Editing Emperor Hirohito (section)

===Second Sino-Japanese War===
In 1931, the Imperial Japanese Army staged a false flag operation by bombing part of a japanese railway. The event, known as the Mukden Incident, was a pretext to invade the Chinese territory of Manchuria. The invasion was successful and Japan established a [[puppet state]] known as [[Manchukuo]]. This marked the beginning of the Second Sino-Japanese War in a bid for Japan to take control of China.

During the course of the war, Emperor Hirohito used a number of brutal and heinous tactics against the Chinese in what was effectively a campaign of [[genocide]]. A good example is the [[Rape of Nanking]], a horrifically violent sacking of China's then capitol, Nanking, during which Imperial Japanese soldiers [[murder]]ed, [[Rape|raped]], pillaged, and destroyed with reckless abandon over the course of six weeks. The massacre is one of the most heinous incidents of mass murder ever perpetrated. 

Other war crimes perpetrated against the Chinese was the use of chemical weapons, which Hirohito was especially fond of. During the invasion of Wuhan, from August to October 1938, the Emperor authorized the use of toxic gas on 375 separate occasions, despite the resolution adopted by the League of Nations on May 14 condemning Japanese use of toxic gas.