Spotlight On: Marco Polo Bridge Incident

In July of 1937 the Marco Polo Bridge Incident occurred. Shots were fired underneath the Bridge. When Japanese army took role call one soldier was missing. The Japanese immediately assumed that the shots fired struck one of their soldiers and was killed. It was later found out that the missing soldier was not struck by the shots, but he was relieving himself in the restroom. The Japanese had already began to invade the Chinese compound to search for the missing soldier. This single event led to the Japanese invasion of China, which led to a war. The Chinese were short on soldiers and were no match for the Japanese army. Beijing fell in late July and Shanghai fell in August.