The Sino-Japanese War

In Our Time

BBC

History

4.6 • 9.2K Ratings

🗓️ 8 May 2014

⏱️ 47 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Sino-Japanese War of 1937-45. After several years of rising tension, and the Japanese occupation of Manchuria, full-scale war between Japan and China broke out in the summer of 1937. The Japanese captured many major Chinese ports and cities, but met with fierce resistance, despite internal political divisions on the Chinese side. When the Americans entered the war following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the Japanese found themselves fighting on several fronts simultaneously, and finally capitulated in August 1945. This notoriously brutal conflict left millions dead and had far-reaching consequences for international relations in Asia.

With:

Rana Mitter Professor of the History and Politics of Modern China at the University of Oxford

Barak Kushner Senior Lecturer in Japanese History at the University of Cambridge

Tehyun Ma Lecturer in Chinese History at the University of Exeter

Producer: Thomas Morris.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know.
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0:47.0	Hello 10 miles southwest of the Chinese capital Beijing,
0:51.0	a handsome and venerable stone bridge crosses the Yongding River.
0:55.0	It's commonly known as the Marco Polo Bridge, because an earlier structure here was described
1:00.0	by the Italian traveler in his account of his journeys through China in the 13th century.
1:05.1	But the Marco Polo Bridge is also known for an incident which occurred there on the night of
1:09.2	July 7th, 1937, sparking one of the censure's most terrible conflicts, the second Sino-Japanese
1:16.2	War. A dispute over a missing Japanese soldier rapidly escalated, beginning a war that
1:21.8	was to last another eight years. This conflict
1:24.6	between Japan and China, the second in 50 years was long and bitter and cost millions of
1:29.4	lives. It was of huge significance for the future of Asia, although in the West it's often been
1:34.7	overshadowed by the contemporary events of the Second World War here.
1:38.6	With me to discuss the Second Sino-Japanese War R, R R, R. R., professor of the History and Politics of Modern China at the University of Oxford,
1:47.0	Barracushna, senior lecturer in Japanese history at the University of Cambridge, and Teune-Mar lecturer in Chinese history at the University of Cambridge and Té Yun-Mauer lecturer in Chinese history at the University of Exeter.
	...

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