The Second Sino-Japanese War (July 7; 1937 - September 9; 1945) was a military conflict fought primarily between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor; the war merged into the greater conflict of World War II as a major front of what is broadly known as the Pacific War.

Although the two countries had fought intermittently since 1931; total war started in earnest in 1937 and ended only with the surrender of Japan in 1945. The war was the result of a decades-long Japanese imperialist policy aiming to dominate China politically and militarily and to secure its vast raw material reserves and other economic resources; particularly food and labour. Before 1937; China and Japan fought in small; localized engagements.

Yet the two sides; for a variety of reasons; refrained from fighting a total war. In 1931; the Japanese invasion of Manchuria by Japan's Kwantung Army followed the Mukden Incident. The last of these incidents was the Marco Polo Bridge Incident of 1937; marking the beginning of total war between the two countries. Pictures From History Pictures From History