Shanghai and Nanjing 1937: Massacre on the Yangtze

Osprey Campaign #309

by Benjamin Lai, Giuseppe Rava (Illustrator)

From 1931, China and Japan had been embroiled in a number of small-scale conflicts that had seen vast swathes of territory being occupied by the Japanese. On 7 July 1937, the Japanese engineered the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, which led to the fall of Beijing and Tianjin and the start of a de facto state of war between the two countries. This force then moved south, landing an expeditionary force to take Shanghai and from there drive west to capture Nanjing. This fully illustrated book tells the story of the Japanese assault on these two great Chinese cities. The battle of Shanghai was the first large-scale urban warfare of World War II and one of the bloodiest battles of the entire Sino-Japanese War. The determined resistance by Chinese inflicted sizable Japanese casualties, and may well have contributed to the subsequent massacre of prisoners and civilians in the battle of Nanjing, tarnishing Japan's reputation in the eyes of the world.

Genres: History, Military History, Japan, China, Nonfiction

96 pages, Paperback

Published June 20, 2017

Reviews

[Joe Krakovsky · Rating 5 out of 5]

SHANGHAI AND NANJING 1937 tells of the aggressive Japanese military actions that led to the all out war between Japan and China in 1937. Referred to as the 'China Incident' by those in Japan trying to rewrite history, this was not only the true beginning of WWII, but nearly brought about American involvement well before Pearl Harbor when they bombed and sank the USS Panay killing American sailors. In spite of the Japanese veneration of their emperor, the Japanese military stationed in China refused to listen to military orders emanating from Imperial Headquarters and were determined to conquer China. This became a case of the tail wagging the dog as their orders came after the fact. But conquering was not enough. They didn't just want to gain territory but, like the worst of the Nazis in Europe, to kill the inhabitants as well. Time and again when Japanese soldiers asked what to do with all the prisoners they captured they were told to simply kill them all. Among the guilty for this was Prince Asaka, who was spared by General Douglas MacArthur. There was also evidence that the Emperor himself shared in the blame, but was not punished either.

Basically what happened was the Japanese generals kept finding excuses to retaliate to questionable Chinese actions by conquering territory. This book is the story of the battles for the important Chinese port city of Shanghai and as well as Nanjing which was the Chinese capital at the time.

Foreign civilians played an important part in these battles. In Shanghai at the time was a large area known as the International Settlement where foreign business and government officials lived. Not only did they have a ringside seat to the battle and report it to the western press, but they provided sanctuary to thousands of Chinese soldiers and civilians trying to escape the massacres. But probably the noblest of all were the foreigners in Nanjing who didn't evacuate but stayed behind as the Japanese fought their way into the city. They provided sanctuary to the Chinese with their meager resources. Among the most famous of these heroes and heroines was the German John Rabe, who faced down murderous Japanese soldiers armed only with the talisman that was his swastika armband. He is still honored by the grateful Chinese and his former house is now a museum in China.

The ironic thing was that Rabe wasn't the only German in China. General Alexander von Falkenhausen was sent from Germany to serve as a military advisor to Chiang Kaishek. Aid was also sent in the form of military equipment. These 'Germanized' formations were among the best of Chiang's forces. This is not to say that the Chinese lacked men, and women, of valor. They just lacked enough good leaders and modern staff officers. They were also outnumbered in tanks, aircraft, and artillery.

Russia sent aid as well. Over 200 Soviet airmen died fighting the Japanese. In spite of their efforts they were not as successful or as well known as the American Flying Tigers who later followed them.

This is an excellent book which goes hand in hand with Iris Chang's THE RAPE OF NANKING.

Plenty of photos, tables of organizations, and maps are included. Of special interest is the short chapter on the battlefields today.

[Alexandru · Rating 2 out of 5]

One of the weaker Osprey books. There I waaay too much detail about unit names and numbers. There's several full pages of lists of unit numbers, that belongs in an online appendix, not taking up space in such a small book. There's so much of: 88th div moved here, 87th div moved there and so on. Very dry and not suitable.

The book Shanghai 1937 by Peter Harmsen on which a lot of this was based on was far better.

The only good thing about this book is the really detailed and well drawn maps. That was really the main reason I read this.

[James Crabtree · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book looks at what became the Shanghai-Nanjing Campaign, although neither the Japanese nor the Chinese particularly planned for a full-scale war at this time. Japanese militarists looked for an excuse to take the port of Shanghai and then expended their orders to also take the Chinese capital of Nanjing. The Japanese were undoubtedly well-motivated and by Asian standards well-equipped but the Chinese suffered from poor leadership and staff planning thanks to the warlords and the KMT. An interesting book on the rollup into WWII, as well as massacres that took place in Nanjing after it fell. Well-illustrated with photos, maps and original artwork.

[Austin · Rating 1 out of 5]

This work descends below the level of bad history into potential propaganda. The book's list of sources is pitifully short and makes little to no attempts to compare accounts of events between Chinese, Japanese, and neutral observers. One such example of such poor scrutiny over sources is the use of a photograph from the Shanghai Archive on page 36 depicting dead civilians labelled as "The results of Japanese aerial operations: the dead on Nanjing Road", when in fact those shown were killed in the infamous Chinese aerial bombardment on the Shanghai Bund known as "Bloody Saturday". Yet another example is the inflation of the Tokyo War Crime Tribunal's findings for those slain by the Japanese in the Nanking Massacre by an additional 100,000, while asserting this inflated figure was what said tribunal found. It is clear the author has read secondary sources making this erroneous claim and has never in fact read the actual Tokyo War Crime Tribunal's findings. I would not entirely contest using a higher death toll, but it is simply unacceptable to assert a figure while your alleged source clearly states otherwise. Throughout the whole work the author demonstrates a large degree of one-sideness, as key details and events from the Japanese side leading up to the Battle of Shanghai are largely omitted. To top it off there are number of editing errors as well, most glaring is the frequent misspellings of foreign names. Sadly yet another book on Asian History from Osprey Publishing that I can not recommend.

[Kevin · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good entry in the Osprey Campaign series. Does a pretty good job on Shanghai, probably could have left off Nanjing, there was just not enough room left to give it justice. definitely a good resource for the wargamer though.

[Victoria McCants · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very informative although sometimes too informative when it came to describing the layout of the battlefield I would find myself getting confused and bored of just reading lists of names and weaponry. However I learned a lot about the Sino-Japanese war and what transpired at Nanjing

[Terry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good history of a mostly unknown battle in the West. It was a bi, complex campaign,so at times the book is little more than a overview.

[Augusto Gobbi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great piece of work! Good illustrations and even better piece of history!

[Ron · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not obviously a military history from cover and listing.