ABSTRACT
Retrospectively, the Japanese drive into Manchuria and later into the northern provinces of China proper can be seen to have served the purifying function of systematically eliminating and destroying all non-Asiatic interests and influences in China. Ultimately, the Japanese themselves were forced to succumb and withdraw, leaving the Chinese people to their civil war which determined the character of the new China. One can perhaps draw a parallel between the Lukouchiao (Marco Polo Bridge) incident of 7 July 1937-the point of departure for this study-and the undeclared Sino-Japanese War which followed it on the one hand, and the later attacks and occupation by Japan of Indochina, Malaya, the Dutch East Indies and the Philippines on the other. In all these cases the eventual full independence of the countries concerned was the only logical outcome of matured national consciousness, but was hastened by the Japanese invasions.
