Marco Polo Bridge

A white mob attacked a black neighborhood due to economic pressures from the Great Depression, mill closings, and Jim Crow stuff.

Across the world, there was the Second Sino-Japanese War, which erupted because of the Marco Polo Bridge incident.

There was the Spanish Civil War.

Which was a

total false flag operation, by the way.

The Spanish Civil War?

No, the Marco Polo Bridge.

Oh, right.

In the meantime, however, fearing a Japanese invasion, the nationalists agreed to a ceasefire and military alliance with the communists in 1936, so that China could effectively fight the foreign aggressor.

This agreement was timely as on the 7th of July 1937, Japanese troops that had by this time gained control of most of northeastern China without any resistance, conducted a late-night military exercise near the Marco Polo Bridge in Peking, modern-day Beijing.

After completing the exercise, the Japanese complained that one of their soldiers had not returned to their lines and demanded to be allowed to enter Chinese territory in order to search for him.

This ultimatum was refused by the Chinese, and over the coming hours tensions between the two armies escalated, Until, at around 5 am in the morning, gunfire broke out and, before long, a full-scale battle had erupted between the Chinese and Japanese troops, that eventually culminated in the capture of Peking, along with the surrounding area.

That's when Madame Chiang Kai-shek called.

China had been at war with Japan since July of 1937, when the Marco Polo Bridge incident triggered what would become the Second Sino-Japanese War.

Japan had modern aircraft.

Japan had pilots with real combat experience.

The first argument about the war, which goes by different names in different places, is when did it start?

Second World War began in Asia at a bridge called Lugotiao, known in the West as the Marco Polo Bridge.

Chiang Kai-shek, leader of the Chinese Nationalist government, said that he would seek a peaceful settlement.

But he added,

Of course, quite largely thanks to his wife, Mei Ling.

She portrayed her husband as very much, you know, the guardian of China, the man who is standing up to the Japanese oppressor.

The Japanese used the Marco Polo Bridge incident as an excuse for launching a full-scale invasion.

And the Second World War had begun.

So there are two really important dates that I wanted to go over.

One is the Marco Polo Bridge incident in 1937, and the other is the Mukden incident in 1931.

So before 2017 in mainland China, textbooks would all have this eight-year war timeline.

from 1937 to 1945, starting with the Marco Polo Bridge incident, which, and by the way, this is still regarded in the Republic of China on Taiwan as the proper start of the war.

And it's still an important date in the People's Republic of China as the start of what they call a national all-out war.

It was never, unlike this new 14-year war timeline, Marco Polo Bridge was never the official starting date of the war at government level, but it was popularly assumed to be.

And the events of Marco Polo Bridge incident were not that unusual in and of themselves.

At that point in time, Japanese imperialism continued to encroach upon China's sovereignty, particularly in the North.