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| 1938, Jan. 10 |
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| The Japanese captured Qingdao, after the Chinese had destroyed the Japanese mills in that area. The Japanese then began their advance south along the Hankou Railway and through Shanxi. They reached the Yellow River (March 6), but mobile Chinese forces restricted the Japanese to the railway zone. It was becoming ever more evident that the Japanese could capture the large cities and important communications, but that the countryside would remain in the hands of Chinese guerrillas. During the spring of 1938, the Japanese forces suffered serious reverses at the hands of the Chinese. | 1 |
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| March 28 |
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| The Japanese installed a puppet government of the Republic of China at Nanjing under Liang Hongzhi (1882–1946). Earlier (1937), a puppet regime had been established in Inner Mongolia, and another was established in Beijing under Wang Kemin (1873–1945) in late 1937. | 2 |
| In Yan'an Mao Zedong announced his theory on “protracted war”—that is, that victory was certain to be China's, but it would take a long time and would require sacrifices. | 3 |
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| April |
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| Li Zongren defeated the Japanese in the ferocious Battle of Taierzhuang, in which 30,000 Japanese were killed, considered a turning point in the war. | 4 |
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| May |
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| The Japanese military resumed its advance, taking Xiamen (May 10), Xuzhou (May 20), Kaifeng (June 6), and Anqing (June 12). As the Japanese marched toward Kaifeng, Jiang Jieshi ordered the dikes of the nearby Yellow River blown up to try to halt Japanese advances. Over 4,000 Chinese villages were destroyed and countless farmers killed in the flooding. | 5 |
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| July 11–Aug. 10 |
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| Japanese and Soviet forces clashed at Zhanggufeng Hill, on the borders of Siberia, Manzhouguo, and Korea. After severe fighting a truce was finally arranged, with the Soviets retaining their position. | 6 |
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| Sept. 22 |
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| The Japanese managed the creation of a United Council for China. The Japanese made even less a secret of their intention to overthrow Jiang and his GMD regime and transform China into a Japanese protectorate, as part of the projected “new order” in East Asia. | 7 |
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| Oct. 12 |
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| The Japanese landed forces at Bias Bay, near Hong Kong, evidently intending to capitalize on the acute crisis in Europe arising from the Czechoslovak affair. | 8 |
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| Oct. 21 |
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| Advancing inland, Japanese troops took Guangzhou, almost without a struggle. The city had been mercilessly bombed for months, and a large part of the population had already fled. Capture of the city enabled the Japanese to cut the Guangzhou-Hankou Railway, the most important line for transporting supplies from abroad to the Chinese forces in the interior. | 9 |
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| Oct. 25 |
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| Hankou fell to the Japanese after extensive fighting and casualties. The Chinese government and army withdrew up the Yangzi to Chongqing. Japanese control over the Yangzi below Hankou became ever more rigid, leading to repeated and insistent protests by the Western powers. U.S. secretary of state Cordell Hull (1871–1955) reasserted the validity of the nine-power treaty (Nov. 4) and was supported in his attitude by the British government. These protests, however, made little impression in Tokyo. | 10 |
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| Dec. 2 |
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| The Burma Road was opened, enabling supplies to reach Kunming in Yunnan from the south. | 11 |
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