Shanghai 1937: Stalingrad on the Yangtze (45 page)

P
ROLOGUE

1
. Zhang Fakui.
Reminiscences of Fa-k’uei Chang: Oral History, 1970–1980.
Columbia University Libraries, Oral History Research Office, p. 490. This document is based on a series of interviews Zhang gave in the 1970s.

2
. Snow, Edgar.
The Battle for Asia.
Cleveland OH: The World Publishing Company 1941 p. 45.

C
HAPTER
O
NE
: T
HREE
C
ORPSES

1
. The account of the situation at Hongqiao Aerodrome on the night between August 9 and 10 is based mainly on reports in the Shanghai-based
North China Daily News
(hereafter cited as
NCDN),
as well as
The New York Times
and other western media. Details have also been gleaned from
Shin Shina genseiyoran
[The Current Situation in China]. Tokyo: Toa Dobunkai, 1938, p. 65, quoted in Higashinakano Shudo.
The Nanking Massacre: Facts versus Fiction.
Tokyo: Sekai Shuppan, 2006, p. 11.

2
. “Chapei Again Fearful,” Associated Press, August 9, 1937, in
The New York Times,
August 10, 1937.

3
. Ibid.

4
. Li Junsan.
Shanghai Nanjing baoweizhan [Defensive Battlesfor Shanghai and Nanjing].
Taipei: Maitian chubanshe, 1997, pp. 49–50.

5
.
All About Shanghai and Environs.
Shanghai: The University Press, 1934, pp. 1, 39, 41.

6
. Dong, Stella.
Shanghai: The Rise and Fall of a Decadent City.
New York: HarperCollins, 2001, pp. 22–23.

7
. Fenby, Jonathan.
Generalissimo: Chiang Kai-shek and the China He Lost.
London: Simon & Schuster, 2003, pp. 138–139.

8
. Hanson, Haldore.
Humane Endeavour: The Story of the China War.
New York: Farrar & Rinehart, 1939, p. 124.

9
. Dong, p. 113.

10
.
Dong, pp. 109–117.

11
. Fenby, pp. 147–148.

12
. Jordan, Donald A.
China’s Trial by Fire: The Shanghai War of 1932.
Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2001, p. 47.

13
. Abend, Hallett.
My Life in China. 1926–1941.
New York: Harcourt Brace, 1943, pp. 192–193.

14
. Jordan, pp. 186–190.

15
. Teitler, Geir et al.
A Dutch Spy in China: Reports on the First Phase of the Sino-Japanese War.
Leiden: Brill, 1999, p. 51.

16
. Barnhart, Michael A.
Japan Prepares for Total War: The Search for Economic Security 1919–1941.
Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1987, pp. 27–28, 39.

17
. Bix, Herbert P.
Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan.
New York: HarperCollins, 2001, p. 306.

18
. Dryburgh, Marjorie.
North China and Japanese Expansion 1933–1937.
Richmond and Surrey: Curzon Press, 2000, p. 147.

19
. Taylor, Jay.
The Generalissimo: Chiang Kai-shek and the Struggle for Modern China.
Cambridge MA: Belknap, 2009, p. 145.

20
. Bix, p. 321.

21
. Qiao Defu, a 13-year-old farm boy, saw his mother recover a foot-long bayonet from the family’s cornfield. “It was gleaming. We used it at home to cut radish leaves,” he recalled many years later. “Xuezhan Nanyuan, xuebing sui jiangjun sunqu” [“The bloody battle for Nanyuan: Soldiers followed general into obliteration”],
Beijing News,
July 7, 2005.

22
. Dorn, Frank.
The Sino-Japanese War 1937–41: From Marco Polo Bridge to Pearl Harbor.
New York: Macmillan, 1974, p. 42. The incident is recognized by Chinese historians. See, Xiao Yiping et al.
Zhongguo kangri zhanzheng quanshi [A Complete History of China’s Anti-Japanese War]
. Chengdu: Sichuan renmin chubanshe, 2005, vol. 2, p. 13.

23
. Volume 3 of
Defense Exhibits Rejected by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East
(IMTFE).

24
. Wilson, Dick.
When Tiger Fight: The Story of the Sino-Japanese War 1937–1945.
New York: The Viking Press, 1982, p. 22.

25
. Dorn, pp. 42, 46.

26
. Lu, David J.
From the Marco Polo Bridge to Pearl Harbor: A Study of Japan’s Entry into World War II.
Washington DC: Public Affairs Press, 1961, p. 17.

27
. Bix, p. 322.

28
. Kuo Mo-jo. “A Poet with the Northern Expedition,” in
Far Eastern Quarterly,
vol. 3, no. 2, February 1944, p. 163.

29
. Zhang Fakui, p. 453.

30
. Yang Tianshi. “Chiang Kai-shek and the Battles of Shanghai and Nanjing,” in Mark Peattie et al. (eds.).
The Battle for China.
Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2011, pp. 144–145.

31
.
Zhang Fakui, p. 453.

32
. Shen Zui.
Juntong neimu
[The Inside Story of the Military Statistics Bureau]. Taipei: Xinrui chubanshe, 1994, p. 70.

33
. Wakeman, Frederic E.
Spymaster: Dai Li and the Chinese Secret Service.
Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003, p. 244.

34
. Dreyer, Edward L.
China at War 1901–1949.
London: Longman, 1995, pp. 181–185.

35
. The Chinese Army was built around the square division, consisting of four regimental units. This had been popular in Europe prior to World War I, but was gradually abandoned by the European powers for the triangular division, made up of three regiments.

36
. Ch’i Hsi-sheng.
Nationalist China at War: Military Defeats and Political Collapse, 1937–45.
Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1982, p. 37.

37
.
Die Schlacht bei Shanghai.
Berlin: Oberkommando der Wehrmacht, 1939, p. 5.
Die Schlacht bei Shanghai
(hereafter cited as
DSBS)
was based on the testimonies of former German advisors to the Chinese military, but was mainly authored by Robert Borchardt, one of Germany’s earliest experts on tank warfare.

38
. Chang Jui-te. “The Nationalist Army on the Eve of War,” in Peattie et al. (eds.). pp. 89–90.

39
. Chang Jui-te, p. 103.

40
. Liang, Hsi-huey.
The Sino-German Connection.
Amsterdam: van Gorcum, 1978, pp. xii, 172.

41
. Andersson, Lennart.
A History of Chinese Aviation.
Taipei: AHS of ROC, 2008, p. 108.

42
. Andersson, p. 128.

43
. Chennault, Claire Lee.
Way of a Fighter.
New York NY: C. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1949, pp. 40–41. This was more than an empty threat. Chiang had previously had subordinates executed, even for failures for which they could not reasonably be blamed. See, e.g. Taylor, p. 71.

44
. Chennault, pp. 37, 40.

45
. Gong Yeti.
Kangzhan feixing riji [A Flight Diary of the War of Resistance]
. Wuhan: Changjiang wenyi chubanshe, 2011, p. 115.

46
. Gong, p. 111.

47
. Gong 117.

48
. Taylor, p. 147.

49
. Barnhart, p. 92.

50
. Forman, Harrison.
Horizon Hunter.
New York: Robert M. McBride, 1940, p. 207.

51
. Zhang Fakui, pp. 454–455.

52
. Yang Ji.
Huzhan mihua [Secret Talk on the Shanghai Battle]
. Liming shuj u, 1938, p37.

53
. Zhang Zhizhong.
Huiyilu [Memoirs].
Beijing: Wenhua chubanshe, 2007, p. 72.

54
.
Zhang Suwo.
Huiyi fuqin Zhang Zhizhong [Remembering My Father Zhang Zhizhong].
Nanjing: Jiangsu wenyi chubanshe, 2012, p. 85.

55
. Zhang Suwo, p. 86.

56
. Willens, Liliane.
Stateless in Shanghai.
Hong Kong: Earnshaw Books, 2010, p. 97.

57
.
North China Herald,
July 14, 1937.

58
.
North China Herald,
July 21, 1937.

59
. Farmer, Rhodes.
Shanghai Harvest: A Diary of Three Years in the China War.
London: Museum Press, 1945, p. 37.

60
. Alcott, Carroll.
My War with Japan.
New York: Henry Holt, 1943, p. 236.

61
.
North China Herald,
July 28 and Aug 4, 1937.

62
. Powell, John B.
My Twenty-Five Years in China.
New York: Macmillan, 1945, p. 293.

63
. Ristaino, Marcia R.
The Jacquinot Safe Zone: Wartime Refugees in Shanghai.
Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2008, p. 45.

64
.
North China Herald,
August 18, 1937.

65
. Farmer, p. 37.

66
.
North China Herald,
August 18, 1937.

67
. Kageyama Koichiro. “Oyama jihen no hitotsu kosatsu—dai niji Shanhai jihen no dokasen no shinso to gunreibu ni ateta eikyo” [“A reconsideration of the Oyama incident: the facts about the trigger of the second Shanghai incident and the impact it had on the Naval General Staff”].
Gunji shigaku,
vol. 32, no. 3, December 1996.

68
. Zhang Fakui, p. 456.

69
. Shi Shuo. “Bayaosan Songhu Kanghang jilue” [“Clever stratagems adopted during the 813 Songhu battle”], in
Bayaosan Songhu Kangzhan: Yuan Guomindang jiangling Kangri Zhanzheng qinliji
[
The August 13 Songhu Battle: Personal Recollections from the War of Resistance against Japan by Former Nationalist Commanders].
Beijing: Zhongguo wenshi cubanshe, 1987, p. 91. This priceless collection of memoirs by key commanders is cited hereafter as
BSK.

70
. Zhongguo dier lishi dang’an guan,
Kangri zhanzheng zhengmian zhanchang[The Frontal Battleground in the Anti-Japanese War].
Nanjing: Fenghuang chubanshe, 2005, vol. 1, p. 329.

71
. Zhongguo dier lishi dang’an guan, vol. 1, p. 330.

72
.
NCDN,
August 12, 1937.

73
. Morley, James William.
The China Quagmire: Japan’s Expansion on the Asian Continent 1933–1941.
New York: Columbia University Press, 1983, p. 265.

74
. Barnhart, p. 92.

75
. Spunt, Georges.
A Place in Time.
New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1968, p. 353.

76
. Zhang Fakui, p. 457. Zhang goes on to tell the interviewer that “I cannot say this in my ‘Reminiscences of the War of Resistance’ [memoirs serialized in the Taiwanese magazine
Lianhe Pinglun
from January 1962 to January 1963] because
we claim that ours was a ‘War of Resistance’.”

77
. Zhongguo dier lishi dang’an guan, p. 335. Zhang Zhizhong’s eagerness to fight the battle may have helped give rise to the sensational claim that he was in fact a Communist mole deliberately triggering a war between Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalists and the Japanese. In particular, according to this version of history, Zhang was allegedly the mastermind behind the shooting at Hongqiao Aerodrome. The motive was supposedly to weaken Chiang and set the stage for a Communist revolution. See, Chang, Jung et al.
Mao: The Unknown Story.
London: Jonathan Cape, 2005, pp. 208–209. The best that can be said about this story is that it would be interesting if it were true. However, it is supported by no available evidence whatsoever. See also, Benton, Gregor et al. “The Portrayal of Opportunism, Betrayal and Manipulation in Mao’s Rise to Power,” in
The China Journal,
no. 55, January 2006, pp. 106–107.

78
. Zhang Zhizhong, p. 72.

79
. Zhang Zhizhong, p. 75.

80
. Chen Yiding. “Yangshupu Yunzaobin zhandou” [“Battle of Yangshupu and Yun-zaobin”], in
BSK,
p. 111 .

81
. Zhang Zhizhong, p. 75.

82
. Bruce, George C.
Shanghai’s Undeclared War.
Shanghai: Mercury Press, 1937, p. 10.

83
. Zhongguo dier lishi dang’an guan, p. 340.

84
. Sun Yuanliang.
Yiwan guangnian zhong deyi shun [An Instant in a Trillion Light Years].
Taipei: Shiying chubanshe, 2002, p. 205. See also, Zhang Boting. “Songhu huizhan jiyao” [“Summary of the Songhu Battle”], in BSK, p. 132. The decision by the 88th and possibly also the 87th Division to move further than their orders dictated was widely recognized by observers at the time. See, Cao Juren.
Woyu wo deshijie
[My World and I]. Beijing: SDX Joint Publishing Company, 2011, p. 595.

85
. Zhang Fakui, p. 484.

86
. Liu Jingchi, “Songhu Jingbei Silingbu jianwen” [“Account of Songhu Garrison Command”], BSK, p. 3.