✦ History

Second Sino-Japanese War

July 7, 1937 – September 2, 1945

Part of Pacific War

Followed from Japanese invasion of Manchuria, Marco Polo Bridge Incident

Contemporaries Overview

Related events 1 degree away • 2 degrees away

1895
1899
1903
1907
1911
1915
1919
1923
1927
1931
1935
1939
1943
1947
 
First Sino-Japanese War
 
Chinese Civil War
 
Central Plains War
 
Japanese invasion of Manchuria
 
Marco Polo Bridge Incident
 
Second Sino-Japanese War
 
World War II
 
Chinese Communist Revolution

War between the Republic of China and Japan, 1937 to 1945, sparked by the Marco Polo Bridge incident of 7 July 1937. The Japanese capture of Nanjing and a toll of around 20 million deaths, mostly Chinese civilians, made it the largest Asian war of the century. After 1941 it merged with World War II, ending with Japan's surrender on 2 September 1945.

Sides

Axis

Japan
Manchukuo
Wang Jingwei regime
Mengjiang
Hirohito Emperor Doihara Kenji Akira Mutō Iwane Matsui military commander, Commanded at Shanghai and Nanjing Seishirō Itagaki Kingorō Hashimoto Yoshijirō Umezu military commander Wang Jingwei Head of the Reorganized National Government, Led the Japanese-backed collaborationist regime at Nanjing
Show 4 more
Hideki Tojo Fumimaro Konoe Prime Minister of Japan, Prime Minister when the war began in 1937 Yasuji Okamura Commander, China Expeditionary Army, Surrendered Japanese forces in China in 1945 Otozō Yamada belligerent leader

Allies

Republic of China
Kuomintang
Communist Party of China
United States
Mao Zedong Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party Chiang Kai-shek Generalissimo, Led the Nationalist government and armies He Yingqin Minister of War Zhou Enlai Peng Dehuai Deputy commander of the Eighth Route Army Zhu De Commander of the Eighth Route Army Li Zongren General, Won at Taierzhuang in 1938 Lord Mountbatten belligerent leader
Show 3 more
Chen Yi belligerent leader Joseph Stilwell Chief of Staff to Chiang Kai-shek Bai Chongxi belligerent leader

Battles and events 8

Also involved 48

Deng Xiaoping Political commissar, 129th Division · Allies Kim Il-sung participant · Allies Heitarō Kimura participant · Axis Yen Hsi-shan participant · Allies Chen Cheng General · Allies Park Chung-hee participant Lin Biao Division commander, Eighth Route Army, Won at Pingxingguan in 1937 · Allies Liu Bocheng participant · Allies Du Yuming participant · Allies Kantarō Suzuki participant · Axis Prince Naruhiko Higashikuni participant · Axis Kakuei Tanaka participant · Axis Xue Yue General, Defended Changsha against several Japanese offensives · Allies Claire Lee Chennault Commander of the Flying Tigers · Allies He Long participant · Allies Ye Jianying participant · Allies Xu Shiyou participant · Allies Isamu Chō participant · Axis Masakazu Kawabe participant · Axis Renya Mutaguchi participant · Axis Nobutake Kondō participant · Axis Heisuke Yanagawa participant · Axis Choe Yong-gon participant · Allies Tomoyuki Yamashita participant · Axis Masaharu Homma participant · Axis Takaji Wachi participant · Axis Kōtoku Satō participant · Axis Hisaichi Terauchi participant · Axis Sōsaku Suzuki participant · Axis Song Shilun participant · Allies Masami Kobayashi participant · Axis Toshizō Nishio participant · Axis Rikichi Andō participant · Axis Seiichi Kuno participant · Axis Yasuhito, Prince Chichibu participant · Axis Nobuhito, Prince Takamatsu participant · Axis Takahito, Prince Mikasa participant · Axis Prince Tsuneyoshi Takeda participant · Axis Prince Nagahisa Kitashirakawa participant · Axis Morihiro Higashikuni participant · Axis Deng Hua participant · Allies Ma Zhanshan participant · Allies Feng Zhanhai participant · Allies Luo Ronghuan participant · Allies Tomitarō Horii participant Mitsuru Ushijima participant · Axis Han Xianchu participant · Allies Kanji Ishiwara participant · Axis