Chinese/Japanese Hostilities Timeline.
            
1894-5 First Sino-Japanese war - fledging Japanese navy defeats Chinese fleet off.
            
                Yalu  River. Fortress of Port Arthur (Lushun) stormed. After the war, Japan .
            
                seizes Taiwan and S. Manchuria.
            
1910    Annexation of Korea.
            
1926    Hirohito becomes Emperor.
            
1931    Sept.18 - "The Mukden Incident" - Bomb explodes under Japanese-owned .
            
               express train in Manchuria (planted by Japanese secret agents); Japanese troops .
            
               proceed to occupy all Manchuria.
            
1932   Chinese boycott of Japanese goods leads to the "Battle of Shanghai"; Japanese .
            
               aircraft carriers in action for the first time.  League of Nations condemns .
            
               Japanese aggression in Manchuria.
            
1933    Japan withdraws from League of Nations.
            
1934    Pu Yi - former emperor of China - becomes puppet emperor of Manchuria.
            
1937   July - "The China Incident" -- a skirmish between Japan and Chinese troops at .
            
              the Marco Polo Bridge (Luguoqiao), near Peking, sparks off a full-scale invasion .
            
              of China. Nanking Massacre .
            
             August - Japanese bombers make the first trans-oceanic raids in history - from .
            
             Taiwan and Kyushu to Nanking and Shanghai.
            
          Nov.- Imperial General Headquarters established in Tokyo (the Emperor, the .
            
             Chiefs of the Army, and Naval General Staffs).
            
             Dec. - The Nanking Massacre (Rape of Nan king) - the Chinese capital sacked .
            
             by Japanese troops. The American gunboat USS Panay bombed and sunk near .
            
             Nanking.
            
1938  Dec. - Japan proclaims a "New Order in East Asia".
            
1940  May - Chungking - war capital of China - bombed day and night by Japanese.
            
             Sept. - Japanese troops occupy northern Indo-China. Japan signs Tripartite .
            
             Pact with Germany and Italy.
            
1941  July - Japanese troops occupy southern French Indo-China.
            
             Dec.