变 | ||||||||||||||
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Since the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931, there had been many small incidents along the rail line connecting Beijing with the port of Tianjin, but all had subsided. In this incident, a Japanese soldier was temporarily absent from his unit opposite Wanping, and his commander demanded to enter the town to search for him. Although the Japanese soldier had already returned to his lines, claiming to have suffered from stomachache, Japanese forces continued mobilizing, deploying reinforcements to surround Wanping. A shot of unknown origin was fired, and both sides began to fire on each other. The Marco Polo Bridge incident is generally regarded as the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War, and the Pacific theatre of World War II.[4]