Marco Polo Bridge incident
Initial battle of the Second Sino-Japanese War / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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 the National Revolutionary Army of the |'s 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 | ||||||
Chinese name | |||||||
Traditional Chinese | 盧溝橋事變 | ||||||
Simplified Chinese | 卢沟桥事变 | ||||||
Literal meaning | Lugou Bridge incident | ||||||
Hanyu Pinyin | Lúgōuqiáo Shìbiàn | ||||||
Alternative Chinese name | |||||||
Traditional Chinese | 七七事變 | ||||||
Simplified Chinese | 七七事变 | ||||||
Literal meaning | July 7 incident | ||||||
Hanyu Pinyin | Qīqī Shìbiàn | ||||||
Japanese name | |||||||
Kanji | 盧溝橋事件 | ||||||
Revised Hepburn | Rokōkyō Jiken | ||||||
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 the right to search the town for him. When this request was refused, units on both sides were alerted and the Chinese Army fired on the Japanese Army. However, the missing Japanese soldier had already returned to his lines. The Marco Polo Bridge incident is generally regarded as the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War.[4]