SECOND SINO-JAPANESE WAR

1937 – 1945

Also known as the War of Chinese People's Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the conflict broke out when China resisted the expansion of Japan's influence on its territory. The catastrophic war amounted to twenty million casualties. With no tanks and only a few aircraft, the Chinese Nationalist armies were ill-equipped compared to Japan's military, which had become a well-trained Westernized armed force with modern weapons.

Chinese civilians were forced to succumb to their brutal treatment—ranging from human experimentation in secret bases (in which prisoners were injected with diseases like anthrax and smallpox, and were placed in environments of extreme cold and food deprivation), to women being used as "comfort women" by Japanese officers and soldiers. The war ended during World War II when Japan surrendered with the help of Western allies.