Shanghai in World War II: Destruction and Resistance

——Researcher Zhou Wu's speech at the Shanghai Social Science International Innovation Base

□ the "128" Incident and the "13 August" Incident launched by Japan, as well as the subsequent occupation of Shanghai, destroyed the foundation of Shanghai's modernization accumulated over the past 100 years, and Shanghai fell into a terrifying era in which "everything but human life is expensive."

After the fall of the □ Concession, the Japanese replaced Anglo-American France as "the most privileged man in Shanghai". It means that the power structure and interest structure established by the European and American powers in Shanghai since the opening of the port, as well as the "bloc informal empire" order formed on this basis dominated by Britain and the United States, have been dismantled, and replaced by the so-called "new East Asian order" concocted by Japan and monopolized by Japan

□ Shanghai is an unyielding city, and even in difficult and dangerous situations, although there have been "defectors" and "all kinds of compromises endured for the sake of a simple desire to survive", it is more of an unyielding struggle and refuses to "cooperate". Although the city has fallen, the people's hearts have not fallen, and morality and righteousness are everywhere

China's modern history was spent in war, beginning with war and ending with war. The death, fear, haste, and chaos brought about by the war, as well as all kinds of other hardships and hardships and existential anxieties, are the deepest common memories of that era. Shanghai is a little different, far away from war and turmoil for a long time, and has maintained a corner of prosperity in the middle of China. However, in World War II, Shanghai not only did not survive the disaster, but also bore the brunt of the indiscriminate bombing by the invading Japanese army. Since then, the Chinese Territory and the Concession have fallen one after another, and Asia's number one metropolis has become a "terrifying world of thorns and thorns" under the oppressive rule of the Japanese puppet. These were the darkest and most difficult terrible years in the history of Shanghai.

What had once been a hustle and bustle became silent

After the opening of the port, the European and American powers set up a concession in Shanghai on the basis of the unequal treaty system and with "economic expansion" as the main means, and used the concession as an "economic base" to implement the policy of "free trade imperialism" and carry out "quasi-colonial direct rule"; in less than half a century, Shanghai has grown into a pivotal city connecting the world with Chinese mainland. After the outbreak of the First World War, the Western European powers were trapped in the situation within Europe. Taking this as an opportunity, Shanghai's national industry and commerce have developed rapidly, and shipping, foreign trade, finance, industry, real estate, as well as cultural industries such as information, education, publishing, film, broadcasting, art, and entertainment have all shown unprecedented strong vitality. "Shanghai's prominence lies not only in international finance and trade, but also in the field of art and culture, where Shanghai is far above all other Asian cities." At that time, Tokyo was in the hands of the confused militarists; Manila is like an American country club; Batavia, Hanoi, Singapore, and Yangon were little more than colonial administrative centers; Only Kolkata has a bit of culture, but it lags far behind Shanghai. ”

Of course, we must be soberly aware that this kind of "prosperity" in Shanghai has a strong semi-feudal and semi-colonial nature, which is a kind of deformed prosperity, and its surface "brilliance" cannot hide the cruel fact that the Chinese are exploited and enslaved.

However, the "128" Incident and the "13 August" Incident launched by Japan, as well as the subsequent occupation of Shanghai, destroyed the foundation of Shanghai's modernization accumulated over the past 100 years, and Shanghai fell into a terrifying era in which "everything but human life was expensive".

According to the figures released by the Central Bureau of Statistics of the Nationalist Government at that time, in the "128" incident, Shanghai's direct losses were as high as 1.56 billion yuan, and the number of victims was about 800,000, accounting for about 45% of the total population of China. More than half of the factories in the war zone were destroyed, more than 70 percent of the shops were damaged, and more than 200 schools. The Commercial Press and the Oriental Library, located on Baoshan Road in the war zone, were destroyed in the incident. Shigemitsu Aoi, who was the Japanese minister to China at the time, later said in his memoirs that after the signing of the "Songhu Armistice Agreement," "public order in Shanghai had been restored, and the Japanese army would soon withdraw from Shanghai, and everything would be restored to its original state." The fact is that Zhabei, Wusong, Jiangwan and other places have not been able to "restore their original state" until half a century later, and cultural public welfare institutions such as the Oriental Library have disappeared forever.

Compared with the "128" incident, the "13 August" incident launched by the invading Japanese army after the "77" incident was even more devastating in its destruction of Shanghai. According to the "Declaration Yearbook", at that time, the equipment of 4,998 factories and workshops was destroyed, and the Zhabei area, where the war was most concentrated, suffered 100% industrial losses, 70% in Hongkou and Yangpu, and 30% in Nanshi. Although a large number of refugee shelters have been set up in the concession by various circles in Shanghai, among which the "Rao Jiaju Safe Zone" founded by one-armed priest Rao Jiaju in the southern urban area adjacent to the French Concession has resettled nearly 300,000 refugees, saving them from disease and cold, there are still a large number of refugees who have nowhere to shelter and are sleeping on the streets or in ruins, and those who die of illness, starvation, and freezing abound. In the incident, Zhabei was wiped out again, almost all shops, residences and factories were destroyed, Hengfeng Road, Gonghe Road and Datong Road were all scorched, and only a few incomplete houses on the banks of Suzhou Creek and a three-story building on Yutong Road remained. Once Shanghai's most vibrant urban industrial district, Zhabei has been transformed into a devastated and sparrow-infested wilderness after the war. An American who once made his home there said, "Not even the France I've seen [during the First World War] have been so completely destroyed." ”

The above list is only for direct losses caused by the war. After the Japanese occupation of China in November 1937, the Japanese army immediately launched a frenzied economic plunder, and those Chinese factories and enterprises that survived the war were once again looted. The Japanese army declared "military management" of industrial materials in the occupied areas, and a total of 76 Chinese enterprises were controlled. In just a few months, the Japanese army took control of most of Shanghai's coal, iron, salt, electricity, shipping, railways, tobacco, and other materials necessary for military and daily life, and "used Shanghai as a base to establish the foundation for the empire's economic development in Central China."

Before the outbreak of the Pacific War, although the concession on the south bank of Suzhou Creek had become "an isolated island, an oasis besieged by desolation, terror and barbarism", it was still relatively safe, and the industry and commerce in the Chinese community were rapidly concentrated in the concession, and the influx of a large number of refugees also stimulated the growth of consumer demand to a certain extent. According to statistics, at the end of 1937, there were only 442 factories in the public concession, which surged to 4,707 at the end of 1938, and 1,705 more in 1939. Others, such as import and export industries, department stores, financial industries, real estate industries, transportation industries, and construction industries, are also mostly expanding, making double profits.

However, after the Japanese army occupied the concession on December 8, 1941, the whole city of Shanghai fell, and the isolated island no longer prospered. The Japanese army "took over" all the large "hostile" enterprises, including the Shanghai Electric Power Company, the Shanghai Gas Company, and the British American Tobacco Factory, as well as 15 British and American banks, including HSBC, McQuarie, and Citigroup. On March 27, 1942, the Japanese army imposed military control over important industrial raw materials and their products, as well as rice, wheat, flour, and coal. The Japanese army occupied the Chinese commercial and industrial enterprises by means of "military management," "commissioned management," "Sino-Japanese joint ventures," and "lend-lease." Even more fatal, due to the war between Japan and Britain and the United States, the sea route was cut off, and Shanghai's source of raw materials and sales of industrial products immediately fell into crisis, and factories closed or stopped working. An expatriate once lamented in a personal letter: "What was once a hustle and bustle in Shanghai has now become silent. ”