The first phase of the Sino-Japanese war (1937-1938)

Abstract

  The great victories achieved by the Japanese army in the Sino-Japanese War(1894-1895), the capture of Korea from China, as well as their victory in the war against Russia(1904-1905), had the great impetus for Japan to pursue an expansionist policy, expanding its political and military influence in Asia to preserve its interests and get rid of Western influence, After the end of the First World War in1918AD, Japan emerged as a powerful colonial power seeking to extend its influence in the region, especially after the increase in American and European influence in Southeast Asia and China, and the pressure on the Tokyo government increased from the military (hard-line nationalists) who came to power in1931, demanding expansion Towards China to achieve their expansion goals, expel those forces from the region and implement its colonial project "Asia for Asians" under its leadership.

   Japan began looking for an excuse for expansion. When an explosion occurred at the Marco Polo Bridge 7July1937, it took appropriate opportunity to occupy China it prepared its forces and attacked Beijing and Tianjin in late July. Then it soon expanded its attack, occupying Taiyuan and Shanghai and controlling Nanjing, the capital of China, after a massacre, known as the Nanking Massacre, then occupied the city of Suzhou, which oversees the regions of central China1938, then attacked Wuhan, the capital of Hubei Province in central China, which is an economic, commercial and tourism city, and thus Japan ended the first phase of the war by controlling regions Wide in north and central China, which constitutes42% of its territory, and thus threatened the American and European presence who failed to end the war between the two countries.