page_title: Jinan incident
section_title: 3 May dispute between NRA and Japanese soldiers
hierarchical_section_title: Jinan incident / Events / 3 May dispute between NRA and Japanese soldiers
caption_attribution_description: English: Memorial hall of Jinan Incident,on the Jingsi Road of Jinan. 中文: 五三惨案蔡公时殉难地，原国民政府驻山东特派员办事处旧址，位于济南经四路370号，拟做为五三惨案纪念馆。
context_page_description: The Jinan incident or 3 May Tragedy began as a 3 May 1928 dispute between Chiang Kai-shek's National Revolutionary Army and Japanese soldiers and civilians in Jinan, the capital of Shandong province in China, which then escalated into an armed conflict between the NRA and the Imperial Japanese Army. Japanese soldiers had been deployed to Shandong province to protect Japanese commercial interests in the province, which were threatened by the advance of Chiang's Northern Expedition to reunite China under a Kuomintang government. When the NRA approached Jinan, the Beiyang government-aligned army of Sun Chuanfang withdrew from the area, allowing for the peaceful capture of the city by the NRA. NRA forces initially managed to coexist with Japanese troops stationed around the Japanese consulate and businesses, and Chiang Kai-shek arrived to negotiate their withdrawal on 2 May. This peace was broken the following morning, however, when a dispute between the Chinese and Japanese resulted in the deaths of 13–16 Japanese civilians.
context_section_description: The area remained quiet, though tense, until a clash erupted between Japanese and NRA soldiers during the morning of 3 May. The exact details of what instigated the clash are contested between the Japanese and Chinese sides. As the Japanese immediately destroyed the Chinese wireless station after the clash began, they were left in control of the only working line of communication out of Jinan, forcing foreign media reports to rely entirely on the Japanese version of the events. According to the official Japanese narrative, as reported by General Fukuda, a group of Chinese soldiers under the command of General He Yaozu, reputed to have been responsible for the Nanjing incident, broke into an office of the Japanese Manshū Nippō newspaper, and assaulted its proprietor at 09:30. A group of Japanese soldiers commanded by Captain Kumekawa Yoshiharu patrolling in the area rushed to the scene, and attempted to stop the Chinese soldiers. The Chinese soldiers then opened fire on the Japanese troops, causing the Japanese to return fire. In the Chinese version of events, as recorded by Chiang Kai-shek, a sick Chinese soldier who had attempted to seek treatment at a local Christian hospital with the help of a local labourer was blocked from proceeding down the street to the hospital by Japanese soldiers, sparking a verbal argument. The Japanese then shot and killed the soldier and the labourer. Different Chinese sources, however, reported different versions of the events, and this gave the impression that the Chinese were inventing stories to justify their behaviour. The Japanese version, however, is marked by its own association with the later use of disinformation tactics by the Kwantung Army in the Huanggutun and Mukden incidents.
caption: Former foreign office building in Jinan, site of the killing of Cai Gongshi
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