CASUALTY RECORD // May 31, 1933
defense of the Great Wall
Estimated casualties — killed, wounded, captured, and missing — by side, with confidence labels per surviving record.
Casualties by side
2 sides catalogued · combined 3,866 estimated
China
1,933
Medium-confidence figure
Japan
1,933
Medium-confidence figure
Battle context
The Defense of the Great Wall was fought between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan in 1933, occupying the interval between Japan's invasion of Manchuria in 1931 and the formal outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937. Known in Japanese as Operation Nekka and in English sources as the First Battle of Hopei, the campaign represented a direct Japanese military advance into Chinese-held territory south of Manchuria, testing the capacity of the Republic of China to resist further encroachment. With 50,000 troops committed on each side, the engagement was a substantial conventional operation, not a border skirmish, and its conduct shaped the terms under which Japan expanded its presence in Inner Mongolia during the 1933–1936 period.
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