TheTaihoku Airstrike (Chinese:松山空襲) was anair raid by the military of theRepublic of China against the metropolitan perimeter of Taihoku (modern-dayTaipei), the capital ofJapanese Taiwan, on 8 February 1938. The raid was the first attack onImperial Japanese territory during the course of World War II, and one of the few offensive operations conducted by China directly against Japan during the course of the war.
The Taihoku Air Strike Operation was conducted by theRepublic of China Air Force, using a squadron of nineMartin 139 bombers. The aircraft were deployed from airfields inZhejiang andFujian, and flew uncontested over theTaiwan Strait. Once over metropolitan Taihoku, the aircraft dropped leaflets, or according to some sources made a minor bombing strike, and successfully returned to China, under Japaneseantiaircraft fire. Contemporary newspaper accounts stated that eight people were killed and 25 were wounded.[1]
While achieving little militarily, this represented the first instance of an air raid over Japanese territory, preceding theDoolittle raid againstTokyo by four years.
One foreign eyewitness,American diplomatGeorge H. Kerr, described the air raid to the foreign press, and mentioned that as a result, sand barricades were built around important government and commerce buildings, anti-aircraft guns were deployed, and internal security strengthened against possiblefifth column activity by the local ethnic Chinese population.
  | This article related to the history of China is astub. You can help Wikipedia byexpanding it. |
 | This article about a historical Japanese battle is astub. You can help Wikipedia byexpanding it. |
 | This military aviation article is astub. You can help Wikipedia byexpanding it. |