The Second Sino-Japanese War was a conflict between China and Japan that began in 1937.

The two countries had previously clashed in the First Sino-Japanese War (189495) over control of Korea. The new conflict had its roots in the Manchurian Incident of September 1931, when the Japanese army occupied the Chinese province of Manchuria. In February 1932 Japan established the puppet state of Manchukuo. (A puppet state is controlled by the government of another country.) The Japanese then pressured China to recognize the independence of Manchukuo, suppress anti-Japanese activities, and form autonomous (self-governing) regions in northern China. The Japanese were partially successful in 1933 and 1935 when they forced China to establish two autonomous demilitarized zones (areas that cannot be used for military purposes) along the border of Manchuria. By 1937 China was in the midst of an internal struggle, between the Nationalist (government) army headed by Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek (18871975) and the Red Army, Communist forces under revolutionary leader Mao Tse-tung (1893 1976). (Communism is a system of government in which the state plans and controls the economy and a single party holds power.) Nevertheless, China turned its attention to the foreign aggressor. A full-fledged war broke out in July 1937 after the Japanese tried to occupy Peking and Tientsin, cities in northeast China. Chiang Kaishek refused to end the hostilities on Japanese terms and placed troops outside the Japanese settlement at Shanghai, a seaport city in southeast China. After a long struggle at Shanghai, the Japanese took Nanking, the Chinese capital. Fighting continued for the next two years, as Japanese forces tried to take control of the country by seizing cities, roads, and railways. By 1940 the Nationalists had been driven back to a temporary capital at Chungking, a city in southern China; food supplies and other resources were running low, and China was receiving little help from outside. The war against Japan appeared to be lost. Y et Japan's military strength was being used elsewhere. In 1940 World War II (193945) had been underway for a year, and Japan had joined the Axis powers (Germany and Italy) against the Allies (Great Britain and France). In 1941, after the Japanese bombed the American military base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, China officially declared war on Japan, Germany, and Italy. The Second Sino-Japanese War thus became part of World War II. Having joined the Allies (which now included the United States), China began receiving British and American loans and supplies. Allied military bases were being built in China, providing protection against attacks from Japan.

Nevertheless, China's military situation continued to deteriorate until April 1945, when the Chinese launched a successful campaign at Chih-chiang, a city in central China. The battle lasted until the Japanese were defeated by the Allies on August 14; Japanese troops in China formally surrendered to the Allies on September 9, 1945. After the war Manchuria, Taiwan, and the Pescadoresterritories that had been occupied by Japanwere returned to China.