Japanese infantrymen dash through a smoke-filled street of the Chinese city of Yichang. After the Japanese began the drive up the Yangtze river from Hankou (Hankow), the city was badly damaged by repeated bombing and eventually fell to the Japanese army in June 1940. After the Battle of Yichang, the Japanese would use the city as a staging area for bombing raids over Chongqing (Chungking), China’s provisional capital after the fall of Nanjing (Nanking) to the Japanese in January 1938. Yichang, Hubei, Republic of China. 22 July 1941.