Grinding Mill of Flesh and Blood: Shanghai (World War 2 Pacific Theater)

[Music] in 1931 japan seized manchuria the next year chinese and japanese soldiers fought on the streets of shanghai particularly in the working-class neighborhood of zabae the clash had mixed results the battle showed that china would fight if pressed and japan ultimately backed down from a full-scale war yet the japanese forced the chinese to remove troops from the area instead the peace preservation corps a paramilitary group patrolled shanghai while the japanese kept a large military garrison and naval base at hong koo a neighborhood within the city in 1935 the japanese expanded manchuria by taking high bay general nisimo chiang kai-shek commander-in-chief of the national revolutionary army and leader of china refused to go to war over high bank chang felt he needed to improve china's military before he could fight as well as defeat the communists in the north the japanese army was better in every regard as shown in 1932 when the fighting at zabe led to 4 000 chinese losses against roughly 500 for japan in addition japanese aircraft and warships were more numerous and better integrated with their armed forces by contrast the chinese navy was small and incapable of taking on their japanese rivals the air force was also small and relied on second-rate aircraft its training followed italian and american practices the american pilots of the central aviation school of hangzhou were second to none the italian train pilots were less capable all in all chang knew the chinese military was no match for japan although the chinese had one million seven hundred and fifty thousand troops only three hundred thousand were well trained in particular eighty thousand men who had german instruction these men were loyal to chang in addition chang had a cadre of german advisors they were a mixture of nazis looking for combat experience and officers were pulsed by adolf hitler a few were even jews who were welcomed by china by hans von zake former head of the german army and an adviser to chang until 1935. in 1936 chang was abducted it was clear he needed to take a stand against japan or risk a coup in july 1937 a japanese patrol at the marco polo bridge was fired at by chinese soldiers one japanese soldier went missing and assuming the worst the japanese attacked later the missing man turned up once he'd finished his visit to the local brothel local officers called the truce but the japanese government saw an excuse for war matters became worse when the citizens of tongzhou rebelled against japan they used swords to murder japanese and korean settlers and chinese collaborators others were publicly tortured while those who served the japanese soldiers as prostitutes were raped in retaliation the japanese retook the city beheaded nearly every chinese man and raped the women some of whom had already been violated by the chinese the mutual atrocities inflame both sides but especially the japanese prince takamatsu who wrote in his diary we're really going to smash china so it will be 10 years before they can stand up straight again [Music] japanese prime minister fumi maro konoe decided to send troops to northern china he was an anglophobe who earlier dabbled in marxism before embracing fascism he saw nazi germany as a natural ally and even attended a costume party dressed as hitler he was soft-spoken amiable and a good listener this often fooled others into thinking he was a moderate when he was a thorough going-on ethno-nationalist while a war was waged in the north shanghai remained quiet it was the country's second most populated city and the economic center of china dubbed the paris of the east and the queen of the orient it was cosmopolitan featuring a large international district and some seventy thousand foreign residents twenty thousand of whom were british each nation kept a small military garrison it was also home to the green gang one of the largest criminal organizations in the world who had helped fight the japanese in 1932. shanghai very likely had more prostitutes than any other city in the world despite its importance the japanese did not want to fight at shanghai the army wanted to concentrate in the north and the navy favored a diplomatic solution to the conflict tensions were high in shanghai where any news of any chinese victory led to fireworks and celebrations businessmen began to pull out their money and others fled on august 9th lieutenant isio oyama of the japanese special naval landing forces arrived at hong kong airport what happened next is still hotly debated but the result was that oyama and his driver as well as an unidentified chinese man were dead the japanese used the event as a pretext to demand that the chinese dismantle their defenses around shanghai and withdraw the peace preservation corps the chinese for their part hoped a conflict in shanghai would divert japanese troops from the fighting in the north with japanese certain to fortify hong koo the chinese prepared to attack chang giving the responsibility to zhang zai zhong he was quiet but aggressive and highly nationalistic he hated the japanese however he was very ill last minute negotiations were held between china and japan with representatives from britain france america and italy in attendance with war already raging in the north the chances for peace were slim on august 13th small skirmishes took place in shanghai with japanese warships eventually firing into the city the chinese government issued the proclamation of self-defense and war of resistance china and japan were now at war [Music] on august 14th the chinese air force began bombing japanese positions the air attacks had mixed results while trying to sink the japanese cruiser izumo the air force instead hit the civilian area including the shanghai international settlement three thousand people were killed in the attacks some as they went about shopping the incident became known as black saturday or bloody saturday however chinese pilots won their dogfights with japanese air forces shooting down six planes and losing none in 1940 despite the death of 3 000 people the chinese government declared august 14th to be air force day although chinese pilots did well the nation had no aircraft factories as such losses could not be replaced and repair was difficult as the battle went on the chinese lost control of the skies and a total of 91 planes roughly half of china's air force were destroyed nevertheless japanese losses were heavy particularly among the navy's g3m long bombers on august 17th chang ordered a massive attack codename operation iron fist the chinese used german stormtrooper tactics and they hoped to overrun japanese garrisons of 2500 marines and seized the wharves using the 87th and 88th divisions china's finest units japanese positions were strong and their concrete bunkers were impervious to chinese artillery zhong had the bunkers isolated but the japanese used tanks to counter-attack the attacks were called off on august 18th chang sent fengx to help zhong he was known as the christian general he apparently baptized his men in mass with a fire hose and then marched into the tune of heart the herald angel singh fung was one of chang's chief rivals but he hoped his appointment would create unity among the chinese forces the fighting took place near the international settlement which both sides went out of their way to leave unmolested in the words of american correspondent edgar snow being in the settlement was like for done it happened on the same in full view of right bank paris that was neutral as though a gettysburg were fought in harlem while the rest of manhattan remained a non-belligerent observer the international settlement hampered the chinese who could have moved men through it to attack the japanese from the rear yet it also gave a place for reporters to cover the war and most did so with a bias in favor of china chinese civilians fled as both sides engaged in serial killings particularly the japanese who shot anyone they suspected of being a spy the chinese for their part executed suspected spies and looters as well as any japanese who were unfortunate enough to be marooned outside of hong koo when the shooting started the chinese even placed the heads of supposed traders on poles on august 19th konowei announced that the sino-japanese conflict could only be resolved through war the shanghai expeditionary army was formed under the command of general emanuel matsui he was energetic intelligent and a poet he believed japan should lead a unified asia to that end he founded the greater asia society an expert on china and disliked chang because he thought he was soft on communism he favored an offensive aimed at taking all of shanghai and nanjing chang's capital he instructed his men not to mistreat civilians particularly foreigners that the japanese wish to impress on august 22nd the chinese 36 division attacked hong koo with tanks however the tanks outran the infantry and were destroyed fighting was fierce but the japanese held on the next day the shanghai expeditionary army made an amphibious assault some 30 miles northeast from downtown shanghai zhong was taken by surprise when he went to inspect the front his car broke down so he marched on foot a soldier with a bicycle rolled by and snidely said what's that does the commander have to walk now zhong took his bicycle and made his way north to the landing chang denounced zhong's tactics and his pension for press conferences chang also thought fung by now in full command at shanghai was lacks in his planning chun gae one of chang's favorites replaced zhong after chang got into a screaming match with zhong over the telephone zong remained in shanghai for weeks after being removed from all of his responsibilities fung was eventually transferred to the northern theater and chang took on more command responsibilities chun gae favored an all-out battle and his appointment signaled a shift in chinese tactics from the offensive to a dogged defense [Music] by august 23rd the battle had turned against the chinese they lacked heavy weapons and air support in the coastal areas sandy soil made it difficult to create viable trenches which dissolved in the rain also heavy losses forced the chinese to use conscripts and raw recruits who often lack training and were in poor health to counter this the chinese made knight attacks japanese naval bombardments and air attacks though destroyed the coastal defenses japanese aircraft arrived in large numbers and began bombing chinese positions japanese aircraft also forced the chinese to move at night after weeks of fighting chan shock you woo song and shiz ilan were annihilated with only one survivor zychus hong the commander of the 79th division announced in a telephone call to lu zu ying head of the 18th army all my soldiers have been sacrificed there's nobody left lu zu ying replied aren't you a body stay where you are and fight by now japanese losses were high and they had to bury their dead instead of ceremonially cremating them which led to a dip in morale still the japanese had secured a beachhead in control of the north bank of the yangzi river and forced the chinese to fall back to the interior matsui's landing forced troops away from the shanghai proper to the suburbs fighting in the city continued but it was more than skirmishes and snipers chinese officers joked that it was all quiet on the western front a nod to the popular war novel and film the japanese did make a major tank attack that was stopped when a chinese soldier blew himself up and the tank japanese fed more troops and aircraft into the battle in september making it hard for the chinese to make any attacks the fighting also became more savage neither side took prisoners and in the rivers and streams headless corpses were a common sight high-ranking officers on both sides tried to curtail atrocities but with no success by now the chinese strategy had shifted from stopping the japanese to a dogged defense aimed at buying time for the chinese government to move vital industries to the interior of the country alexander von falkenhausen chiang's chief german military advisor stressed the importance of holding the laodan area falkenhausen was a highly decorated world war one veteran with a genuine love for china he welcomed the conflict by saying war on a national scale is a necessary experience for china and will unify her chang trusted his advice and his optimism falchenhausen for his part was happy to stay out of germany because the nazis had executed his brother during the night of the long knives following falcon house's advice some 300 000 chinese soldiers held the laudan area facing 100 000 japanese troops it was hoped that chinese resistance would bring foreign aid particularly from america and the soviet union most great powers thought china had no chance to win in the war although the soviets did support chang and eventually supplied the chinese with weapons on september 12th china formally brought a case against japan to the league of nations but the league offered nothing tangible this was itself the death knell of the league of nations which was largely ignored after 1937. more importantly france and britain were much more interested in european affairs germany once friendly with chang was busy preparing for a renewed war in europe and had recently been friendly with japan however in america president franklin roosevelt openly sympathized with china on october 5th in chicago he declared it would seem to be unfortunately true that the epidemic of world lawlessness is spreading when an epidemic of physical disease starts to spread the community approves and enjoins in a quarantine of the patients in order to protect the community against the spread of the disease the fight around lao dan earned the town the nickname the grinding mill of flesh and blood the japanese made attacks using combined armed tactics the chinese relied on knight attacks to limit japanese gains and gave up using forward defenses which were vulnerable to artillery barrage regardless by the end of september chinese losses exceeded 150 000 men and it was clear that they were losing the battle on october first konohe decided to launch a massive counter-attack and sent more troops to matsui the plan was for the japanese to cross the yanzhao bang river and take to chang chang decided that he had to hold the town and brought in every soldier he could spare chinese defenses were strong and the weather was bad the japanese only made slow gains chang though was inflexible in his tactics and he tried to hold every inch of ground even when advised by change to fall back on october 21st chang launched a counter-offensive that failed chang began a withdrawal and on october 25th the chang fell the losses at dechang were horrendous for both sides and reporters compared it to world war one battles such as verdun and the sam with the fall of the chang downtown shanghai had to be evacuated chang though wanted it done slowly a nine power treaty conference was set to occur in brussels to discuss possibly entering the war and chang hoped his slow withdrawal from shanghai would impress them much of shanghai was burned as the chinese left one rear guard at the four banks warehouse held out for days after being surrounded which impressed the foreign press chang chose suzu creek for an area to defend to the last many of chiang's generals instead wanted him to withdraw his forces to defend the capital of nanjing but he refused on november 5th the japanese landed at jinshan way to the south chang had to retreat again giving the order november 8th it was hoped to make a stand outside shanghai at the wufu line but ammunition was low in addition chinese morale which had been high for much of the battle completely collapsed coordination dissolved and many units lost contact with each other they were fears of a mutiny or even a coup against chang [Music] by november 11th shanghai was in japanese hands just outside shanghai the wufu line was penetrated on november 19th followed by the zai chang line on november 26th on december 2nd matsuya was replaced with prince yasuhiko asaka and uncle of emperor hirohito matsui remained in operational control but his freedom of action was more limited matsui wanted to take nanjing against the wishes of the army high command he hoped to avoid further atrocities but asaka gave his men more leeway and was himself an ardent nationalist matsui was allowed to advance on nanjing japanese troops marched hard and atrocities mounted despite matsui's orders when the capital fell the japanese murdered thousands of civilians in what became known as the rape of nan king two soldiers eventually competed in a decapitation contest that was covered in some japanese newspapers the capture of shanghai and nanjing far from breaking chinese resolve only convinced the chinese that japanese occupation would be too brutal to bear matsui's strategy despite his battlefield victories had backfired atrocities in nanjing turned international opinion against japan matters became worse when on december 12th japanese aircraft sank the gunboat uss pan a near shanghai the japanese were quick to apologize and pay indemnities to the families of the dead but relations with america were now hostile furthermore japan had recovered some international respectability after taking manchuria in july 1936 tokyo had won its bid to host the olympic games in 1940 making the country the first non-western country to host the games by 1938 international pressure was on japan to give up hosting and america hinted at a boycott [Music] shanghai was the biggest urban battle up to that time and not surpass until stalingrad japanese casualties were somewhere from sixty thousand to one hundred thousand which was more than expected and included several of japan's elite divisions japanese aircraft losses in particular were higher than expected shanghai also remained unsafe during a japanese victory parade a man left from a building to his death yelling long live china in 1938 partisan rebellions forced japan to keep a large garrison at shanghai the city was a major drain on japanese military resources while the city itself had been so thoroughly destroyed it offered few immediate economic benefits in the end the war with china was a major drain on the japanese war effort roughly 250 000 to 300 000 chinese were lost in the battle the army chang had cultivated for years was in ruins of the roughly twenty-five thousand junior officers trained at the wampow military academy between 1929 and 1937 10 000 were lost to shanghai china's small air and tank forces were also destroyed the navy which was based in shanghai lost all of its cruisers to japanese airstrikes most were refloated and served in the imperial japanese navy after 1937 chang had to increasingly rely on warlords of dubious loyalty and competence to continue the fight this meant the chinese army was more of a loose collection of different armies than a true modern and centralized military in addition the war took pressure off the communists who grew in power and prestige after 1937. by 1949 they controlled mainland china while chang had to flee to taiwan shanghai though had some tangible benefits for the chinese chang may have lost china's economic center but the battle bought enough time for the chinese government to move some of its vital industries to wuhan zhen and chong king the battle did not elicit any direct international intervention yet the fighting aroused america's sympathy itself fanned by journalists particularly henry luce who placed chang on the cover of time magazine on numerous occasions beyond shifting america's stance on japan from neutral to hostile the fighting did much to diminish anti-chinese racism in america after generations of legal and cultural persecution in the soviet union chang was favored over the communists and lavished with advisers and weapons eventually both america and the soviet union fought japan in world war ii a path that began at shanghai better relations with america and the soviet union were matched with the end of support from germany in 1938 hitler decided to favor japan and chiang's advisors were recalled and armed shipments ended for chang's advisors their return to germany was a mixed blessing oddest of all was robert borchardt chang's tank expert he was of jewish descent and it seemed his career was over he remained in the army winning the night's cross before being captured at el alamein when asked why he fought for the nazis borchardt said i serve to prove that hitler's race nonsense was all wrong i wanted to prove that people of jewish ancestry were brave and courageous soldiers falkenhausen had an equally complicated fate he was made military governor of belgium in 1940. he opposed harsh nazi policies and saved hundreds of jews but still had to sign off on deportations he was involved in the plot to kill hitler and ended the war in a concentration camp afterwards a vengeful belgium jailed him but he was released in 1951 and pardoned by west germany [Music] [Music] the shanghai national settlement was occupied on december 8th 1940 shortly after pearl harbor was bombed the american and french garrisons swiftly surrendered and the british only put up token resistance the same europeans who had watched shanghai burn were themselves placed in the nearby longhua civil assembly center which was a work camp they remained there until the end of the war in august 1945. the shanghai international settlement was dissolved by the allies who returned the land to china matsui won no laurels for his victories relieved a command after nanjing fell he was later tried for war crimes while asaka a member of the royal family was never charged found guilty only one count out of 38 he was held responsible for the nanjiang massacre after yelling bonzai three times he was hanged and cremated in 1948 the american army took away his ashes but a few were hidden away and moved to the imperial shrine of yasukuni in a secret ceremony his execution is among the most debated of any war criminal the bitter fruit of shanghai can be seen in east asian politics today chang's stand decreased his power and was a prologue to his flight to taiwan today taiwan and china are a major international fault line and both militaries are trained with a future war in mind furthermore japanese atrocities and aggression made relations between japan and china fraud whatever matsui's guilt is enshrinement and that of other war criminals is seen as an insult to china meanwhile japan asia's leading democratic power is reluctant to find common cause with a communist regime that has murdered millions since 1949 you