The Tientsin incident ( 天津事件 ) was an international incident created by a blockade by the Imperial Japanese Army 's Japanese North China Area Army of the British settlements in the north China treaty port of Tientsin (modern day Tianjin ) in June 1939. Originating as a minor administrative dispute, it escalated into a major diplomatic incident .
175-465: Starting in 1931 with the seizure of Manchuria , Japan had a policy of attempting to reduce Chinese independence with an ultimate aim of placing all of China within the Japanese sphere of influence. Britain's relations with China had not been particularly warm or close before the mid-1930s, but the rise of Japan had improved relations between London and Nanking. The British historian Victor Rothwell wrote: "In
350-618: A Creative City by UNESCO , in the field of design. Wuhan is classified as a Beta- (global second tier) city together with seven other cities in China, including Changsha , Dalian , Jinan , Shenyang , Xiamen , Xi'an and Zhengzhou by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network . Wuhan is also one of the world's top 100 financial centers, according to the Global Financial Centres Index . The name "Wuhan" comes from
525-445: A "scissors crisis" between the enormous expenditure required to fight the war and a rapidly-plummeting tax base. Between 1937 and 1939, Chinese government spending rose by a third, and tax revenue fell by two thirds. Faced with a lack of funds to continue the war, Chiang started to engage in increasing desperate measures to raise revenue such as organising sales of opium via Macau and Hong Kong in an operation overseen by Dai and Du. That
700-770: A center for the arts (especially poetry) and for intellectual studies. Cui Hao , a celebrated poet of the Tang dynasty , visited the Yellow Crane Tower in the early 8th century; his poem made it the most celebrated building in southern China. In spring 877, Wang Xianzhi captured E Prefecture ( 鄂州 , in modern Wuhan). He then returned north, joining forces with Huang again, and they surrounded Song Wei at Song Prefecture ( 宋州 , in modern Shangqiu , Henan ). In winter 877, Huang Chao pillaged Qi and Huang ( 黃州 , in modern Wuhan) Prefectures. Before Kublai Khan arrived in 1259, word reached him that Möngke had died. Kublai decided to keep
875-732: A central event in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms —the Battle of Red Cliffs —took place near the Yangtze River , with the cliffs near Wuhan identified as one of the potential locations. Around that time, walls were built to protect Hanyang (AD 206) and Wuchang (AD 223). The latter event marks the foundation of Wuhan. In AD 223, the Yellow Crane Tower , one of the Four Great Towers of China ,
1050-624: A confrontation with both Britain and America at once. An additional problem for the British was normally the concession police handed over Chinese suspects to the Tientsin police to be tried by Chinese courts, but since the British did not recognise the Wang regime in Nanking, which nominally controlled the Tientsin police, the British police had stopped handing Chinese suspects to a police force that took its orders from
1225-499: A final measure, which almost definitely will lead to the resignation of Ōshima and Shiratori. The resignations will at first cause a great setback to the pact, but will gradually strengthen the foundation in Japan for it. But there is no other way for me to assume responsibility except by resigning. It is planned to execute the foregoing decision by August 15". However, the German insistence for
1400-746: A great many students for study overseas, which well promoted the development of China's modern education. Furthermore, he trained a modern military and organized a modern army including a zhen and a xie (both zhen and xie are military units in the Qing dynasty) in Hubei. Originally known as the Hubei Arsenal, the Hanyang Arsenal was founded in 1891, who diverted funds from the Nanyang Fleet in Guangdong to build
1575-467: A land rich in natural resources, was widely seen as an economic "lifeline" to save Japan from the effects of the Great Depression , generating much public support. The American historian Louise Young described Japan from September 1931 to the spring of 1933 as gripped by "war fever" as the conquest of Manchuria proved to be an extremely popular war. The metaphor of a "lifeline" suggested that Manchuria
1750-872: A new City of Wuchang, but in October 1946 were separated into the City of Wuchang (including Wuchang only) and the County of Hanyang. Hankou became a centrally controlled municipality in August 1947. Militarily, the Wuhan Forward Headquarters was established in Wuhan, headed by Bai Chongxi . During the later stages of the Chinese Civil War, Bai sought to broker peace, proposing that the Communist Party could rule northern China while
1925-511: A new cabinet led by Prime Minister Inukai Tsuyoshi . Further negotiations with the Kuomintang government failed, the Japanese government authorized the reinforcement of troops in Manchuria. In December, the rest of 20th Infantry Division, along with the 38th Mixed Brigade from the 19th Infantry Division were sent into Manchuria from Korea while the 8th Mixed Brigade from the 10th Infantry Division
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#17328448783022100-733: A new war. The main fear was the British "peace front" that was meant to contain Germany in Europe would soon come into being, forcing Japan to fight an alliance of Britain, France, and the Soviet Union that might be joined by the United States. Navy Minister Admiral Yonai stated there was no possibility of victory if Japan had to fight an Anglo-French-Chinese-Soviet-American alliance. The conference concluded that no alliance should yet be signed with Germany and Italy. Itagaki, through his deputy Machijiri Kazumotō,
2275-462: A regime that was not recognised by London as the Chinese government. Many Juntong agents had taken to operating out of the British concession since the worst thing that would happen to them if captured by the concession police would be they'd be kept in the local jail, which was considered vastly preferable to being tortured and executed by the Japanese. Despite Japanese pan-Asian propaganda on uniting all
2450-514: A savage fight with an engineering company defending the north bank, were sent fleeing with heavy losses. During this fight, the Nenjiang railroad bridge was dynamited by troops loyal to General Ma Zhanshan to prevent its use. Using the repair of the Nen River Bridge as the pretext, the Japanese sent a repair party in early November under the protection of Japanese troops. Fighting erupted between
2625-575: A shipment of a large number of military supplies by the Japanese Army. On October 13, Zhang Haipeng ordered three regiments of the Manchukuo Imperial Army under General Xu Jinglong north to take the capital of Heilongjiang province at Qiqihar . Some elements in the city offered to surrender the old walled town peacefully, and Chang advanced cautiously to accept. However his advance guard was attacked by General Dou Lianfang 's troops, and in
2800-562: A war with Britain. On 31 March 1939, Britain had guaranteed Poland's independence while Germany was threatening war with Poland if the Poles did not permit the Free City of Danzig to rejoin Germany. Hiranuma argued that an alliance with Germany might drag Japan into an unwanted war with Britain and might lead to the Soviet Union joining the "peace front" and so Japan would have to fight both the Soviets and
2975-526: Is headquartered in Wuhan. The city is home to multiple notable institutes of higher education, including Wuhan University and the Huazhong University of Science and Technology . Wuhan is a major city in the world by scientific research outputs and it ranks 9th globally and 5th in the Asia-Pacific & China (after Beijing , Shanghai , Nanjing and Guangzhou ). In 2017, Wuhan was designated as
3150-682: Is located nearby. Historically, Wuhan has suffered risks of flooding, prompting the government to alleviate the situation by introducing ecologically friendly absorption mechanisms. While Wuhan has been a traditional manufacturing hub for decades, it is also one of the areas promoting modern industrial changes in China. Wuhan has three national development zones, four scientific and technological development parks, over 350 research institutes, 1,656 high tech enterprises, numerous enterprise incubators and investments from 230 Fortune Global 500 firms. It produced GDP (nominal) of US$ 274 billion in 2021. The Dongfeng Motor Corporation , an automobile manufacturer,
3325-608: Is sometimes referred to as "the Chicago of China" by foreign sources. The "Golden Waterway" of the Yangtze River and the Han River traverse the urban area and divide Wuhan into the three districts of Wuchang , Hankou , and Hanyang . The Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge crosses the Yangtze in the city. The Three Gorges Dam , the world's largest power station in terms of installed capacity ,
3500-403: Is the capital of Hubei , China. With a population of over eleven million, it is the most populous city in Hubei and the seventh-most-populous city in China. It is also one of the nine national central cities . Wuhan historically served as a busy city port for commerce and trading with some crucial influences on Chinese history . The name "Wuhan" came from the city's historical origin from
3675-538: The Anti-Comintern Pact , to allow Japanese officers to command the Chinese National Revolutionary Army , to allow Japanese troops to remain indefinitely in all areas of China that they had occupied and to pay reparations to Japan. China was to pay the entire costs of the war run up by Japan but also a punitive amount so that the Chinese people might reflect on the folly of seeking to challenge
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#17328448783023850-600: The Anti-Japanese Volunteer Armies . The repaired bridge made possible the further advance of Japanese forces and their armored trains. Additional troops from Japan, notably the 4th Mixed Brigade from the 8th Division , were sent in November. On November 15, 1931, despite having lost more than 400 men and 300 left wounded since 5 November, General Ma declined a Japanese ultimatum to surrender Qiqihar. On 17 November, in subzero weather, 3,500 Japanese troops, under
4025-658: The Beijing–Hankou railway with the Guangdong–Hankou railway into the Beijing–Guangzhou railway , making Wuhan a 'thoroughfare to nine provinces' ( 九省通衢 ) in name and in fact. After Chengdu Conference, Mao went to Chongqing and Wuhan in April to inspect the countryside and factories. In Wuhan, he called all the leaders of provinces and municipalities who had not attended Chengdu Conference to report their work. Tian Jiaying,
4200-522: The Emperor . By the end of September 19, the Japanese occupied Yingkou , Liaoyang, Shenyang, Fushun , Dandong , Siping (Jilin Province) , and Changchun . The following day, the commander of the Chinese 2nd Army, Wan Shu Cheng, ordered the withdrawal of the 44th and 643rd Regiments, which were then stationed at Taching , back to Tientsin . On September 21, the Japanese captured Jilin City . On 23 September,
4375-586: The Empire of Japan as part of a military operation in the Second Sino-Japanese War , but it was not entirely occupied since the Japanese mostly continued to respect the integrity and extraterritoriality of foreign concessions in Tientsin until 1941. In December 1937, the Japanese took Shanghai , China's business capital. It was a major blow to the government of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek , as 85% of all Chinese government revenue came from Shanghai. After
4550-558: The Erligang culture ( c. 1510 – c. 1460 BC) (being sparsely populated during the earlier Erlitou period ), is located in modern-day Huangpi District of Wuhan. During the Western Zhou the State of E , which gives its name to the single character abbreviation for Hubei province, controlled the present-day Wuchang area south of the Yangtze River. After the conquest of
4725-539: The Independent Garrison Unit (独立守備隊) of the 29th Infantry Regiment (which guarded the South Manchuria Railway) placed explosives near the tracks, but far enough away to do no real damage. At around 10:20 pm (22:20) on September 18, the explosives were detonated. However, the explosion was minor and only a 1.5-meter section on one side of the rail was damaged. In fact, a train from Changchun passed by
4900-496: The Japanese Northern China Area Army surrounded and blockaded the foreign concessions over the refusal of the British authorities to hand over four Chinese who had assassinated a Japanese collaborator and taken refuge within the British concession. Anyone wishing to leave or enter the concession was publicly stripsearched by Japanese soldiers, and food and fuel were not permitted to enter the concession. To cut off
5075-602: The League of Nations produced the Lytton Commission (headed by British politician Victor Bulwer-Lytton ) to evaluate the situation, with the organization delivering its findings in October 1932. Its findings and recommendations that the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo not be recognized and the return of Manchuria to Chinese sovereignty prompted the Japanese government to withdraw from the League entirely. A minor dispute known as
5250-434: The Lytton Commission issued a report on the invasion, despite its statements that China had to a certain extent provoked Japan, and China's sovereignty over Manchuria was not absolute, Japan took it as an unacceptable rebuke and withdrew from the already declining League of Nations, which also helped create international isolation. The Manchurian Crisis had a significant negative effect on the moral strength and influence of
5425-673: The Manchuria region of the Republic of China on 18 September 1931, immediately following the Mukden incident , a false flag event staged by Japanese military personnel as a pretext to invade. At the war's end in February 1932, the Japanese established the puppet state of Manchukuo . The occupation lasted until mid-August 1945, towards the end of the Second World War , in the face of an onslaught by
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5600-548: The Northern and Southern dynasties period, the Wuhan area was part of the successive Southern dynasty states Liu Song (420–479), Southern Qi (479–502), Liang , and Western Liang . In fall 550, Hou Jing sent Ren Yue to attack both Xiao Daxin and Xiao Fan's son Xiao Si ( 蕭嗣 ). Ren killed Xiao Si in battle, and Xiao Daxin, unable to resist, surrendered, allowing Hou to take his domain under control. Meanwhile, Xiao Guan, who had by now settled at Jiangxia ( 江夏 , in modern Wuhan),
5775-766: The Russian-Japanese War of 1904–05, Japanese generals had held Russians in contempt, and the ferocity of the fighting had astonished the Japanese, who had expected an easy victory. On June 26, 1939, the Royal Navy and the Foreign Office reported to the British Cabinet that the only way of ending the blockade was to send the main British battle fleet to Far Eastern waters, and with the Danzig crisis with Nazi Germany threatening Poland made that militarily unadvisable. If
5950-455: The Shōwa Emperor , who made it clear that he was displeased with the prospect of a war with Britain while the war with China was still unresolved, and Japan on the brink of an all-out war with the Soviet Union. Additionally, he felt a war with Britain would push Japan too much into the embrace of Germany to the advantage of Germany. Since he was worshipped as a living god by the Japanese people,
6125-479: The South Manchuria Railway . On the early morning of 19 September, the 29th Infantry Regiment entered Mukden and overwhelmed the resisting Chinese forces, seizing the inner walled city. At the same time, the 2nd Battalion occupied Pei Ta Ying, having faced stubborn resistance, before moving on to Tung Ta Ying. Afterwards, the 2nd Division was also dispatched and drove out the remaining Chinese troops from
6300-773: The Soviet Union and Mongolia during the Manchurian Strategic Offensive Operation . The South Manchuria Railway Zone and the Korean Peninsula had been under the control of the Japanese Empire since the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905. Japan's ongoing industrialization and militarization ensured their growing dependence on oil and metal imports from the US. The US sanctions which prevented trade with
6475-472: The Soviet Volunteer Group in both planes and personnel, as U.S. support in war materials waned. As the battle raged on through 1938, Wuhan and the surrounding region had become the site of the Battle of Wuhan . After being taken by the Japanese in late 1938, Wuhan became a major Japanese logistics center for operations in southern China. In early October 1938, Japanese troops moved east and north in
6650-657: The Taonan area. Sometime in October, Ji Xing (吉興) surrendered the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture area and on 17 October, Yu Zhishan surrendered Eastern Liaoning to the Japanese. Tokyo was shocked by the news of the Army acting without orders from the central government. The Japanese civilian government was thrown into disarray by this act of "gekokujō" insubordination , but as reports of one quick victory after another began to arrive, it felt powerless to oppose
6825-647: The Wanpaoshan incident between Chinese and Korean farmers occurred on July 1, 1931. The issue was highly sensationalized in the Imperial Japanese and Korean press, and used for considerable propaganda effect to increase anti-Chinese sentiment in the Empire of Japan. Next, on 18 September 1931, was the Mukden Incident , which was later revealed to be a false flag attack. Believing that a conflict in Manchuria would be in
7000-442: The Yangtze River in Wuhan to collect the information needed for opening the trading port in Wuhan. In the spring of 1861, Counselor Harry Smith Parkes and Admiral Herbert were sent to Wuhan to open a trading port. On the basis of the Convention of Peking , Parkes concluded the Hankou Lend-Lease Treaty with Guan Wen, the governor-general of Hunan and Hubei. It brought an area of 30.53 square kilometers (11.79 sq mi) along
7175-452: The train ferries for crossing the Yangtze River in Wuhan. The project of building the Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge , also known as the First Yangtze River Bridge, was regarded as one of the key projects during the first five-year plan. On October 25, 1955, construction began on the bridge proper. The same day in 1957, the whole project was completed and an opening-to-traffic ceremony was held on October 15. The First Yangtze River Bridge united
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7350-454: The 11th, the revolutionary army took the whole city of Wuchang, but leaders such as Jiang Yiwu and Sun Wu disappeared. Thus the leaderless revolutionary army recommended Li Yuanhong , the assistant governor of the Qing army, as the commander-in-chief. Li founded the Hubei Military Government, proclaimed the abolition of the Qing rule in Hubei, the founding of the Republic of China and published an open telegram calling for other provinces to join
7525-455: The Anti-Comintern Pact into an anti-British military alliance. From Berlin, the very pro-German Japanese ambassador, General Hiroshi Ōshima , likewise advised that Japan would sign a military alliance with Germany and Italy as the best way to resolve the crisis in its favour. On 24 July 1939, Heinrich Georg Stahmer , who was in charge of Asian relations at the Dienststelle Ribbentrop , met with Ōshima to tell him that Ribbentrop had not heard from
7700-399: The Army, and its decision was to immediately send three more infantry divisions from Japan, beginning with the 14th Mixed Brigade of the IJA 7th Division . During this era, the elected government could be held hostage by the Army and Navy, since Army and Navy members were constitutionally necessary for the formation of cabinets. Without their support, the government would collapse. After
7875-424: The British Foreign Office in a press statement stated that the acceptance of the Japanese demands would "mean the abandonment under the threats of force of the policy His Majesty's Government has pursued in the past, which is the same as that of the other Great Powers with interests in the Far East". On 20 June 1939, Lord Halifax told the House of Lords that the Japanese had failed to produce any evidence independent of
8050-424: The British ceased their financial support of China, Japan would finally win the war. Konoe thought that the British effort to stabilise China's currency and thereby to prevent the complete economic collapse of China was the only thing standing between the Chinese and the total victory that was required for his programme. Since the loans to China were guaranteed by the British government, the Chinese silver as collateral
8225-471: The British chose to turn over the four Chinese fugitives to end the standoff; the Chinese were later executed by the Japanese by public beheadings in violation of the agreement. The handover of the four Chinese to the Japanese sparked much outrage in Britain, with MPs being flooded with letter of protests from their constituents, a public relations disaster for the Chamberlain government that the Israeli historian Aron Shai observed would now be better remembered if
8400-400: The British government had provided loans to China to the value of £10 million. That figure does not include the loans made to China by British banks. The loans from Britain and the United States had, by the fall of 1940, provided China with $ 245 million in loans, allowed Nationalist China a modicum of economic stability and let it continue the war. Most importantly, the Tientsin incident marked
8575-462: The British government to turn over all silver reserves belonging to the Chinese government within British banks to them, to forbid all anti-Japanese radio broadcasts from anywhere in the British Empire, to ban school textbooks that the Japanese government considered offensive and to end the issuing of fapi currency. The real aim of the Japanese was not the handing over of the assassins but the end of British financial support of China. On 16 June 1939,
8750-409: The British viewpoint China could not be allowed to lose, which ruled out any possibility of the Gaimusho effecting any change in British policy. Unlike the International Settlement in Shanghai, which belonged jointly to the United States and the United Kingdom, the British Concession in Tientsin was just that and so the Japanese had already decided to blockade it in early 1939, as it would mean avoiding
8925-428: The British while the war with China was still going on. Hiranuma was tactful enough not to remind Itagaki that the Imperial Army was currently losing the border war that it was fighting against the Soviet Union. Finance Minister Ishiwata Sōtarō advised against war with Britain on economic grounds, and Foreign Minister Arita stated that purpose of the confrontation was to force the British to stop backing China, not to cause
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#17328448783029100-402: The Chinese garrison of around seven thousand. The Chinese troops were no match for the experienced Japanese troops. By the evening, the fighting was over, and the Japanese had occupied Shenyang at the cost of five hundred Chinese lives and only two Japanese lives, thus starting the greater invasion of Manchuria. In early 1932 there was the January 28 incident 1932 in Shanghai, then in May 1932,
9275-489: The Chinese population were much easier to kill than Japanese officers, who tended to stick to their barracks. Undercover agents tended to be young men, who graduated from provincial schools, rather than universities (the ultraconservative Dai was contemptuous of intellectuals, who he felt to have been exposed to too much Western influence for their own good) and were usually skilled in martial arts. Also, Juntong agents were expected to be unconditionally loyal and willing to die for
9450-444: The Chinese will to resist. Another alternative Japanese approach to victory in China was the establishment in November 1938 of a puppet government under Wang Jingwei , the leader of the Kuomintang's left wing who had lost to Chiang in the succession struggle after the death of Sun Yat-sen , out of the hope that it would lead to an exodus of Kuomintang leaders to Wang's government and so cause the collapse of Chiang's government. However,
9625-439: The Communists within the party, which marked the end of the First United Front , and Chiang Kai-shek briefly stepped down as the commander of the National Revolutionary Army. In June 1927, Stalin sent a telegram to the Communists in Wuhan, calling for the mobilization of an army of workers and peasants. This alarmed Wang Jingwei, who decided to break with the Communists and come to terms with Chiang Kai-shek. The Wuhan coup
9800-460: The Dominions of Australia and New Zealand. As such, Neville Chamberlain 's British government, despite being unwilling to go to war with Japan, was not prepared to accept a Japanese victory over China. From the viewpoint of London, it was much preferable for Japan to remain embroiled in China than to attack the British Empire . The British Ambassador in China, Sir Archibald Clark-Kerr reported to London that unless Britain gave China loans to continue
9975-422: The E state in 863 BC, the present-day Wuhan area was controlled by the State of Chu for the rest of the Western Zhou and Eastern Zhou periods. After the State of Huang was conquered by State of Chu in the summer of 648 BC, the people of Huang were moved into the area in and around present-day Wuhan. Local geographical terms including the name of Wuhan's Huangpi District were named after the State of Huang. Chu
10150-418: The Japanese Prime Minister was assassinated (this reduced civilian oriented rule in Japan). On September 18, 1931, the Japanese Imperial General Headquarters , which had decided upon a policy of localizing the incident, communicated its decision to the Kwantung Army command. However, Kwantung Army commander-in-chief General Shigeru Honjō instead ordered his forces to proceed to expand operations all along
10325-437: The Japanese ambassador to Britain, Mamoru Shigemitsu , who attempted to defuse the situation through negotiation, and the Japanese Army, the commander of the North China Army , Field Marshal Hajime Sugiyama , escalating the situation by demands for an end to the foreign concessions in Tientsin altogether. The British historian D.C. Watt argued that the partial diplomatic victory by the Japanese helped to keep Japan neutral during
10500-423: The Japanese constitution of 1889, the Army and Navy reported directly to the Emperor, not the Prime Minister, and the Army and Navy ministers had to be active-duty officers who were nominated by their respective services, not the Prime Minister. The Army and/or Navy ministers by resigning and preventing the Prime Minister from forming the quorum necessary for the cabinet to meet could topple a government, thus allowing
10675-464: The Japanese forces and troops loyal to the acting governor of Heilongjiang province Muslim General Ma Zhanshan, who chose to disobey the Kuomintang government's ban on further resistance to the Japanese invasion. Despite his failure to hold the bridge, General Ma Zhanshan became a national hero in China for his resistance at Nenjiang Bridge, which was widely reported in the Chinese and international press. The publicity inspired more volunteers to enlist in
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#173284487830210850-427: The Japanese government in its stance, but it also gave an impression of American weakness and that the Americans feared war with Japan and would pay almost any price to avoid it. Meanwhile, the border war with the Soviet Union was escalating rapidly, and as the Japanese discovered to their cost, the Red Army was a formidable foe, the Japanese Army suffering a casualty rate of 70% between July–September 1939. Ever since
11025-587: The Japanese government: one faction that wanted to use the crisis to start a war with Britain, and another that argued that since the war with China was already compounded the border war with the Soviet Union, starting a third war was unwise. Even more astonishing to the Japanese Army, which expected an easy triumph, the Red Army defeated it at the Battle of Khalkhin Gol, which came as a great shock and caused many Japanese generals to lose their bellicosity, if only momentarily. Japanese Foreign Minister Hachirō Arita regularly met with Craigie and by 22 July 1939 felt that he
11200-445: The Japanese in their confrontation was that they had broken the American diplomatic codes and so knew from reading intercepted reports from the American embassies in Chunking and Tokyo that the British had asked for American support but had been refused. The message from Nelson Johnson, the American ambassador to China, that any sanctions imposed on Japan were likely to cause a war and his advice against sanctions for that reason reinforced
11375-410: The Japanese since he presented his proposals for a military alliance on 16 June 1939 and informed him that Adolf Hitler was a preparing a major speech on foreign policy at the planned NSDAP rally in Nuremberg for September. Thus, Ribbentrop needed answers now about whatever Japan was going to proceed or not. On 28 July, Ribbentrop met with Ōshima, pressed him to sign an alliance with Germany, argued that
11550-404: The Japanese that he would hand over the accused assassins. The British Foreign Secretary, Lord Halifax , hearing that the confessions had been obtained by torture, ordered that the accused assassins should not be handed back to the Japanese. The local commander of the Japanese North China Army in Tientsin, General Masaharu Homma , was regarded as friendly by the British, but the Chief of Staff of
11725-446: The Japanese took Jiaohe (Jilin Province) and Dunhua . On 26 September, the Governor of Kirin, Zhang Zuoxiang , was deposed and the "Provisional Provincial Government of Kirin" declared with Xi Qia as acting chairman. This new government was friendly to the Japanese and allowed them to occupy Kirin city bloodlessly. Most other provincial officials were maintained in their previous positions. On 1 October, Zhang Haipeng surrendered
11900-411: The KMT gunboat Zhongshan came up against six Japanese aircraft. Though two were eventually shot down, the Zhongshan sank with 25 casualties. Raised from the bottom of the Yangtze River in 1997, and restored at a local shipyard, the Zhongshan has been moved to a purpose-built museum in Wuhan's suburban Jiangxia District , which opened on September 26, 2011. As a key center on the Yangtze, Wuhan
12075-410: The Konoe programme required. The Japanese Army, which understood the logistical problems of attempting to conquer such a vast country as China far better than Konoe ever did, had objected to the Konoe programme for precisely that reason. It committed Japan to winning a total victory over China that Japan did not have the power to achieve, but at the same time making, anything less than the achievement of
12250-409: The Konoe programme seemed like a defeat for Japan. In July 1938, Japan launched an offensive intended to capture Wuhan and win the war at last. The summer offensive of 1938 succeeded in taking Wuhan, but the Japanese failed to destroy the core of the Chinese National Revolutionary Army, which retreated further up the Yangtze. After the Wuhan offensive, the Imperial Army informed Tokyo that the troops in
12425-410: The Kuomintang government was prepared to run the risk of the shipment being intercepted by either the Policia de Segurança Pública de Macau or the Royal Hong Kong Constabulary (respectively) and the consequent public relations disaster reflected the need for money. Chinese Finance Minister H. H. Kung simply printed more and more money, leading to one of the worst spirals of hyperinflation yet seen in
12600-506: The Kwantung Army to "smash the sissified dreams of compromise" and declared that to die for the Emperor in battle was the "purest" act a Japanese man could perform. The Western media reported on the events with accounts of atrocities such as bombing civilians or firing upon shell-shocked survivors. It aroused considerable antipathy to Japan, which lasted until the end of World War II. When
12775-547: The League of Nations. As critics had predicted, the League was powerless if a strong nation decided to pursue an aggressive policy against other countries, allowing a country such as Japan to commit blatant aggression without serious consequences. Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini were also aware of this, and ultimately both followed Japan's example in aggression against their neighbors: in the case of Italy , against Abyssinia (1935–7); and Germany , against Czechoslovakia (1938–9) and Poland (1939). Wuhan Wuhan
12950-691: The Liaoning Provincial government fled Mukden, it was replaced by a "Peoples Preservation Committee" which declared the secession of Liaoning province from the Republic of China . Other secessionist movements were organized in Japanese-occupied Kirin by General Xi Qia head of the Manchukuo Imperial Army , and at Harbin, by General Chang Ching-hui . In early October, at Taonan in northwest Liaoning province, General Zhang Haipeng declared his district independent of China, in return for
13125-565: The Mediterranean than for it being sent to Singapore , and Britain could expect no support from France in the crisis with Japan. Following an unsuccessful effort to obtain support from Americans, who told the British that the United States would not risk war with Japan purely for British interests, Chamberlain ordered Sir Robert Craigie , the British ambassador in Tokyo, to find any way of ending
13300-528: The Nationalist government retained southern China. This was rejected, and on May 15, 1949, Bai and the Wuhan garrison retreated from the city. People's Liberation Army troops entered Wuhan on the afternoon of Monday, May 16, 1949. The Communists redeveloped industry in Wuhan, which had damaged by war. During the PRC's first decade, it became an important center of industry again. Hundreds of factories were built in
13475-486: The North China Army, General Tomoyuki Yamashita , was known to be a believer in abolishing all Western concessions in China. Since early 1939, General Yamashita had advocated the end of the British concession in Tientsin, and he used the British refusal to turn over the alleged assassins to convince his superiors in Tokyo to order a blockade of the concession. By 1939, the Japanese had largely persuaded themselves that it
13650-684: The Northern Expedition was interrupted by the political split in the Kuomintang following the formation of the Nanjing faction in April 1927 against the existing faction in Wuhan. Members of the Chinese Communist Party , who had survived the April 12 massacre, met at Wuhan and reelected Chen Duxiu (Ch'en Tu-hsiu) as the Party's Secretary General. The split was partially motivated by the purge of
13825-486: The Russian concession. Japanese immigrants, mainly traders, also started arriving in 1874. In 1889, Zhang Zhidong was transferred from Viceroy of Liangguang ( Guangdong and Guangxi provinces) to Viceroy of Huguang ( Hunan and Hubei provinces). He governed the province for 18 years, until 1907. During this period, he elucidated the theory of "Chinese learning as the basis, Western learning for application," known as
14000-490: The Second World War Two had not begun two weeks later. The Chinese government handed in a note of protest asking the British to reconsider and saying that the four men were going to be executed by the Japanese, but Chiang was pleased that the British did not give in to the Japanese economic demands. The Tientsin incident highlighted the gap between the foreign policy of Japan's civilian government, as expressed through
14175-641: The Soviets lent a sum of rubles equivalent to $ 250 million. To persuade the Soviets not to support China, the Japanese began a border war with the Soviet Union in 1938–1939, but it ended with the Japanese being badly defeated by the Soviets in August 1939 in the Battles of Khalkhin Gol . In the summer of 1939, a major crisis in Anglo-Japanese relations occurred with the Tientsin Incident. On April 9, 1939 Cheng Hsi-keng,
14350-579: The United States (which had occupied the Philippines around the same time) resulted in Japan furthering its expansion in the territory of China and Southeast Asia. The invasion of Manchuria, or the Marco Polo Bridge Incident of 7 July 1937, are sometimes cited as alternative starting dates for World War II , in contrast with the more commonly accepted date of September 1, 1939 . With the invasion having attracted great international attention,
14525-831: The Wuhan area was controlled for many years by rebel forces and the Yellow Crane Tower, Xingfu Temple , Zhuodaoquan Temple and other buildings were repurposed or damaged. During the Second Opium War (known in the West as the Arrow War, 1856–1860), the government of the Qing dynasty was defeated by the western powers and signed the Treaties of Tianjin and the Convention of Peking , which stipulated eleven cities or regions (including Hankou) as trading ports. In December 1858, James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin , High Commissioner to China, led four warships up
14700-705: The Xinhai year on the Chinese calendar. The city has several museums and memorials to the revolution and the thousands of martyrs who died defending the revolution. With the northern extension of the Northern Expedition , the center of the Great Revolution shifted from the Pearl River basin to the Yangtze River basin. On November 26, the Kuomintang Central Political Committee decided to move
14875-450: The Yangtze River (from latter-day Jianghan Road to Hezuo Road) to become a British Concession and permitted Britain to set up its consulate in the concession. In 1862, Russian tea merchants arrived in the treaty port of Hankou. Russians in Hankou established four factories using assembly lines and machinery to produce brick tea, and became the city's richest industrialists in what would become
15050-580: The Yangtze River boom town, was "the St. Louis and Chicago of China." On October 10, 1911, Sun Yat-sen 's followers launched the Wuchang Uprising , which led to the collapse of the Qing state and 2,000 years of dynastic rule, as well as the establishment of the Republic of China . The Wuchang Uprising of October 1911, which overthrew the Qing dynasty, originated in Wuhan. Before the uprising, anti-Qing secret societies were active in Wuhan. In September 1911,
15225-496: The Yangtze River. In 1926, the Northern Expedition reached the Wuhan area and it was decided to merge Hankou, Wuchang and Hanyang into one city in order to make a new capital for Nationalist China. On January 1, 1927, the resulting city was proclaimed as ' 武漢 ' (the traditional Chinese characters for 'Wuhan'), which was later simplified as ' 武汉 ' (also 'Wuhan'). The Wuhan area has been settled for 3,500 years. Panlongcheng , an archaeological site primarily associated with
15400-401: The acceptance of modified form of a League of Nations proposal for a "neutral zone" to be established as a buffer zone between China proper and Manchuria pending a future Chinese-Japanese peace conference by the civilian government of Prime Minister Baron Wakatsuki in Tokyo. However, the two sides failed to reach a lasting agreement. The Wakatsuki government soon fell and was replaced by
15575-527: The arrival of the Japanese 2nd Division under Jirō Tamon. Japanese forces took Harbin on February 4, 1932. By the end of February Ma had sought terms and joined the newly formed Manchukuo government as governor of Heilongjiang province and Minister of War. On February 27, 1932, Ding offered to cease hostilities, ending official Chinese resistance in Manchuria, although combat by guerrilla and irregular forces continued as Japan spent many years in their campaign to pacify Manchukuo . The conquest of Manchuria,
15750-484: The arsenal. It cost about 250,000 pounds sterling and was built in 4 years. On April 23, 1894, construction was completed and the arsenal, occupying some 40 acres (160,000 m ), could start production of small-caliber cannons. It built magazine-fed rifles, Gruson quick fire guns, and cartridges. In 1896, the Russian Empire also acquired a concession in Hankou. By 1900, according to Collier's magazine, Hankou,
15925-681: The basis for making peace, Japan would have to win a decisive victory in China to see the Konoe programme implemented, which had been Konoe's intention all along. On 16 January 1938, Konoe gave a speech announcing once more his "unalterable" commitment to achieving his programme and announced that since Chiang had rejected his peace terms, the Japanese government was now committed to the destruction of Chiang's government. On 18 January 1938, Konoe made another speech in which he frankly admitted to seeking unacceptable peace terms so that Japan might achieve his real goal of seeking to "eradicate" Chiang's government from
16100-563: The beginning of a pattern in which Japan would seek a confrontation with the Western powers backing the Chinese to force them to abandon their support of Chiang, a practice that would ultimately end with Japan going to war with the United States and Britain in December 1941. Japanese invasion of Manchuria Japanese victory [REDACTED] Japan Taishō period Shōwa period The Empire of Japan 's Kwantung Army invaded
16275-462: The best interests of Japan, and acting in the spirit of the Japanese concept of gekokujō , Kwantung Army Colonel Seishirō Itagaki and Lieutenant Colonel Kanji Ishiwara independently devised a plan to provoke Japan into invading Manchuria by setting up a false flag incident for the pretext of invasion. The operation was originally planned to be executed on 28 September, but the date was changed to September 18 . When 1st Lieutenant Suemori Komoto of
16450-477: The best way to increase sales. Japan's most famous pacifist, the poet Akiko Yosano had caused a sensation in 1904 with her anti-war poem "Brother Do Not Give Your Life", addressed to her younger brother serving in the Imperial Army that called the war with Russia stupid and senseless. Such was the extent of "war fever" in Japan in 1931 that even Akiko succumbed, writing a poem in 1932 praising bushidō , urging
16625-424: The blockade. His policy of bluff and divided counsel within different factions within the Japanese government let Craigie persuade the Japanese to back down from their more extreme demands, such as their demand to turn over the Chinese silver in British banks, but he agreed to submit to the Japanese demand to hand over the Chinese suspects. The decisive pressure for a compromise solution on the Japanese side came from
16800-513: The bulk of the Royal Navy was sent to Singapore, Britain would not be able to impose a blockade on Germany if it invaded Poland and so one of Britain's main deterrents against Adolf Hitler deciding to invade Poland would be removed, which would encourage Hitler to choose war. In addition, Chamberlain faced strong pressure from the French not to weaken British naval strength in the Mediterranean because of
16975-476: The capital from Guangzhou to Wuhan. In mid-December, most of the KMT central executive commissioners and national government commissioners arrived in Wuhan, set up the temporary joint conference of central executive commissioners and National Government commissioners, performed the top functions of central party headquarters and National Government, declared they would work in Wuhan on January 1, 1927, and decided to combine
17150-430: The cause at all times. With the war stalemated and Japan unable to win a decisive victory in China, Tokyo increasingly placed its hopes for victory on the economic disintegration of Chiang's government. It was a reasonable hope since the western regions in the upper Yangtze Valley around Chongqing were one of the poorest and most backward regions in China and incapable of providing the necessary economic base for sustaining
17325-474: The central Yangtze Valley were at the end of a long, tenuous and very overstretched supply line, and no further advances up the Yangtze were yet possible. Unable to win the final victory on the battlefield, the Japanese turned to bombing as an alternative by launching an all-out bombing campaign intended to raze the temporary capital, Chongqing , to the ground. The Japanese bombing destroyed Chongqing and killed hundreds of thousands of civilians but failed to break
17500-600: The chief of the Military Affairs Bureau, sent letters to the German ambassador, General Eugen Ott , and the Italian ambassador, Giacinto Auriti: "The Army has made every effort to obtain a favorable decision on the pact at the Five Ministers Conference of August 8, but no progress has been made since Japan's proposal of June 5. The situation is so critical that the Army minister will not hesitate to resign as
17675-552: The city, including most prominently Wuhan Iron and Steel , which opened in 1958. The Changjiang Water Resources Commission was reestablished in February 1950 with its headquarters in Wuhan. From June to September 1954, the Yangtze River Floods were a series of catastrophic floodings that occurred mostly in Hubei Province. Due to an unusually high volume of precipitation as well as an extraordinarily long rainy season in
17850-484: The city, making Wuhan an important transshipment point between rail and river traffic. Also during this period foreign powers extracted mercantile concessions, with the riverfront of Hankou being divided up into foreign-controlled merchant districts. These districts contained trading firm offices, warehouses, and docking facilities. The French had a concession in Hankou. During the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom ,
18025-541: The city, with 30,000 sheltering on a railway embankment in central Hankou. With little food and a complete breakdown in sanitation, thousands soon began to succumb to diseases. Jin Shilong, Senior Engineer at the Hubei Flood Prevention Agency, described the flooding: There was no warning, only a sudden great wall of water. Most of Wuhan's buildings in those days were only one story high, and for many people there
18200-454: The command of Jirō Tamon, mounted an attack, forcing General Ma from Qiqihar by 19 November. In late November 1931, General Honjō dispatched 10,000 soldiers in 13 armored trains, escorted by a squadron of bombers, in an advance on Chinchow from Mukden. This force had advanced to within 30 kilometres (19 mi) of Chinchow when it received an order to withdraw. The operation was cancelled by Japanese War Minister General Jirō Minami , due to
18375-420: The concession, the Japanese Army built an electrified wire fence around it. The Japanese government declared the issue of the accused killers not to be the point of the blockade and that handing over the four would not end the blockade. A Japanese spokesmen stated: "The arrow is already off the bow and therefore the question cannot be settled by the mere transfer of the four suspect assassins". The Japanese demanded
18550-530: The confessions gained by torture, and Britain would not hand over the four accused assassins until such evidence emerged. For a time, it appeared likely that the situation would precipitate an Anglo-Japanese war, especially when public opinion in Britain was enraged by the entirely correct newspaper reports of British women being forced to strip in public at bayonet point by Japanese soldiers, and that Japanese officers conducted vaginal searches in public. The stories about
18725-588: The conglomeration of Wuchang , Hankou , and Hanyang , which are collectively known as the "Three Towns of Wuhan" ( 武汉三镇 ). Wuhan lies in the eastern Jianghan Plain , at the confluence of the Yangtze river and its largest tributary, the Han River , and is known as "Nine Provinces' Thoroughfare" ( 九省通衢 ). Wuhan was the site of the 1911 Wuchang Uprising against the Qing dynasty which ended 2,000 years of dynastic rule . Wuhan
18900-429: The crisis to be so important that he ordered the Royal Navy to give greater attention to a possible war with Japan than to war with Germany. Within Japan, the media, the Army and various right-wing groups waged a violent anti-British propaganda campaign in the summer of 1939. Much to the pleasure of the Japanese right, Home Minister Kōichi Kido did nothing to restrain them in their anti-British media offensive. Encouraging
19075-458: The crisis without too much loss to British prestige. During the course of negotiations with the Japanese, Craigie took advantage of divisions within the Japanese leadership, especially between the Prime Minister, Hiranuma Kiichirō , who wished for a greater degree of control over the military, and the military itself, which wanted less civilian control. In addition, there were divisions within
19250-634: The danger of Benito Mussolini 's Italy honouring the Pact of Steel if war broke out in Europe. The Pact of Steel signed in Rome in May 1939 was an offensive-defensive German-Italian alliance, which meant there was a real possibility that if war with Germany began, Italy would join. French Prime Minister Édouard Daladier made it very clear to London that he would much prefer to see the British Mediterranean fleet stay in
19425-649: The death of his brother secret and continued the attack on the Wuhan area, near the Yangtze . The present-day Wuying Pagoda was constructed at the end of the Song dynasty between attacks by the Mongolian forces. Under the Mongol rulers ( Yuan dynasty ) (after 1301), the Wuchang prefecture , headquartered in the town, became the capital of Hubei province. Hankou, from the Ming to late Qing ,
19600-499: The eastern area of Mukden. Meanwhile, the 1st Battalion engaged the Chinese forces at Kuan Cheng Tze, near Changchun . On the same day, in response to General Honjō's request, the Chōsen Army in Korea under General Senjūrō Hayashi ordered the 20th Infantry Division to split its force, forming the 39th Mixed Brigade , which departed on that day for Manchuria without authorization from
19775-420: The end of the war with China that had brought about the cancellation of the 1911 treaty. From Rome, the Japanese ambassador, Toshio Shiratori, reported that Britain would seek revenge for the blockade and warned, "We must be aware that there is little hope for Japan to resume its former good relationship with Britain". Shiratori advised that Japan should agree to the German request made in November 1938 to convert
19950-417: The face of the earth. Japan would never make peace with a China led by Chiang and so a compromise peace was now impossible, and Japan would have to win a total victory over China. As the Chinese government retreated deep into the interior of China, major logistical problems were posed for the Japanese Army, which simply could not project the sort of power into the interior of China to win the "total victory" that
20125-562: The fact that Tokyo was not yet prepared to go to war with Britain. As the Kriegsmarine was several years away from being ready for a war with Britain ( the Z plan , which Hitler endorsed in January 1939, called for a Kriegsmarine ready for war with the Royal Navy by 1944), German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop wanted an alliance with a strong naval power like Japan as the best compensation for Germany's naval weakness. On June 14, 1939,
20300-472: The first year of World War II . It also highlighted the weakness of the British position in Asia, both militarily and diplomatically, with its failure to enlist the United States to take a stronger position in its support. The Japanese succeeded in forcing the British to turn over the four Chinese suspects but failed in to achieve their main aim of forcing Britain to end its economic support of China. By October 1940,
20475-661: The height of the Cultural Revolution . Economic development was further disrupted by the Cultural Revolution. In 1981, the Wuhan City Government commenced reconstruction of the Yellow Crane Tower at a new location, about 1 km (0.62 mi) from the original site, and it was completed in 1985. In 1957, the Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge was built with one trestle of the bridge on the site of
20650-512: The huge costs that were needed to fight a modern war. Furthermore, Japanese atrocities, most infamously the Rape of Nanking in December 1937, had sent 12 million Chinese civilians fleeing up the Yangtze Valley in the largest movement of refugees yet seen in world history, to escape the Japanese. The refugees required shelter, food and often medical treatment. By 1938, the Chinese government was caught in
20825-457: The knowledge of his unhappiness about the crisis was a powerful force for a peaceful resolution of the crisis within the halls of power in Japan. Craigie and Japanese Foreign Minister Hachirō Arita , agreed on a two-paragraph "formula" to form the basis of a settlement. Britain recognised that there was a state of war in China, which necessitated certain Japanese actions, and Britain promised not to work against Japanese actions. On August 20, 1939,
21000-410: The loss of Shanghai, the economic ability of China to continue to resist Japan was very much in doubt. Flush with a series of Japanese victories in China, in early January 1938, the Japanese prime minister, Prince Fumimaro Konoe , announced a set of sweeping "non-negotiable" war aims that would have transformed China into a virtual protectorate of Japan if they had been implemented. Since the beginning of
21175-511: The manager of the Japanese-owned Federal Reserve Bank of North China, was assassinated by Chinese nationalists at Tientsin's Grand Theatre. The bomb attack that killed Cheng also killed several innocent bystanders, who had the misfortune to be sitting close to him in the theatre. The Japanese accused six Chinese men living in the British concession of being involved in the assassination. The local British police arrested four of
21350-508: The middle 1930s, if China had a Western friend it was Britain. In 1935–36 Britain gave China real help with its finances and showed real concern about Japanese encroachments in north China. Realising that the only hope of inducing Japan to moderate these activities lay in an Anglo-American joint front, Britain proposed that a number of times, but was always rebuffed by Washington". In turn, improved Anglo-Chinese ties had strained relations between London and Tokyo. On July 30, 1937, Tientsin fell to
21525-419: The middle stretch of the Yangtze River late in the spring of 1954, the river started to rise above its usual level in around late June. In 1969, a large stone monument was erected in the riverside park in Hankou honoring the heroic deeds in fighting the 1954 Yangtze River floods. Before construction of the Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge , Hunslet Engine Company built two extra heavy 0-8-0 locomotives for loading
21700-423: The might of Japan. Konoe had deliberately chosen extreme war aims to sabotage any effort at a diplomatic compromise and thereby ensure that the war could end with Japan winning a total victory over China by the destruction of Chiang's government. Konoe's speech made Japan achieving anything less than his "non-negotiable" war aims would seem like a defeat. As Chiang immediately rejected in a speech Konoe's war aims as
21875-451: The military, which formed a "state within the state", the veto power over the decisions of the government. At a conference to discuss the question of whatever to sign an alliance with Germany and Italy on 8 August 1939, Itagaki again demanded for Japan to sign an alliance at once. Prime Minister Hiranuma came out against such an alliance and argued that with the situation in Europe on the brink of war, that Japan should not yet be dragged into
22050-419: The occupation of Manchuria. As negotiations with Generals Ma Zhanshan and Ding Chao to defect to the pro-Japanese side had failed, in early January Colonel Kenji Doihara requested collaborationist General Qia Xi to advance his forces and take Harbin. The last major Chinese regular force in northern Manchuria was led by General Ding Chao who organized the defense of Harbin successfully against General Xi until
22225-470: The old Nanjing government resigned. This threw the military command into turmoil, and the Chinese army retreated to the west of the Great Wall into Hebei province, a humiliating move which lowered China's international image. Japanese forces occupied Chinchow on January 3, 1932, after the Chinese defenders retreated without giving combat. With southern Manchuria secure, the Japanese turned north to complete
22400-724: The outbreak of the protests in Sichuan forced the Qing authorities to send part of the New Army garrisoned in Wuhan to suppress the rebellion. On September 14 the Literary Society ( 文學社 ) and the Progressive Association ( 共進會 ), two local revolutionary organizations in Hubei, set up joint headquarters in Wuchang and planned for an uprising. On the morning of October 9, a bomb at the office of the political arrangement exploded prematurely and alerted local authorities. The proclamation for
22575-449: The outskirts of Wuhan. As a result, numerous companies and enterprises and large numbers of people had to withdraw from Wuhan to the west of Hubei and Sichuan. The KMT navy undertook the responsibility of defending the Yangtze River on patrol and covering the withdrawal. On October 24, while overseeing the waters of the Yangtze River near the town of Jinkou (Jiangxia District in Wuhan) in Wuchang,
22750-617: The peoples of Asia together in peace, prosperity and brotherhood, the Chinese preferred to be the prisoners of the British than of the Japanese. At the same time, the fact that since late 1938, the Gaimusho in its negotiations with the Auswärtige Amt had been refusing the German request to convert the Anti-Comintern Pact into an anti-British military alliance, insisting that Japan would sign only an anti-Soviet military alliance reflected
22925-415: The proposed alliance to be directed against Britain, rather than the Soviet Union, led to Itagaki not resigning after all. At the same time, the British applied economic pressure on the Japanese by raising their tariffs on Japanese goods. Though Craigie knew that the dispatch of the British battle fleet had been ruled out, he often implied during his talks with the Japanese that Britain would go to war to end
23100-515: The public strip searches led to a flood of " Yellow Peril " stereotypes being widely invoked in the British media. British Admiral of the Fleet Sir Roger Keyes considered the situation to be tantamount to a declaration of war . Tientsin then had a population of approximately 1500 British subjects, half of whom were soldiers, and was a major centre for British trade in northern China. British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain considered
23275-446: The refusal of the Japanese to give Wang any real power discredited his government as a puppet regime in the eyes of the vast majority of the Chinese people. At the same, time, Dai Li , the much-feared chief of the Chinese secret police, had begun a policy of sending undercover operatives into the areas of China occupied by the Japanese to assassinate collaborators and Japanese officials. Sometimes working closely with triad gangsters (Dai
23450-439: The revolution. As the revolution spread to other parts of the country, the Qing government concentrated loyalist military forces to suppress the uprising in Wuhan. From October 17 to December 1, the revolutionary army and local volunteers defended the city in the Battle of Yangxia against better armed and more numerous Qing forces commanded by Yuan Shikai . Huang Xing would arrive in Wuhan in early November to take command of
23625-585: The revolutionary army. After fierce fighting and heavy casualties, Qing forces seized Hankou and Hanyang. But Yuan agreed to halt the advance on Wuchang and participated in peace talks , which would eventually lead to the return of Sun Yat-sen from exile, founding of the Republic of China on January 1, 1912. Through the Wuchang Uprising, Wuhan is known as the birthplace of the Xinhai Revolution, named after
23800-513: The secretary of Mao, said that Wuhan Conference was a supplement to Chengdu Conference. As the Third Front campaign shifted the focus of industrial development to China's hinterlands, Wuhan's development slowed. In July 1967, civil strife struck the city in the Wuhan Incident ("July 20th Incident"), an armed conflict between two hostile groups who were fighting for control over the city at
23975-492: The site on this damaged track without difficulty and arrived at Shenyang at 10:30 pm (22:30). On the morning of September 19, two artillery pieces installed at the Shenyang officers' club opened fire on the Chinese garrison nearby, in response to the alleged Chinese attack on the railway. Zhang Xueliang's small air force was destroyed, and his soldiers fled their destroyed Beidaying barracks, as five hundred Japanese troops attacked
24150-450: The six and handed them over to the Japanese with promises that they would not be tortured and would be returned to British custody within the next five days. Under torture, two of the four confessed to being involved in the assassination. Although the confessions were obtained by torture, the local British police concluded that the accused were involved in the assassination. Once the four men returned to British custody, Madame Soong Mei-ling ,
24325-475: The size of our army and navy by one-third, we won't make it.... They [his military and naval leaders] should have prepared for something like this a long time ago. It's unacceptable for them to be making a commotion about it now". The American historian Herbert Bix wrote it was typical of Hirohito to criticise his generals and admirals for not anticipating the American move and preparing for it, instead of considering
24500-542: The ti-yong ideal. He set up many heavy industries, founded Hanyang Steel Plant, Daye Iron Mine, Pingxiang Coal Mine and Hubei Arsenal and set up local textile industries, boosting the flourishing modern industry in Wuhan. Meanwhile, he initiated education reform, opened dozens of modern educational organizations successively, such as Lianghu (Hunan and Hubei) Academy of Classical Learning, Civil General Institute, Military General Institute, Foreign Languages Institute and Lianghu (Hunan and Hubei) General Normal School, and selected
24675-568: The tower, which had been last destroyed in 1884. During the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests , students in Wuhan blocked the Yangtze River Railway bridge and another 4,000 gathered at the railway station. About one thousand students staged a railroad 'sit-in'. Rail traffic on the Beijing-Guangzhou and Wuhan-Dalian lines was interrupted. The students also urged employees of major state-owned enterprises to go on strike. The situation
24850-718: The towns of Wuchang, Hankou , and Hanyang into Wuhan City, called "Capital District". The new national government, later known as " Wuhan nationalist government ", was based in the Nanyang Building in Hankou, while the central party headquarters and other organizations chose their locations in Hankou or Wuchang. In March 1927, Mao Zedong appeared at the Third Plenum of the KMT Central Executive Committee in Wuhan, which sought to strip General Chiang of his power by appointing Wang Jingwei leader. The first phase of
25025-400: The two major cities on the banks of the Yangtze River that make up the Wuhan metropolis: "Wu" refers to the city of Wuchang ( Chinese : 武昌 ), which lies on the southern bank of the Yangtze, while "Han" refers to the city of Hankou ( Chinese : 汉口 ), which lies on the northern bank of the Yangtze. "Hankou" means "Mouth of the Han", from its position at the confluence of the Han with
25200-427: The two nations shared a common enemy in the form of Britain and suggested that such an alliance would improve Japan's odds of resolving the Tienstsin crisis in its favour. The Army Minister, General Seishirō Itagaki , threatened to resign and bring down the government if a military alliance with Germany and Italy was not signed at once, but on 4 August 1939, Home Minister Kido met with him and persuaded him to wait. Under
25375-408: The uprising at the engineering barracks of Hubei New Army . They then led the New Army of all barracks to join the revolution. Under the guidance of Wu Zhaolin, Cai Jimin and others, this revolutionary army seized the official residence of the governor and government offices. Rui Cheng fled in panic into the Chuyu ship. Zhang Biao, the commander of the Qing army, also fled the city. On the morning of
25550-407: The uprising, beadroll and the revolutionaries’ official seal fell into the hands of Rui Cheng, the governor-general of Hunan and Hubei, who demolished the uprising headquarters the same day and set out to arrest the revolutionaries listed in the beadroll. This forced the revolutionaries to launch the uprising earlier than planned. On the night of October 10, the revolutionaries fired shots to signal
25725-407: The victims. During the Second Sino-Japanese War and following the fall of Nanking in December 1937, Wuhan had become the provisional capital of China's Kuomintang government, and became another focal point of pitched air battles beginning in early 1938 between modern monoplane bomber and fighter aircraft of the Imperial Japanese forces and the Chinese Air Force , which included support from
25900-444: The victories, Konoe regarded the war as good as won. Ominously for the Chinese, Konoe spoke of the status of Manchukuo as the ideal basis for a Sino-Japanese peace. Sometimes, Konoe went even further and mentioned the protectorate that the Japanese had imposed on Korea in 1905, which had been followed by Korea's annexation in 1910, as an ideal basis for peace. Whether Manchukuo or Korea was the model of new relationship with Japan, Konoe
26075-481: The war in July 1937, the Japanese had taken much of northern China, including the former capital of Beijing and in the Yangtze Valley, they had taken Shanghai and China's capital, Nanking . After taking Nanking on 14 December 1937, the Japanese had perpetrated the infamous Rape of Nanking in which the Imperial Army had gone on a rampage of arson, looting, torture, rape and murder that destroyed Nanking and killed somewhere between 200,000 and 300,000 civilians. After
26250-418: The war with the journalist Gotō Shinobu in the November 1931 edition accusing the Kwantung Army of a "two-fold coup d'état" against both the government in Tokyo and against the government of China. Voices like Kaizō were a minority as mainstream newspapers like the Asahi soon discovered that an anti-war editorial position hurt sales, and so switched over to an aggressively militaristic editorial position as
26425-437: The war, the economic collapse of Nationalist China, which the Japanese wanted, might very well occur. In late 1938, Britain started to make a series of loans to China to allow Chiang to continue the war. By 1939, the Chinese government had received loans worth £500,000 from Britain, which provided Chiang with badly-needed money to continue the war. Furthermore, in March 1939, the British government, began to an effort to stabilise
26600-420: The wife of Chiang Kai-shek admitted to the British Ambassador in Chongqing , Sir Archibald Clark-Kerr that the accused assassins were Chinese operatives involved in resistance work and lobbied Clark-Kerr to prevent the accused being returned and executed by the Japanese. The local British consul, Mr. Jamieson, had not kept London well-informed on the details of the case, especially the fact that he had promised
26775-443: The world. That seriously undermined the Chinese war effort, as Chinese soldiers and civil servants were paid in worthless Chinese yuan . It was then that Britain made a series of loans to China intended to stabilise the yuan . The British government subscribed to what one might call a 1930s version of the " domino theory ". If Japan took control of China, it was believed that inevitably, Japan would attack Britain's Asian colonies and
26950-418: The yuan by offering government guarantees to British banks that made loans to Kuomintang China and took in Chinese silver as collateral. The guarantees allowed British banks to lend China some £5 million, a step that the Japanese government publicly denounced as a "frontal attack" on the "New Order" in Asia that Japan wanted to build. The British loans to China greatly offended the Japanese, who believed that if
27125-402: Was British economic support that was keeping China going and that a confrontation with Britain was needed to bring matters to a head. A secret study from the Gaimusho argued that to permit all of China to fall within the Japanese sphere of influence would mean the effective end of British influence in Asia, as a Sino-Japanese combination would be a colossus that would dominate Asia, and that from
27300-457: Was a close friend and business partner of the crime lord Du Yuesheng , or "Big Eared Du", the leader of the Green Gang triad), Dai's men were responsible for hundreds of assassinations during the Sino-Japanese War. Between August 1937 and October 1941, Bureau of Investigation and Statistics agents were responsible for about 150 assassinations of Chinese collaborators and 40 Japanese officers in Shanghai alone. Chinese collaborators who lived among
27475-440: Was a political shift made on July 15, 1927, by Wang Jingwei towards Chiang Kai-shek, and his Shanghai -based rival in the Kuomintang. The Wuhan Nationalist Government was established in Wuhan on February 21, 1927, and ended by August 19, 1927. After the end of the Northern Expedition, Hankou was elevated to a centrally-controlled municipality. In the 1931 China floods , one of the deadliest flood disasters in world history, Wuhan
27650-478: Was a refuge for flood victims from outlying areas, who had been arriving since the late spring. But when the city itself was inundated in the early summer, and after a catastrophic dike failure just before 6:00 AM on July 27, an estimated 782,189 urban citizens and rural refugees were left homeless. The flood covered an area of 32 square miles and the city was flooded under many feet of water for close to three months. Large numbers gathered on flood islands throughout
27825-414: Was an important base for Japanese operations in China. On December 18, 1944, in a planned strategic move, and as revenge for the torture and execution of three captured American pilots by Japanese soldiers in the city, Wuhan was bombed by 77 American bombers with the approval of Chiang Kai-Shek. This set off a firestorm that destroyed much of the military resources of the city. For the next three days, Wuhan
28000-452: Was bombed by the Americans, destroying all of the docks and warehouses of Wuhan, as well as the Japanese air bases in the city. The air raids also killed thousands of Chinese civilians. "According to casualty statistics compiled by Hankou city in 1946, more than 20,000 were killed or injured in the December bombings of 1944." Wuhan returned to Chinese control in September 1945. Administratively, Wuchang and Hanyang were initially combined into
28175-407: Was briefly a capital of China twice, in 1927 under a left wing Kuomintang (KMT) government , and in 1937 as a provisional wartime capital during World War II . In 1938, during the Second Sino-Japanese War , the city was the site of the Battle of Wuhan . On December 31, 2019, SARS-CoV-2 , a novel coronavirus that later caused the COVID-19 pandemic , was first discovered in Wuhan and the city
28350-639: Was constructed on the Wuchang side of the Yangtze River by order of Sun Quan , leader of the Eastern Wu . The tower became a sacred site of Taoism . Due to tensions between the Eastern Wu and Cao Wei kingdoms, in the autumn of 228, Cao Rui , grandson of Cao Cao and the second emperor of the state of Cao Wei , ordered the general Man Chong to lead troops to Xiakou ( 夏口 ; in present-day Wuhan). In 279, Wang Jun and his army conquered strategic locations in Wu territory such as Xiling (in present-day Yichang , Hubei), Xiakou ( 夏口 ; present-day Hankou) and Wuchang ( 武昌 ; present-day Ezhou , Hubei). During
28525-490: Was crucial to the functioning of the Japanese economy, which explains why the conquest of Manchuria was so popular and why afterwards Japanese public opinion was so hostile towards any suggestion of letting Manchuria go. At the time, censorship in Japan was nowhere near as stringent as it later became, and Young noted: "Had they wished, it would have been possible in 1931 and 1932 for journalists and editors to express anti-war sentiments". The liberal journal Kaizō criticized
28700-399: Was in turn conquered by Qin in 223 BC. During the Han dynasty , Hanyang became a fairly busy port. The Battle of Xiakou in AD 203 and Battle of Jiangxia five years later were fought in the region over control of Jiangxia Commandery , territories of which included much of present-day eastern Hubei. In the winter of 208/9, one of the most famous battles in Chinese history and
28875-454: Was no escape – they died by the tens of thousands. ... I was just coming off duty at the company's main office, a fairly new three-story building near the center of town ... When I heard the terrible noise and saw the wall of water coming, I raced to the top story of the building. ... I was in one of the tallest and strongest buildings left standing. At that time no one knew whether the water would subside or rise even higher. The high-water mark
29050-491: Was not strictly necessary from an economic point of view, but it was felt that for public relations, the Chinese had to put up collateral, as the British people might otherwise disapprove of their government guaranteeing loans to a country with finances as chaotic as China. At the same, both the United States and the Soviet Union also made loans to the Kuomintang government, again to keep Japan embroiled in China. The Americans lent China some $ 45 million starting in December 1938, and
29225-465: Was out of control, and the United States needed to start applying economic pressure via such moves like cancelling the 1911 treaty to pressure the Japanese to stop challenging the existing international order in Asia. Hirohito was furious, telling his aide-de-camp, Hata Shunroku: "It could be a great blow to scrap metal and oil. Even if we can purchase [oil and scrap] for the next six months, we will immediately have difficulties thereafter. Unless we reduce
29400-433: Was planning to attack Hou, but this drew Xiao Yi's ire—believing that Xiao Guan was intending to contend for the throne—and he sent Wang to attack Xiao Guan. In summer 567, Chen Xu commissioned Wu Mingche as the governor of Xiang Province and had him command a major part of the troops against Hua, along with Chunyu Liang ( 淳于量 ). The opposing sides met at Zhuankou ( 沌口 , in modern Wuhan). The city has long been renowned as
29575-782: Was quite open that the Chinese had to accept a subordinate position to Japan if the war were ever to end to Japan's satisfaction. Konoe's terms for making peace were so extreme and harsh that even the Japanese military objected to them on the grounds that Chiang would never accept peace with them. German Foreign Minister Konstantin von Neurath , who was attempting to mediate a compromise peace between China and Japan and Germany, which had friendly relations with both Japan and China and did not wish to choose between them, complained upon seeing Konoe's peace terms that they were so intentionally outrageous and humiliating demands that they seemed to be designed only to inspire rejection by Chiang. Konoe's main demands were for China to recognise Manchukuo , to sign
29750-437: Was reached on August 19 at Hankou, with the water level exceeding 16 m (53 ft) above normal. In 1936, when natural disaster struck Central China with widespread flooding affecting Hebei , Hunan , Jiangxi , Wuhan and Chongqing caused by the Yangtze and Huai Rivers bursting their banks, Ong Seok Kim , as Chairman of the Sitiawan Fundraising and Disaster Relief Committee, raised money and materials in support of
29925-421: Was sent from Japan. The total strength of the Kwantung Army was thus increased to around 60,450 men. With this stronger force, the Japanese Army announced on December 21, the beginning of large-scale anti-bandit operations in Manchuria to quell a growing resistance movement by the local Chinese population in Liaoning and Kirin provinces. On December 28, a new government was formed in China after all members of
30100-476: Was so tense that residents reportedly began a bank run and resorted to panic-buying. Wuhan was the first stop on Deng Xiaoping 's 1992 southern tour . In the wake of the United States bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade on May 7, 1999, protests broke out throughout China, including in Wuhan. On June 22, 2000, a Wuhan Airlines flight from Enshi to Wuhan was forced to circle for 30 minutes due to thunderstorms. The aircraft eventually crashed on
30275-402: Was the location of the first lockdown of the pandemic in January 2020. Wuhan is considered the political, economic, financial, commercial, cultural, and educational center of Central China. It is a major transportation hub, with dozens of railways, roads, and expressways passing through the city and connecting to other major cities. Because of its key role in domestic transportation, Wuhan
30450-422: Was under the administration of the local government in Hanyang , although it was already one of the four major national markets ( zh:四大名镇 ) of the Ming dynasty. Hanyang's Guiyuan Temple was completed in the 15th year of Shunzhi (1658). By the dawn of the 18th century, Hankou had become one of China's top four trading centers. In the late 19th century, railroads were extended on a north–south axis through
30625-413: Was winning in his talks. On 26 July 1939, the United States gave the six-month notification that it would not renew the 1911 Treaty of Commerce and Navigation, which increased the amount of economic pressure the British could bring against Japan. The Roosevelt administration had carried its version of appeasement in the Far East, but actions such as the Tientsin incident had persuaded the Americans that Japan
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