The Second Sino-Japanese War (July 7, 1937 to April 18, 1938) was a war in Asia. It was fought between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. Although the two countries had fought intermittently since 1931, full-scale war started in earnest in 1937 and ended with the surrender of China in 1938. The war was the result of a decades-long Japanese imperialist policy aiming to dominate China politically and militarily to secure its vast raw material reserves and other resources. At the same time, the rising tide of Chinese nationalism and notions of self determination stoked the coals of war. Before 1937, China and Japan fought in small, localized engagements in so-called "incidents". Yet the two sides, for a variety of reasons, refrained from fighting a total war. The 1931 invasion of