A soldier went to relieve himself and came back after a war broke out in which 20 million were killed

The Marco Polo Bridge Incident was a pretext for the Japanese and a direct cause of the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War

Six years after the invasion of Manchuria, which led to the creation of the state of Manchukuo, the Empire of Japan in 1937 began to expand further at the expense of the Chinese. With the beginning of the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Japanese believed in the possibility of resolving the conflict on their behalf within a period not exceeding 3 months due to the state of division and the civil war raging in China for years. Faced with this situation, the Chinese Communists and Nationalists concluded an armistice agreement and proceeded to unite their efforts to defeat the Japanese invasion.

Meanwhile, the Japanese were disillusioned with the invasion of China, as this war continued until the end of World War II and caused more than 20 million deaths. The main reason for the outbreak of this bloody conflict is due to a strange incident that took place in a border area during the month of July 1937. After the disappearance of one of its soldiers in the area, Japan mobilized its armies and used the matter as a pretext to intervene against China.

According to the Boxer Protocol concluded with the Chinese authorities during the month of September 1901, China allowed a number of world powers to place some of their forces at 12 points on the railway line linking Beijing and Tianjin in the north-east of the country, in the hope of facilitating transportation between the capital. This area, which contained one of the most important ports in the region. With a second agreement concluded the following year, China allowed these foreign forces to conduct rounds and security operations on the railway without the need for a license or permission from local authorities.

During the year 1937, the Japanese increased their military presence on the railway line, with an estimated 15,000 troops in the region by July. The increase in the number of Japanese soldiers in the region represented a real threat to the Chinese nationalists, who emphasized that the number of Japanese forces exceeded the number of soldiers of the European powers combined in the region.

On the night of July 7, 1937, a Japanese contingent stationed at Fengtai District crossed the border for a military exercise. This division was targeted with gunshots, which resulted in skirmishes near Wanping, 16 km southwest of Beijing.

Returning to their areas, the Japanese noticed the absence of Private Shimura Kikujiro, so they wrote to the Chinese military official in the region and demanded that they allow them to enter Wanping to search for their missing comrade. In the face of the Chinese's refusal to do so, the Japanese began to amass more troops near Wanping and wrote to the Chinese military official again, threatening him with an imminent military intervention.

In response, the commander of the Chinese Thirty-Seventh Infantry Division, General Feng Zhi'an, ordered the troops stationed near Wanping to stand by for a possible Japanese attack.

In the midst of these events, everyone on the Japanese side was surprised by the return of their colleague Shimura Kikojiro to his position intact. When asked about the reason for his disappearance, the latter confirmed that he had lost his way while looking for a safe place to relieve himself. Shimura Kikojiro's return was not enough to stop the crisis as the escalation between the Japanese and Chinese continued and reached the point of no return. 

At 2:00 PM on July 8, 1937, the Japanese demanded that they be allowed into Wanping to investigate the disappearance and return of Private Shimura Kikujiro. Over the following hours, the forces of both sides continued to flow towards the seam zone, amid intensifying diplomatic efforts to stop the escalation.

At about five o'clock in the morning, a division of Chinese forces opened fire on Japanese soldiers stationed at the Marco Polo Bridge and the nearby railway site. Meanwhile, Mayor Wang Lengzhai noticed a large gathering of Japanese troops around Wanping as he returned to the city after a round of negotiations. Just 5 minutes later, the latter saw Chinese artillery shells fall on the Japanese side. Later, these events, historically known as the Marco Polo Bridge events, developed into an extensive military conflict between China and Japan that lasted for more than 8 years and resulted in 20 million casualties.