Forgotten Ally: China's World War II, 1937-1945

by Rana Mitter

By spring of 1936, the Japanese increased the number of their troops in north China from 2,000 to a permanent brigade of 5,600, with troops based around major cities including Tianjin and Beiping. Throughout 1936, further incidents of violence took place against Japanese in various parts of China, all of which further fueled Japanese demands to increase their armed presence in China. In August 1937, the top Japanese civilian and military leadership agreed to a fundamental set of demands that they would make of China, including an anti-Communist military pact, the lowering of tariffs on Japanese imports, and the employment of Japanese military “advisers.” The demands were part of a more wide-ranging general statement of policy, which included the longer-term conviction of the army that they must go to war with the USSR and the determination by the navy that Japan should expand its influence in Southeast Asia.