SDHF Newsletter No.454 The Road to the Greater East Asian War No. 512Ch.13-3

THE ROAD TO THE GREATER EAST ASIAN WAR
Nakamura Akira, Dokkyo University Professor Emeritus
(English Translation: Society for the Dissemination of Historical Fact)
Part 52, Chapter 13: What Transpired at Lugou Bridge – 3

February 27, 2026

The first few shots fired against the Japanese were followed by more than a dozen others. During that time, several Japanese officers and soldiers noticed what they interpreted as an exchange of flashlight signals between the walls of Wanping Fortress and the Yongding riverbank. Such activity suggests that Chinese troops on the embankment were coordinating their actions with someone inside the fortress, or firing in accordance with his orders.

Beiping Mayor Qin Dechun mentioned during subsequent negotiations that there were no Chinese soldiers outside Wanping. But after the battle on the embankment, the Japanese found proof that their opponents were indeed Chinese soldiers (see Part 50). However, this does not mean that Qin lied. The soldiers might have been on the embankment under orders not from the 29th Army, but Communists within that Army.

Lugou Bridge Incident: The Crisis Unfolds appeared in Beijing in May of 1987, the 50th anniversary of the incident. It includes a detailed description of the 29th Army’s war plan against Japan drafted immediately before the incident. The aggressive plan’s author was Zhang Kexia, deputy chief of staff. He was an undercover CCP member, and his plan was approved by Liu Shaoqi, Secretary of the CCP’s Northern United Front in North China. Like Zhang Kexia, many CCP members infiltrated the 29th Army.

At the IMTFE, almost no reference was made to the identity of those who fired the first shots at Lugou Bridge, in sharp contrast to its pursuit of the South Manchuria Railway bombing at Liutiaogou. It is most likely that a more scrupulous investigation into the source of the initial shots was not done because of the fear that it would reveal evidence damaging to the Chinese. Incidentally, Mei Ru’ao, the judge representing the Republic of China at the IMTFE, defected to the CCP after the tribunal ended.

I feel compelled to mention another important fact, not included in this book, concerning the Lugou Bridge Incident. The incident occurred on July 7, and the resulting battle began on July 8. On July 11, a local ceasefire agreement was signed. The first clause of the agreement reads:

(1) The representative of the 29th Army expresses regret and promises to punish those responsible. He will make the prevention of further similar incidents his personal responsibility.

Here we have the 100,000-strong 29th Army apologizing to the 5,600-man Japanese garrison and accepting full responsibility for the incident. We now know that the incident was not accidental but deliberate, caused by Communist soldiers who had infiltrated the 29th Army.

URL: https://www.sdh-fact.com/book-article/2432/
PDF: https://www.sdh-fact.com/CL/Road52E.pdf

Moteki Hiromichi, Chairman
Society for the Dissemination of Historical Fact