<P> In July 1937, Japan captured the former Chinese imperial capital of Peking after instigating the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, which culminated in the Japanese campaign to invade all of China . The Soviets quickly signed a non-aggression pact with China to lend materiel support, effectively ending China's prior co-operation with Germany . From September to November, the Japanese attacked Taiyuan, as well as engaging the Kuomintang Army around Xinkou and Communist forces in Pingxingguan . Generalissimo Chiang Kai - shek deployed his best army to defend Shanghai, but, after three months of fighting, Shanghai fell . The Japanese continued to push the Chinese forces back, capturing the capital Nanking in December 1937 . After the fall of Nanking, tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of Chinese civilians and disarmed combatants were murdered by the Japanese . </P> <P> In March 1938, Nationalist Chinese forces won their first major victory at Taierzhuang but then the city of Xuzhou was taken by Japanese in May . In June 1938, Chinese forces stalled the Japanese advance by flooding the Yellow River; this manoeuvre bought time for the Chinese to prepare their defences at Wuhan, but the city was taken by October . Japanese military victories did not bring about the collapse of Chinese resistance that Japan had hoped to achieve; instead the Chinese government relocated inland to Chongqing and continued the war . </P> <P> In the mid-to - late 1930s, Japanese forces in Manchukuo had sporadic border clashes with the Soviet Union and the Mongolian People's Republic . The Japanese doctrine of Hokushin - ron, which emphasised Japan's expansion northward, was favoured by the Imperial Army during this time . With the Japanese defeat at Khalkin Gol in 1939, the ongoing Second Sino - Japanese War and ally Nazi Germany pursuing neutrality with the Soviets, this policy would prove difficult to maintain . Japan and the Soviet Union eventually signed a Neutrality Pact in April 1941, and Japan adopted the doctrine of Nanshin - ron, promoted by the Navy, which took its focus southward, eventually leading to its war with the United States and the Western Allies . </P> <P> In Europe, Germany and Italy were becoming more aggressive . In March 1938, Germany annexed Austria, again provoking little response from other European powers . Encouraged, Hitler began pressing German claims on the Sudetenland, an area of Czechoslovakia with a predominantly ethnic German population; and soon Britain and France followed the counsel of British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and conceded this territory to Germany in the Munich Agreement, which was made against the wishes of the Czechoslovak government, in exchange for a promise of no further territorial demands . Soon afterwards, Germany and Italy forced Czechoslovakia to cede additional territory to Hungary and Poland annexed Czechoslovakia's Zaolzie region . </P>

Where did world war 2 mostly take place