Tongzhou Incident
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The Tongzhou Incident (通州事件) (July, 1937) was the assault incident on Japanese troops and residents (including Koreans) which Chinese troops caused.
Tongzhou (通州, Tōngzhōu) was a strategic post in the eastern district of Beijing. At that time, there were Japanese troops and "the East Ji Anti-Communist Autonomous Administration" which was a Japanese puppet in Tongzhou. On July 29, the troop of "the East Ji Anti-Communist Autonomous Administration" assaulted Japanese troops, then killed Japanese residents (including Koreans who were Japanese nationals at that time). According to Japanese materials, approximately two hundred Japanese residents were killed in the massacre. All women were raped and most of the body parts were scattered. The massacre shocked public sentiment in Japan, and it is used to justify military intervention under the guise of protecting Japanese property in Beijing by the Japanese authority. Chinese historians insist that this incident was one of the excuses Japan used to expand the military campaign in China.
The Tongzhou Incident primarily appears in Japanese far-right literature, and very rarely in Western, Chinese and other sources. Chinese historians insist that the right-wing organizations in Japan use this incident to downplay the atrocities committed by the Imperial Army in the Nanjing Massacre, focusing on the cruelty of the Chinese army.ja:通州事件