Nanking Incident of 1927
Troops of the Chinese Nationalist Revolutionary Army, on 24 March 1927, attacked the American, British, and Japanese consulates in Nanking, China. British and American warships counterattacked, shelling the city.
Japan used the incident to justify sending troops into the civil war in China. During this time, there was a change of government, from that of Prime Minister of Japan of Reijiro Wakatsuki to that of Giichi Tanaka.
- May and July 1927: to Shantung Province
- April 1928: 5,000 soldiers, under Hikosuke Fukuda, to the port of Shantung
Japan blamed Communists, not the more moderate faction under Chiang Kai-shek, for the attack. Chang Tso-lin's police raided the Soviet Embassy on April 6, capturing documents linking the Soviets with the Chinese Communists. [1]
Fukuda, however, moved inland from the port, to the city of Tsinan. Emperor Hirohito authorized reinforcement with another 2,000 troops. Hirohito was reported not to have blamed Fukuda for exceeding his authority, but instead focused on Prime Minister of Japan Giichi Tanaka. The situation in Tsinan escalated, continuing into 1929, which Hirohito regarded as evidence of the failure of the Tanaka government to resolve the Sino-Japanese conflict.
Fueling the situation was the assassination of Chang Tso-lin by officers of the Kwangtung Army. Chang, a dominant warlord, had been the center of the Tanaka government policy. They had attempted to blame Chinese dissidents."[2]
References
- ↑ Chong-Sik Lee (1984), Revolutionary Struggle in Manchuria: Chinese Communism and Soviet Interest, 1922-1945, University of California, ISBN 978-0520043756, pp. 91-92
- ↑ Herbert P. Bix (2001), Hirohito and the making of modern Japan, Harper Perennial, ISBN 978-0060931308, pp. 214-216