What was the Marco Polo Bridge Incident?
The Marco Polo Bridge Incident was a battle between the Japan’s Imperial Army and China’s National Revolutionary Army, marking the beginning of the Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945). Beginning late June 1937, the Japanese army (several hundreds) deployed at the west end of the bridge was practising while Kuomintang forces, garrisoned in Wanping Town, watched closely. At dawn of July 7, the Japanese army telegraphed the KMT forces saying that a soldier was missing and believed to be hiding inside the town. The Japanese demanded that its army should enter the town to search for the missing soldier, who was later found unharmed. There are some disputes among historians over the incident with some historians believing that this was an unintentional accident while others believing that the entire incident was fabricated by the Kwantung Army in order to provide a pretext for the invasion of central China. With the fall of Beijing on August 18 and Tianjin on 21st, the North China Plain was helple
