The Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) or War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression ; short for（ simplified Chinese: 抗日战争; traditional Chinese: 抗日戰爭; pinyin: Kàngrì Zhànzhēng) was a military conflict primarily 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 Beijing escalated into a full-scale invasion. Some Chinese historians consider the start of the war as the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 18 September 1931. China was aided by the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Nazi Germany before its alliance with Japan. Around 20 million people, mostly civilians, were killed.
Liu Yongfu (1837–1917) was a Chinese warlord and commander of the celebrated Black Flag Army. Liu won fame as a Chinese patriot fighting against the French Empire in northern Vietnam (Tonkin) in the 1870s and early 1880s. During the Sino-French War, he established a close friendship with the Chinese statesman and general Tang Jingsong, and in 1895, he helped Tang organise resistance to the Japanese invasion of Taiwan. He succeeded Tang as the second and last president of the short-lived Republic of Formosa.
Alexander Ernst Alfred Hermann Freiherr von Falkenhausen was a German general and military advisor to Chiang Kai-shek. He was an important figure during the Sino-German cooperation to reform the Chinese Army. In 1938, Germany ended its support for China under pressure from Japan, and Falkenhausen was forced to return home. Back in Europe, he later became the head of the military government of Belgium from 1940 to 1944 during its German occupation.
The New Fourth Army Incident, also known as the South Anhui Incident, occurred in China in January 1941 during the Second Sino-Japanese War, during which the Chinese Civil War was in theory suspended, uniting the Communists and Nationalists against the Japanese. It is significant as the end of real cooperation between the Nationalists and Communists. Today, ROC and PRC historians view the New Fourth Army Incident differently. From the ROC point of view, the Communists attacked first and it was a punishment for the Communist insubordination; from the PRC view, it was Nationalist treachery.
The China Expeditionary Army was a general army of the Imperial Japanese Army from 1939 to 1945.
The Black Flag Army was a splinter remnant of a bandit group recruited largely from soldiers of ethnic Zhuang background, who crossed the border in 1865 from Guangxi, China into northern Vietnam, during the Nguyễn dynasty. Although brigands, they were known mainly for their fights against the invading French forces, who were then moving into Tonkin. The Black Flag Army is so named because of the preference of its commander, Liu Yongfu, for using black command flags.
The Battle of Xuzhou was a military conflict between the Empire of Japan and the Republic of China forces in May 1938 during the Second Sino-Japanese War.
The Battle of Wuhan, popularly known to the Chinese as the Defence of Wuhan, and to the Japanese as the Capture of Wuhan, was a large-scale battle of the Second Sino-Japanese War. Engagements took place across vast areas of Anhui, Henan, Jiangxi, Zhejiang, and Hubei provinces over a period of four and a half months. It was the longest, the largest, and arguably the most significant battle in the early stages of the Second Sino-Japanese War. More than one million National Revolutionary Army troops from the Fifth and Ninth War Zone were put under the direct command of Chiang Kai-shek, defending Wuhan from the Central China Area Army of the Imperial Japanese Army led by Shunroku Hata. Chinese forces were also supported by the Soviet Volunteer Group, a group of volunteer pilots from Soviet Air Forces.
The 1938 Yellow River flood was a man-made flood from June 1938 to January 1947 created by the intentional destruction of dikes (levees) on the Yellow River. The first wave of floods hit Zhongmu County on 13 June 1938.
The 1939–1940 Winter Offensive was one of the major engagements between the National Revolutionary Army and Imperial Japanese Army during the Second Sino-Japanese War, in which Chinese forces launched their first major counter-offensive on multiple fronts. Although this offensive failed to achieve its original objectives, some studies have shown that it came as a heavy blow to the Japanese forces, as well as a massive shock to the Japanese military command, which did not expect the Chinese forces to be able to launch an offensive operation on such a large scale.
Toshizō Nishio was a Japanese general, considered to be one of the Imperial Japanese Army's most successful and ablest strategists during the Second Sino-Japanese War, who commanded the Japanese Second Army during the first years after the Marco Polo Bridge Incident.
The Battle of Wuyuan was a Chinese counterattack that defeated the Japanese invasion of the Wuyuan area. This happened in reaction to the Chinese 1939-40 Winter Offensive in Suiyuan during the Second Sino-Japanese War. The Japanese call it 第２次後套作戦.
Operation Chahar, known in Chinese as the Nankou Campaign, occurred in August 1937, following the Battle of Beiping-Tianjin at the beginning of Second Sino-Japanese War.
The Beiping–Hankou Railway Operation was a follow up to the Battle of Beiping–Tianjin of the Japanese army in North China at the beginning of the 2nd Sino-Japanese War, fought simultaneously with Tianjin–Pukou Railway Operation. The attack was not authorized by the Imperial General Headquarters. The Japanese advanced to the south along the Beiping–Hankou Railway until the Yellow River, capturing Linfen along the way. After the Imperial General Headquarters wrestled control over troops from local commanders, the majority of participating Japanese units were transferred to participate in the concurrent Battle of Taiyuan. These units were replaced by newly formed 108th and 109th divisions.
The Battle of Jiuliancheng (九連城之戰) was a land battle of the First Sino-Japanese War between the forces of Meiji Japan and Qing China. It is sometimes referred to as the Battle of the Yalu River, thus creating confusion with the previous naval conflict of the same name of 17 September, and the subsequent naval and ground battles of the Russo-Japanese War, with the same name and occurring at much the same location.
The Battle of Yenangyaung was fought in Burma, now Myanmar, during the Burma Campaign in World War II. The battle of Yenaungyaung was fought in the vicinity of Yenangyaung and its oil fields.
The Japanese 1st Army was an army of the Imperial Japanese Army. It was raised and demobilized on three occasions.
Han Fuju or Han Fu-chü was a Kuomintang general in the early 20th century. He rose up the ranks of the Guominjun clique in the Warlord era but then went over to the Kuomintang, and held the position of military governor of Shandong from 1930 to 1938. Han had one wife, two concubines, and four sons.
Teiichi Yoshimoto was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army during the World War II.
