Original Item: Only One Available. The Marco Polo Bridge incident, also known as the Lugou Bridge incident or the July 7 incident, was a battle during July 1937 in the district of Beijing between China's National Revolutionary Army and the Imperial Japanese Army.

Since the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931, there had been many small incidents along the rail line connecting Beijing with the port of Tianjin, but all had subsided. In this incident, a Japanese soldier was temporarily absent from his unit opposite Wanping, and his commander demanded to enter the town to search for him. Although the Japanese soldier had already returned to his lines, claiming to have suffered from stomachache, Japanese forces continued mobilizing, deploying reinforcements to surround Wanping. A shot of unknown origin was fired, and both sides began to fire on each other. The Marco Polo Bridge incident is generally regarded as the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War, and the Pacific theatre of World War II.

This is a lovely commemorative cigarette case, made from plated brass and measuring approximately 3 5/8"W x 3". The front has a caption of 念記奕事那支 (Memorial Gift), and shows a post battle "Victory Scene" with Imperial Japanese Army soldiers raising their arms in celebration. One is holding the standard Japanese Hinomaru "Meatball" flag.

The reverse of the case has an inscribed panel, and this case even came with a very nice translation of the various phrases on the back. The inscription is usually read top to bottom, and right to left, so the first line is the date: 昭 和 十 二 年 七 月七 日 - Showa 12 (1937) 7th Month (July) 7th day, or July 7th 1937, the date of the incident. The second line in the translation did not exactly make sense, so we looked more into it, and it reads 北支亠甬蘆溝橋二放ツタ, which refers to the "Lugou Bridge in Northern China", the location of the battle. The other lines are all standard patriotic phrases used during the Pre-WWII era in Japan.

The case has the standard latch on one side, and springs open when released. It still has the original elastic straps on the interior, however they are now quite loose. A very interesting Japanese memento from the Pre-WWII period. Ready to display!

More on the Incident:
In English, the battle is usually known as the "Marco Polo Bridge incident". The Marco Polo Bridge is an eleven-arch granite bridge, an architecturally significant structure first erected under the Jin dynasty and later restored during the reign of the Kangxi Emperor of the Qing dynasty in 1698. It gained its Western name from its appearance in Marco Polo's record of his travels.

It is also known as the "Lukouchiao", "Lugouqiao", or "Lugou Bridge incident" from the local name of the bridge, derived from a former name of the Yongding River. This is the common name for the event in Japanese (蘆溝橋事件, Rokōkyō Jiken) and is an alternate name for it in Chinese and Korean (노구교사건, Nogugyo Sageon). The same name is also expressed or translated as the "Battle of Lugou Bridge", "Lugouqiao", or "Lukouchiao". In China and Korea, it is known more often as the "July 7th incident"