Shanghai 1937

A blog about China in World War II

Tank Cemetery: Armored Battle in Shanghai: In the early part of the three-month battle for Shanghai in 1937, China deployed its fledgling tank arm in an all-out attempt to wipe out the small and beleaguered Japanese … Continue Reading →

The Battle of Shanghai in the Eyes of German Cameramen: This German newsreel shows highlights of the 1937 battle of Shanghai. It’s interesting for a number of reasons. First, it features several of the weapons that were used most aggressively … Continue Reading →

Japan’s Charmed Warship: The most visible Japanese presence in Shanghai during the three-month battle for the city in the fall of 1937 was the cruiser Izumo, anchored in the Huangpu River. It was … Continue Reading →

The First American Casualty of World War II: On August 14, 1937, Chinese planes dropped several bombs over the international parts of Shanghai, in a tragic error that cost the lives of hundreds. Among the victims was Robert … Continue Reading →

Red Russian Star over China: By January 1938, Russian pilot F. P. Polynin had only been in the central Chinese city of Hankou for a few weeks, and the Japanese invaders had still not gotten … Continue Reading →

China’s Muslim General: With his kind smile, it would be easy to confuse Bai Chongxi with a Buddhist cleric, detached from the worries of this world. That was one of the first thoughts … Continue Reading →

Snapshots of War: The Japanese went to war in China equipped with Model 32 helmets, Arisaka rifles and Model D III Gelto cameras. During the Sino-Japanese conflict from 1937 to 1945, soldiers and … Continue Reading →

More Than A Thousand Characters: With their immediate impact and their appeal to the emotions, images have been used in war propaganda since ancient times. Therefore, it’s no surprise that they were employed in China … Continue Reading →

A Chinese in the German Wehrmacht: When the German Wehrmacht rolled into Austria in March 1938, one of its soldiers stood out. A 21-year-old sergeant-cadet in the 98th Jäger Regiment, his hair was jet-black, and his … Continue Reading →

Japanese Devils for Hire: Hirotaka Tsukagoshi is the man the Chinese love to hate. His name is not well-known in China, but his face is. Over the past few years the Japanese actor has … Continue Reading →

A Songwriter’s Tribute: Christian missionary Frank Rawlinson, born in Britain and educated in the United States, had lived in Shanghai almost his entire adult life when war broke out between China and Japan … Continue Reading →

Depicting the Shanghai Battle in Scale 1/35: History in perhaps its broadest sense means finding what can be known about the past and presenting the facts in the form of a coherent narrative. That narrative doesn’t have … Continue Reading →

64 Seconds in Hell: What was it like to be a Chinese or Japanese soldier fighting for one’s life in and around Shanghai in the fall of 1937? No one who wasn’t actually there … Continue Reading →

Japan’s Impregnable Fortress: Throughout the battle of Shanghai in the fall of 1937, the Japanese Special Naval Landing Force, the empire’s marines, was defending a narrow perimeter along the northern bank of the … Continue Reading →

Asians in WWII Poster Art: Since the US engagement in World War II was to a significant extent directed towards Asia, it is no surprise that a large part of American poster art of the … Continue Reading →

Japan’s First Defeat: On April 7, 1938, the city of Hankou in central China “turned into a bedlam as thousands of firecrackers were exploded and newsboys tore about the streets shouting at the … Continue Reading →

A History of the War in 1,000 Objects, Part I: Collectors of military items have probably been around for as long as war has been a way to solve disagreements between societies. Owning a weapon that was used or a uniform … Continue Reading →

A History of the War in 1,000 Objects, Part II: In the second and last part of our interview with Spanish author and collector Agustin Saiz Martinez, he talks about acquiring militaria specifically from the Sino-Japanese War, and about the … Continue Reading →

76 Years Ago, in Shanghai: In April 1937, Shanghai was only four months from descending into war. In August of that year, full-scale hostilities would break out between Chinese and Japanese forces in the city. … Continue Reading →

China’s National Anthem, a Product of War: Among the national anthems of this world, China’s is one of the most stirring, and it’s heard increasingly when the country’s athtletes win at international events or its leaders go … Continue Reading →

Weapons of Mass Destruction, 1930s Style: Nations always go to war expecting to fight the war of the previous generation. The Second Sino-Japanese War was no exception. When hostilities broke out between China and Japan in 1937, … Continue Reading →

China’s Best Ambassador: Song Meiling, China’s First Lady during the war, was her country’s best ambassador by far. Mme Chiang Kai-shek, as she was often called, spoke fluent, flawless English, as she had … Continue Reading →

Strangers at the Gates: Scenes of despair unfolded as the Japanese army moved in on Shanghai in late 1937, spreading terror among the city’s three million civilians. Tens of thousands were thronging at the … Continue Reading →

The Forgotten Battle: When China and Japan clashed over Shanghai in the fall of 1937, their destinies were set on paths that would stretch decades into the future. From then on a state … Continue Reading →

Hitler Youth in China: In the inter-war years, China and especially Shanghai had a large number of German expatriates. Anecdotal evidence suggests that more than a few were initially highly skeptical of Adolf Hitler, but in the end, … Continue Reading →

Eyewitness to the Battle (I): The battle of Shanghai in the fall of 1937 played out in front of a huge foreign audience, and many wrote down their experiences in eloquent manner. One of them … Continue Reading →

Deadly Clash at Marco Polo Bridge: Seventy-six years ago, on July 7, 1937, Chinese and Japanese soldiers clashed at Marco Polo Bridge outside Beijing. It was the start of an eight-year war in which millions would die, … Continue Reading →

The Chinese ‘Fritz’: One of the most conspicuous features of the elite units of the Chinese army that went to war with Japan in 1937 was their widespread use of German equipment, and, … Continue Reading →

Chinese in the Spanish Civil War: In the late 1930s, while the heartland of China was being ravaged by war with Japan, a small number of Chinese were fighting a different battle 10,000 kilometers away. About … Continue Reading →

Media War Over Shanghai (I): The 1937 battle of Shanghai was waged not just in the city’s streets, but also in the pages of the world’s major papers. Peter Harmsen, author of Shanghai 1937: Stalingrad … Continue Reading →

Fall of Beijing, 1937: On July 29, 1937, China’s old imperial capital Beijing fell to Japanese forces. The image to the left shows the emperor’s troops marching through Qianmen gate into the city, officially … Continue Reading →

Q & A With Author: Taiwan Today recently featured Shanghai 1937: Stalingrad on the Yangtze in a superb article, saying it “has all the elements of a fabulous historical novel”. Below is the full text of … Continue Reading →

‘Enemy of the People’: Chiang Kai-shek, China’s most important leader during the long war with Japan in the 1930s and 1940s, was different things to different people. While he was often portrayed in the west as … Continue Reading →

An Echo From the Past: Japan this week unveiled its biggest naval vessel since the end of World War II, the 20,000-ton helicopter-carrying destroyer Izumo. The event did not go unnoticed by Japan’s neighbors, especially … Continue Reading →

The Battle Erupts (I): Friday, August 13, 1937 marked the start of the epic, three-month battle of Shanghai, at least according to official Chinese historiography, where the date is so widely accepted that a … Continue Reading →

The Battle Erupts (II): “Launch the assault.” This was in essence the message sent from supreme Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek to his frontline commanders near Shanghai during the night between August 13 and 14. … Continue Reading →

Gung Ho!: The expression gung ho – meaning “extremely or overly zealous or enthusiastic” – is as American as apple pie, but just as apple pie was originally a British dish going back to medieval times, this particular idiom … Continue Reading →

Impressions of Shanghai, 1937 (I): In the late 1930s, Shanghai was a magnet for adventurous young westerners. Among them was Best Overend (1909-1977). At the age of twenty-seven, he was the Third Watch Officer on a steamer that left … Continue Reading →

Impressions of Shanghai, 1937 (III): Best Overend (1909-1977) was one of thousands of foreigners living in Shanghai on the eve of battle in 1937. He left a memoir of great expressive powers, describing the atmosphere of one of … Continue Reading →

Woman Seeks Uncle’s Shanghai Burial Site: By Sunday, October 24, 1937, the battle for Shanghai had lasted for more than two months, and much of the city and the surrounding countryside had been marked by war. … Continue Reading →

Frontier Mavericks: Japan’s Kwantung Army: Japan’s Kwantung Army, a unit operating in what is now northeast China, exemplified the emperor’s soldiers at their most death-defying, if not death-worshipping, as the photo on the left suggests. … Continue Reading →

‘All Quiet on the Western Front’: Erich Maria Remarque’s 1929 antiwar novel All Quiet on the Western Front (Im Westen nichts Neues) became an international bestseller, selling nearly two million copies worldwide and translated into over 20 languages … Continue Reading →

Battle of Khalkhin Gol (I): The 1939 Battle of Khalkhin Gol on the border of China and Mongolia pitted Japanese soldiers, such as the tank crew on the left, against Soviet troops. It was a pivotal … Continue Reading →

Battle of Khalkhin Gol (II): Japanese soldiers considered it a huge humiliation to be taken prisoner. As the photo on the left shows, it happened for many of them in the summer of 1939, when … Continue Reading →

Chinese or Japanese? Telling Friend From Foe: In early 1945, it was obvious that the Japanese had lost the war, but it was still unclear how much longer they would hold out or where the final stages … Continue Reading →

Re-enacting the Sino-Japanese War: History can be studied in many ways. One of the most direct ways to get a visceral feel for what happened to earlier generations is to join the growing ranks … Continue Reading →

A Chinese Woman in Ravensbrueck Concentration Camp: When emaciated female prisoners from the German concentration camp Ravensbrueck arrived in the Swedish harbor of Malmoe on April 28, 1945, just days before the German surrender, two of the … Continue Reading →

Gaming the Sino-Japanese War (I): Since World War II ended in 1945, historians and laypeople alike have strived to make sense of the event, place it into a larger context and grasp its lasting significance. They … Continue Reading →

Gaming the Sino-Japanese War (II): History is pretty much set in stone (although it’s open to constant re-interpretation), but for those who experienced the events of the past first-hand the future was still undetermined, and … Continue Reading →

Inside the Mind of a War Criminal: The Japanese commander of military operations in the Shanghai area in late 1937 was the 59-year-old General Matsui Iwane. Today he is mainly remembered as a war criminal, because he … Continue Reading →

The Sino-Japanese War as Traditional Opera: In China, the Second Sino-Japanese War has provided rich source material for works of fiction ever since 1945. The most obvious example of this is the plethora of soap operas … Continue Reading →

Modern War by Medieval Means: The Chinese Sword: Westerners watching the early stages of the Second Sino-Japanese War often noticed that the Chinese troops moving into battle were carrying large swords, in addition to their more modern equipment. … Continue Reading →

Past Brought Back to Life: This blog has previously introduced a small, but growing number of re-enactors that specialize in the Chinese side of the Second Sino-Japanese War. Their expanding numbers are testimony to the … Continue Reading →

‘Horrors of War’: “Horrors of War” was the name of a series of bubble-gum cards issued in the United States in the late 1930s. The pictures, dealing with bloodshed in the two faraway … Continue Reading →

In Love and War: WW2-Themed Wedding Photos: Wedding photos are a huge business in China, and people from the middle class up are willing to pay serious amounts – sometimes thousands of dollars – for this special service. The … Continue Reading →

Left Behind: When Hiroo Onoda died at a Tokyo hospital at age 91 on Thursday, the world was once again reminded of the incredible story of a Japanese soldier who refused to … Continue Reading →

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Separated By War Since 1942

Yang Youfu was 24 years old when he was drafted from his village in southwest China’s Sichuan province to fight in the war against Japan, leaving his one-year old son … Continue Reading →

Playing for Manchuria

It was the best of times, and it was the worst of times for Manchukuo’s national soccer team. In June 1940, while participating in a regional tournament in Osaka, it … Continue Reading →

The Coca-Cola Ad

The photos on this page all have the same basic motif: Japanese soldiers engaged in battle in front of a giant Coca-Cola ad. They are from the same spot in … Continue Reading →

A Bearded Army

By Peter Harmsen
22 February, 2014
2,147 Comments

When Japanese tank commander Fujita Sanehiko, pictured left, took part in the campaign in central China in late 1937, he was well-known back home. A gifted writer, he sent dispatches … Continue Reading →

The Awful Fate of Prisoners

By Peter Harmsen
14 February, 2014
30 Comments

Part of the Sino-Japanese struggle in the late 1930s was aimed at global public opinion, and movies were among the weapons. This short documentary, shot shortly after the fall of … Continue Reading →

OSS Agent on Suicide Mission

By Peter Harmsen
7 February, 2014
26 Comments

Beurt SerVaas, who died on February 2, 2014, aged 94, was one of the key American agents in China during World War 2, especially as the war with Japan ended … Continue Reading →

Victory Song

By Peter Harmsen
28 January, 2014
9 Comments

”Gongxi, gongxi” – ”Congratulations, congratulations.” That’s the name of a tune that will be played over and over again in the coming days as Chinese all across the world celebrate … Continue Reading →

The Japanese in Taiwan

By Peter Harmsen
24 January, 2014
23 Comments

Many foreigners who have spent some time in Taiwan and studied its modern history have noticed a curious phenomenon related to its recent past: Although the island was run as a colony by … Continue Reading →

Left Behind

By Peter Harmsen
17 January, 2014
26 Comments

When Hiroo Onoda died at a Tokyo hospital at age 91 on Thursday, the world was once again reminded of the incredible story of a Japanese soldier who refused to … Continue Reading →