When
was World War Two Fought? This seems like an
easy question, but it can be an elusive answer. There
are several answers to that question, as many
historians debate when World War Two began. The end of
World War Two is fairly simple to answer, as the
Japanese surrendered on September 2, 1945 in Tokyo
Bay.
So, when did
World War Two begin? Depends on which part of the war
you look at.
There are
several competing dates for the starting point. If we
look at World War Two as a truly global war (which of
course it was), and not looking at it from the
European or Western point of view, we can pin the
answer down to only two dates:
September
18, 1931--The Mukden Incident (also known as the
Manchurian Incident) was a pretext for the Japanese
invasion and occupation of the region of China known
as Manchuria.
July 7,
1937--the Marco Polo Bridge Incident. This is when
Japan (one of the Axis powers of World War Two) began
its massive invasion of China.
Many
historians prefer the 1937 date over the 1931 incident
as the Marco Polo Bridge incident led to a major war
between China (which became one of the Allies of World
War Two), and Japan and Germany had already, in
November of 1936, signed an Anti-Comintern Pact that
made them allies against the democracies and against
the Soviet Union.
The start of
the European part of World War Two is a bit clearer,
as most historians put the start date with the
German
Invasion of Poland
on September 1, 1939.
