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00:00When did World War II begin? That should be an easy question to answer.
00:07Americans would say December 7th, 1941, the day the Imperial Japanese Navy attacked the American Naval Base at Pearl Harbor,
00:16Hawaii.
00:17For Europeans, it was September 1st, 1939, when Nazi Germany invaded Poland.
00:26But in China, people will give you a different date, August 13th, 1937.
00:33That day, after a century of humiliation and six years of repeated incidents initiated by the Japanese military, China, at
00:43last, stood up.
00:45This act of defiance took place in Shanghai, the most international city in Asia.
00:51It was front-page news around the world.
00:56Today, the story is largely forgotten, except in China.
01:01The Battle of Shanghai has been described as the last battle of World War I and the first battle of
01:09World War II.
01:10It was a warning to the world, a warning that was ignored.
01:14And the place where the destiny of modern China was set in motion as well.
01:21Still, at its heart, this is a story of shattered lives and enduring dreams.
01:29For four long years, the people of China would stand alone against Japanese militarism.
01:35Everyone knows when World War II ended, but it all began in Shanghai, 1937.
01:47Shanghai is one of the most modern cities in the world, a global center of finance and trade.
01:53But there was another side to Shanghai, a place of neighborhoods and families, small businesses, and street life.
02:02These communities date back decades.
02:05In fact, if you look carefully, the buildings themselves sometimes tell the story of a time when Shanghai was a
02:14very different place.
02:18Shanghai in the 1930s was the best-known city in Asia, a city celebrated around the world.
02:25Shanghai of the 1930s was a city living in the past, present, and future.
02:30It was a Paris of the East to some, a place of unspeakable poverty to others.
02:35They were really able to live lives of luxury that they could never have afforded back home.
02:39Try and imagine a modern Western city dropped down into the middle of China.
02:44While Shanghai's residents were overwhelmingly Chinese, foreigners largely controlled the city's economy.
02:53The British, the Americans, the French, the Japanese, all of whom used the threat of military force to maintain their
03:04privileged positions.
03:06Foreigners controlled the very heart of Shanghai, areas called the French Concession and the International Settlement.
03:14Built along the banks of the Longpu River, a group of Art Deco buildings, collectively known as the Bun, represented
03:22the power and wealth of the city, just as they still do today.
03:26One section of central Shanghai was known as Little Tokyo, given the large number of Japanese residents and businesses.
03:35That included large textile mills that employed hundreds of Chinese workers.
03:42The Imperial Japanese Navy also had a significant presence, ostensibly to defend Japanese civilians and economic interests.
03:53Vast fortunes were made in Shanghai, but little of that wealth found its way to typical Chinese families, something those
04:02who grew up there remember vividly.
04:05They collect all the death bodies from the poor people, because it's very cold, and they were died, because of
04:17too cold.
04:18They collect them every day, 6 o'clock in the morning.
04:23I saw it with my own eyes, and I saw it also with my own eyes.
04:31That's quite a lot, not very few people, on the street try to sell their children.
04:42And just write a note, who can help my kids?
04:48Who wants my kids?
04:52Foreign children didn't fully understand the circumstances in which they lived.
04:57They just knew it was amazing.
05:00Patricia Silver is the daughter of a prominent American physician.
05:04It was a great life. It really was. I mean, talk about being spoiled.
05:08Oh, we were spoiled, rotten in every way you could think of.
05:11Lots of wonderful restaurants, all sorts of things to do.
05:14There's always something interesting going on.
05:17I mean, the British had flower shows, and there were exhibits of various kinds.
05:21And we had children.
05:22I had an older sister who was 2 1⁄2 years old, and we got dragged to everything.
05:26Polo matches in the summer, and racing, and oh, you name it, we did it.
05:31It was wonderful.
05:33Lillian Willans and her family were part of a community of stateless Russian Jews.
05:38Welcome to live in Shanghai, but unable to leave.
05:42She and her parents lived in the French concession, an area that decades later still has a special, even romantic,
05:51quality.
05:52Well, the French concession was a residential section of Shanghai, and it was very much like a French little small
06:02city out there.
06:04The stores were actually Russian-owned stores.
06:08People spoke Russian in the streets, or you spoke English, and the Chinese spoke to us in pidgin English.
06:16The language in Shanghai was British English, as I always mention it, language always follows trade.
06:25The French sport club was at the center of the social scene in 1930s Shanghai.
06:31Members and guests lived the good life, as did most expats, but all that would soon change.
06:39Japan, over the course of six decades, had begun to reinvent itself as a modern, technological society.
06:48The Japanese wondered why China hadn't done the same.
06:52They concluded China needed a tutor.
06:56Japan.
06:58Starting in 1931, Japanese military forces began to systematically occupy an ever-growing portion of northern China.
07:08The Imperial Japanese Army set up a series of what the Chinese called puppet governments, seemingly run by locals, but
07:17in fact, controlled by the Japanese military.
07:21In 1932, the Imperial Japanese Navy established an ongoing military presence in Shanghai.
07:29Thousands of naval infantrymen would be permanently stationed there.
07:35Largely ill-prepared and plagued by political and personal rivalries, there was little that the Chinese government,
07:43led by Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, from the eastern city of Nanjing, could do.
07:50The central government in Tokyo could not control what the Imperial Japanese Army did in China.
07:581889, Meiji Constitution specified that the emperor was the commander of the army and navy.
08:04And Japanese constitutional scholars interpreted this to mean that the military was free to assist the emperor in making military
08:16decisions.
08:17That freed them from any civilian control and gave them the right to bypass any civilian cabinet up to and
08:27including the prime minister.
08:28�戴就是給你所說的,羅勇教编一個日本的士兵所失踪了。其實那一天他是拉肚子了。所以等到他完事了以後
08:42,他的部隊已經往前走。所以後來這個士兵是回隊
08:43,找到了,沒事。但是日本就此發動了一個事變。
08:51So this happened in 7 months, it became a very big event,
08:56which is that the Beijing and the天津 were completely armed.
09:03Until the 8th of May, the Chinese government decided to defend it.
09:09So this is a background.
09:12The resistance started from Shanghai.
09:15Chiang Kai-shek led the KMT, or Chinese Nationalist Party.
09:20The KMT controlled China's central government.
09:24Mao Zedong led the Communist Party of China.
09:28These two rival forces had formed a united front,
09:31laying the foundation for China's national resistance to Japan's military occupation.
09:38One reason he goes for Shanghai rather than North China,
09:42because the focus of Japanese effort is in North China.
09:49They don't have any business.
09:51They really don't want to be fighting in Shanghai.
09:54It doesn't fit their strategy.
09:56Japan is mostly worried about the Soviet Union.
09:59So after the Marco Polo Bridge incident,
10:01they sent troops west, far west, to Taiwan and so on,
10:06trying to encircle the Soviet forces in Manchuria and create threats that way.
10:12So the weight of the Japanese effort is in North China.
10:17That means that in Shanghai there's going to be less resistance.
10:22There was no reason why Chiang Kai-shek wanted to confront the Japanese military in Shanghai.
10:27There was the presence of newspaper and radio correspondents from around the world.
10:33And this meant that it would take place in front of a global audience who would see that Chinese soldiers
10:40could and would fight.
10:43By early August 1937, thousands of Chinese troops were preparing to travel to Shanghai.
10:50Well-trained and well-equipped, they were the cream of the nationalist army.
10:57The helmets and uniforms of the best nationalist units looked remarkably like those of the German army.
11:04That's because they were trained by German military advisors.
11:08Much of the modern equipment used in China's munition factories came from Germany, too.
11:16Tens of thousands of Chinese refugees tried to flee to the presumed safety of the British-administered section of the
11:23International Settlement and to the French concession.
11:28But there wasn't room for everyone.
11:32On August 9th, 1937, the car of a Japanese naval officer was riddled with bullets, killing the officer and his
11:42driver.
11:44Soon, Japanese naval infantry began to reinforce their strong points and field positions in Shanghai.
11:52Events reenacted in a Japanese propaganda film produced by the famous Toho Motion Picture Studio.
12:00On Friday, August 13th, skirmishes broke out between Chinese and Japanese forces.
12:09General Zhang Zhejiang was a senior commander of the Chinese forces in Shanghai.
12:14While an official nation is handkerchief of the Kihak, the army had to be served for his soldiers in the
12:19war.
12:19After this, he said, if he died, he said that if he died of war,
12:25the military military would fight the nation's軍 force for the military,
12:31he was given to a blessing to do that.
12:31He should wear his military uniform from the military to carry on.
12:35Because he's prepared to wear his soldiers in the war,
12:51As for the Japanese, they were going to war without a coherent strategy, or even a clear
12:58idea of what they had started when they used military force in northern China.
13:04There was no plan for a protracted war with China.
13:08China for the Japanese military in 1937 was an afterthought.
13:12It was a strategic rear area.
13:14They knew they'd have to do something about it if they went after the Soviets in Manchuria.
13:19But insofar as detailed plans, especially for Shanghai, there really weren't any.
13:28In the West, the date Friday the 13th is said to attract bad luck.
13:34It certainly did on Friday, August 13th, 1937.
13:43So, 8月13日的上午9點15分, in today's South Korea, a place called天通安车站,
13:52and the military and China's防衛軍隊, and the military and the military and the military
13:58In the morning, the President of the United States called it to attack China to attack China.
14:06He said that he had to defend the war with the war with the war with the war with the
14:13war.
14:13The ensuing combat was bloodier and deadlier than either side ever imagined.
14:19In the first few hours, some of China's finest troops were cut down by Japanese machine gun and artillery fire.
14:28It was a story that would be repeated again and again in the Battle of Shanghai.
14:33Chinese flesh fighting Japanese steel.
14:38General Zhang Zhejiang later explained,
14:41Our initial plans were to take advantage of the Japanese weak points and advance.
14:47Not to conquer strong points.
14:50But the enemy blocked every street.
14:52And they were using armored cars as mobile strong points.
14:56So, in the end, we had to attack every target.
15:02Japanese naval vessels were soon shelling Shanghai's Chinese neighborhoods.
15:07Especially an area then called Chape.
15:09With little regard for civilian casualties.
15:14To young Lillian Willens, it was a terrible surprise.
15:19We were playing and suddenly we realized we heard the bombing going on.
15:24And, of course, after school we heard what was happening.
15:29I don't think we took it seriously, but later on I heard about the bobbing and we climbed to the
15:3810th floor of our buildings because nothing was higher than 10th floor.
15:42We could see the smoke from Chape.
15:44And it became just like a party for many of the people around there watching the fight, the smoke coming
15:54from Shanghai, not realizing that people could have been killed.
15:57Frank Rawlinson loved China, too.
16:01He arrived there as a missionary and was on the board of the prestigious Shanghai American School.
16:07An American-style prep school operating in the middle of the city on the brink of becoming a battlefield.
16:15I do not like war, I think it is unchristian, yet I don't know what else China can do to
16:24resist Japan unless she wants to become practically a Japanese colony.
16:29Thousands of foreigners, especially teachers and health professionals, came to China in the 1920s and 1930s to help its people.
16:41With fighting now underway in Shanghai, Sun Meilin, the wife of Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek, appealed to a retired
16:50U.S. Army aviator named Claire Li Chenow to devise a counterattack by China's fledgling air force.
16:58That attack would go terribly wrong.
17:02On Saturday afternoon, August 14th, 1937, masses of people fleeing Japanese gunfire jammed the streets of Shanghai.
17:13Frank Rawlinson and his family were driving through the French concession when they encountered a large crowd near an entertainment
17:20complex called the Great World Entertainment Center.
17:24He stepped out of his car to see what was going on.
17:28Overhead, Chinese aircraft appeared all day long.
17:32They had been bombing Japanese targets on the ground as well as Japanese naval vessels in the Huangpu River.
17:37They were part of the retaliatory mission designed by Claire Chenow.
17:41But for whatever reason, virtually all the bombs missed their targets.
17:48Instead, they hit fashionable areas like the cafe and the palace hotels on the Shanghai waterfront, as well as the
17:56Great World Entertainment Center in the French concession, where food was being distributed to Chinese refugees.
18:02Frank Rawlinson died in his wife's arms.
18:06Frank Rawlinson died in his wife's arms.
18:07Three other Americans died that day as well.
18:10When it came to air power, the Japanese military enjoyed significant advantages.
18:16Its carrier-based fighters and bombers, in addition to land-based aircraft, far outnumbered the still-infant Chinese air force.
18:26We lived about a half a mile from the railroad, and the Japanese were periodically trying to bomb the railroad.
18:32So as a child, I can remember that awful sound of a plane, you know, diving.
18:36Nowadays, they'd just drop it, but in those days, they dove in.
18:39And we had a porch in our house on the third floor.
18:43We used to have tea in the afternoon.
18:44And one time, we saw this plane was coming in, dive-bombing, and my governor said, come on, we've got
18:50to go inside.
18:51But I was dragging my feet, and I looked up, and here I could see the pilot in the plane.
18:56He dropped the bombs on the railroad.
19:03It was all part of an era in which brutality was regularly on display.
19:09Leading up to the eventual occupation of the international settlement by Japanese troops, four years later.
19:17Lillian Willen's cousin, Ronald Morris, never forgot.
19:22There was a lot of slaughter.
19:24My cousin Mike and I, we were scared to death.
19:29We saw a lot of bad.
19:31We saw a lot of hunger.
19:33We saw the Chinese wrapped around a tree, and the bark off the tree, you know.
19:39They were being bayoneted, children being bayoneted.
19:48Yeah, it was pretty bad.
19:50Imperial Japanese Navy bombers, from as far away as Taiwan and Japan itself,
19:58pounded not just Shanghai, but targets as far away as China's capital, Nanjing, 185 miles to the west.
20:07These trans-oceanic bombing missions were a first, and offered a preview of the long-range missions the United States
20:16would later use to decimate Japan itself.
20:21The fact that Shanghai was home to radio and print reporters, as well as photographers and newsreel cameramen from around
20:30the world,
20:31meant that Japan's war on China received international coverage.
20:37For the first time, thanks to so-called newsreel films, it was possible for movie audiences to actually see battles
20:48happening.
20:49Yet Japan still refused to acknowledge what was really happening, calling the events in Shanghai yet another incident.
20:58A telegram to the American State Department from the Japanese Foreign Ministry assured that there would be no disruption of
21:07American maritime trade to and from China as no war exists.
21:16Thousands of Imperial Japanese Army troops were dispatched by military leaders in Tokyo to support the naval infantry already fighting
21:26in Shanghai.
21:26They also provided the tools of war, some of which had four legs.
21:33Lieutenant General Matsui Iwane, who had been called out of retirement, was placed in command.
21:40A significant number of the new troops were reservists, also brought out of retirement.
21:46The problem was, the regulars are 18 to 20 years old, they're tough young kids, they're single, there are no
21:53responsibilities, that's one thing.
21:55The reservists are older, they're in their mid-twenties, someone into their early thirties, depending.
22:01They're married men, they have wives, they have children, they have jobs, they have responsibilities.
22:10And, let's face it, they're not as well trained.
22:12Matsui Iwane cautioned his commanders about what they might well encounter when they arrived.
22:20Watch out for Chinese soldiers disguised as civilians.
22:24You have to be careful with the water and farm products you requisition.
22:29Make sure they are not poisoned by the Chinese.
22:32In other words, Japanese troops had his permission to regard any and all Chinese as possible combatants or saboteurs.
22:41and should act accordingly.
22:44On August 23rd, Japanese forces made two amphibious landings north of Shanghai.
22:51It was from there that the fresh troops began a long, exhausting journey through marshes and farmland.
22:58Their progress was often slowed by a seemingly endless number of creeks and canals.
23:03They also encountered strong Chinese resistance.
23:30By now, the battle of Shanghai could in some ways be called the last battle of World War I.
23:36Lessons that have been learned about a generation earlier during these huge, epic World War I battles in France were
23:44put into practice now in China.
23:46Well-trained and well-equipped Chinese forces were prepared to meet the oncoming onslaught from the Japanese.
23:52And for the Japanese, what this meant was deadly results.
23:56Some of them would even afterwards give the Battle of Shanghai the name the German War.
24:01Here, the Japanese apparently had no idea of either the nature, the strength, or the depth of these fortifications.
24:13You can read some of the accounts of Japanese veterans, and they're talking about moving forward against a village.
24:21And they're taking heavy losses and they can't figure it out.
24:24And they finally break into the village and discover, really, it's not a village.
24:27It's a series of pillboxes constructed by the Germans.
24:29And the Germans trained and equipped the Chinese to fight exactly that kind of a battle.
24:34The Battle of Shanghai might also be called the First Battle of World War II.
24:41At the same time, a little bit closer to the central areas of Shanghai, strategies and tactics were put into
24:48practice
24:48that were the basis of stunning Soviet victories over Nazi Germany.
24:53For example, at Stalingrad in 1943.
24:55For better or worse, this was really the birth of modern urban warfare.
25:01It would be, you could say, it would be the template for World War II in Europe.
25:04Troops battled street to street, block to block, house to house.
25:10Walls were smashed so that soldiers could move building to building unobserved.
25:16All later reenacted for Japanese propaganda films, sometimes by the troops who had fought in the original battle.
25:24What, to the untrained eye, was simply rubble, in fact, proved to be the perfect cover for snipers and machine
25:33gun squads.
25:34Remarkably, not far away, life in the foreign enclaves continued somewhat close to normal, even as fighting raged.
25:42Although accommodations certainly had to be made, and common sense precautions taken.
25:49Some foreigners felt immune to all that was going on.
25:53Others decided it was time to leave.
25:56Wives and children had the top priority, with American and European warships assigned the task of evacuating them.
26:05Several thousand left Shanghai this way, but their departure wasn't always easy.
26:10The cruiser USS Augusta was taking civilian refugees on board in late August 1937, when a shell struck the ship.
26:20Eighteen American sailors were hit by artillery fire.
26:24One, Seaman First Class Freddie John Fagot, of Raceland, Louisiana, was killed.
26:32An investigation later concluded he had been killed by a Japanese shell.
26:37His funeral was front-page news in American newspapers.
26:42Then he was forgotten.
26:45Only decades later, it was realized that Freddie John Fagot was likely the first American serviceman to be killed in
26:53the struggle that eventually became World War II.
26:56Still, at least in China, and in Chinese communities around the world,
27:04the courage of the Chinese troops fighting in Shanghai prompted a new sense of pride.
27:30But the Chinese forces were at a continuing disadvantage.
27:34Early in the conflict, General John Zhejiang had sent a secret cable to Chiang Kai-shek.
27:40These days, the Japanese planes are very active.
27:45They bomb all day without interruption.
27:48During the day, our troops are pinned down.
27:51The enemy's planes pose a great threat to us.
27:54On August 26th, 1937, Japanese aircraft flew 16 individual missions.
28:03On August 27th, they flew 29.
28:08The following day, they flew 68.
28:12Armored vehicles were another example of the overwhelming advantage enjoyed by the Japanese.
28:40The Japanese forces were suffering too.
28:43A fact acknowledged even in propaganda films and newsreels.
28:49The ashes of thousands of dead Japanese soldiers were transported back to their homeland and families.
28:57Companies that should have been, say, 200 men were down to 30 men.
29:01Their officers were all dead.
29:03And most of the NCOs were killed or wounded.
29:06Corporals were leading companies.
29:08As one reporter described it, it was bloodthirstiness in the streets.
29:13What he described was, if you can imagine it, a street in Shittamachi, the working-class neighborhoods of Tokyo.
29:22Blue-collar workers.
29:24And walking down the street, you'd see death notices pinned to the doors of homes along the street.
29:32And just all of these fluttering death notices.
29:34It was very clear what was going on.
29:38And he said, you know, the emotion was so passionate, it verged on just bloodthirstiness.
29:45There is so much damage all around China.
29:49So many people have died.
29:51The sacrifices are so huge.
29:53The anger is so huge that no politician could have gotten away with saying,
29:59oh, well, let's just accept a Japanese occupation of Beijing and Tianjin and leave it at that.
30:06Told they would enjoy a quick, easy victory in China, Japanese soldiers soon discovered otherwise.
30:14They took out their frustration on Chinese civilians.
30:17You, Chinese, made our brothers die in this terrible way.
30:22We'll make you pay.
30:24It's because of you that we've come to fight and suffer.
30:28You wanted this war?
30:29It's your fault.
30:32In Japan, as wooden boxes carrying the ashes of dead soldiers were brought home from China,
30:39virtually no one talked about peace.
30:42Instead, the talk was of revenge.
30:47In China, compromise was unthinkable as well.
30:52Chiang Kai-shek saw victory in terms of holding territory.
30:56In North China, communist-led forces took a different approach,
31:01fighting a guerrilla war against the Japanese,
31:04employing techniques Mao Zedong would later term mobile warfare.
31:11Mao's guerrilla warfare is not just, you know,
31:14small units taking on, sort of having potshots at Japanese policemen and installations.
31:20No, no, it's much more sophisticated.
31:23It is going into the rear of the Japanese,
31:25building up these base areas with new government, new laws,
31:30sometimes new currencies,
31:32sustaining a Red Army, Eighth Root Army as it's called at this time,
31:37that can operate outside of the base,
31:39but also local guerrilla forces, local militia,
31:43and sort of middle-level units that can operate throughout that base area.
31:47It was a preview of the tactics
31:49that communist forces would repeatedly utilize against the Japanese,
31:55and a decade later,
31:56against the nationalist forces of Chiang Kai-shek in the Chinese Civil War.
32:02General Matsui Iwane,
32:04the senior officer overseeing Japanese military activities in the Shanghai region,
32:10proved to be a rigid, ineffective, and overconfident commander.
32:16What happens is, of course,
32:18he sends, he commits troops in a frontal assault against fortifications.
32:21They are bloodied.
32:23They suffer terrible losses.
32:25And the high command commits more troops.
32:28His tactics don't change.
32:30He still keeps hammering against these fortifications
32:33and shows no inclination to change tactics.
32:40The common thread is they blame the soldiers
32:43for not having enough Japanese spirit to crush the Chinese.
32:46Chinese leader Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek
32:49demonstrated the opposite problem.
32:52He was conflicted and uncertain,
32:55writing in his diary,
32:57should we mass our troops and fight in Shanghai?
33:01Or should we withdraw inland
33:02and gather strength for protracted resistance?
33:19One thing Chiang was certain of, however,
33:22was the need for a change in leadership.
33:25He took personal command of his armies,
33:27relieving General Zhang Zhejiang
33:29of his duties as commander of the 9th Army Group.
33:35Facing overwhelming pressure from the Japanese forces,
33:39in late October,
33:40a general withdrawal was ordered
33:42of all Chinese troops
33:44north of what was then called Sujo Creek.
33:48The creek,
33:49actually more a river in places,
33:51which runs through western Shanghai,
33:53was the last natural barrier
33:56between the Japanese infantry
33:57and the very heart of the city.
34:02For symbolic reasons,
34:05Chiang Kai-shek remained determined
34:07to hold onto a portion,
34:09however small,
34:10of central Shanghai,
34:12north of the Sujo Creek.
34:14The Sihang Warehouse
34:15is where the Chinese troops
34:17would make their stand.
34:19Today, the building is a museum
34:21honoring the 400 men
34:23who held off a veritable army.
34:27Those soldiers are known in China
34:29as the 800 heroes,
34:31the result of misinformation
34:33sent out by the commander of the force,
34:35who wanted to keep secret
34:37how few men were actually defending the building.
34:41Located directly adjacent
34:43to the international settlement,
34:44foreign diplomats and reporters
34:47would witness for themselves
34:48the courage and resolve
34:50of Chinese soldiers.
34:52The commander chosen,
34:54Lieutenant Colonel Xie Jin-yuan,
34:57understood that he and his men
34:59were embarking
34:59on what seemed to be a suicide mission.
35:22Once again, the battle of Shanghai
35:25was in the headlines
35:26around the world.
35:28And once again,
35:29the world offered
35:31little more than sympathy.
35:33The 800 heroes
35:34had been fighting off
35:35superior Japanese forces
35:37over and over again,
35:38but at last,
35:39they were allowed to withdraw.
35:41On November 1st,
35:42in ones and twos,
35:43they ran across a railway bridge
35:45through withering machine gun fire
35:46to the safety
35:47of the international settlement.
35:49There, they abandoned their weapons,
35:51and then they surrendered
35:52to British troops
35:53and were sent
35:54to an internment camp
35:55since Britain was a neutral party
35:57in the conflict.
35:59Crowds of Shanghainese
36:00gathered to cheer the soldiers
36:03of the 88th Division
36:04as they were driven away,
36:06following a moral,
36:08if not a strategic, victory.
36:10Meanwhile,
36:12Shanghai's refugee crisis
36:14continued to worsen
36:16as tens of thousands
36:18of people sought shelter.
36:19Their misery was compounded
36:21by a cholera epidemic.
36:24Catholic priest
36:25Robert Jacono de Vissange
36:27had earlier suggested
36:28the establishment
36:29of what he called
36:31a safety zone,
36:32a place near his church
36:34where Chinese civilians
36:36could find shelter
36:37from the conflict
36:38raging around them.
36:40By early November, 1937,
36:43the Japanese Consul General,
36:46as well as military commanders,
36:48approved the idea.
36:50It immediately became home
36:52to an estimated
36:53100,000 refugees.
36:56It was also a model
36:57for the protection of civilians
36:59in other urban battles.
37:01Father Jacono proudly told visitors,
37:05the Japanese have not gained entry here,
37:08and the only flags
37:09that fly over this place
37:11are the French flag
37:13and the standard
37:14of the Red Cross.
37:16However,
37:17appearing in Japanese propaganda films
37:20was part of the price
37:21that Father Jacono paid
37:23to protect the people of Shanghai.
37:26It is thanks to the Japanese authorities
37:30and to the Japanese army
37:32that we have been able
37:34to do something
37:35that will be also repeated
37:38in the whole world.
37:40With at least a portion
37:42of Shanghai's civilian population
37:44now protected,
37:45it was an opportune moment
37:47for Chinese forces
37:48to withdraw.
37:50But once again,
37:52Chiang Kai-shek
37:53couldn't decide.
37:56Changing conditions
37:57on the ground
37:58made the decision for him.
38:01And the Japanese,
38:03needing to force a decision,
38:06then launched
38:06a second amphibious operation
38:08to the south of Shanghai
38:10in what is Hangzhou Bay,
38:12which is not well protected.
38:14The nationalist intelligence
38:16doesn't expect this to happen.
38:19And then what then threatens,
38:21actually,
38:22and what creates panic
38:23on the nationalist side
38:25is what threatens
38:26is that Shanghai,
38:28all nationalist troops
38:29in Shanghai
38:30would be surrounded
38:31by Japanese forces.
38:33They all would be trapped
38:34and would be destroyed.
38:36So then there's panic
38:38and nationalist forces
38:39break back.
38:40They break through
38:41before they become trapped
38:42in that encirclement.
38:44And they do break out
38:46despite great losses
38:48and, of course,
38:50enormous amount of chaos.
38:52Shanghai was doomed.
38:55Chiang Kai-shek wrote
38:56in his diary
38:56that not defending
38:58Hangzhou Bay
38:59was our biggest
39:01strategic mistake.
39:03November 9th
39:04saw Chinese forces
39:06finally begin
39:07to withdraw from Shanghai,
39:09moving west
39:10towards the city of Suzhou.
39:12But soon,
39:13the retreat
39:14became a rout.
39:16Uncertain leadership,
39:17along with the inability
39:18to counter Japan's
39:20complete dominance
39:21of the air,
39:22would lead to panic.
39:23On November 11th, 1937,
39:27Shanghai's mayor
39:28declared the city lost.
39:31The following year,
39:33Chiang Kai-shek
39:33noted in his diary,
39:34while we were exhausted,
39:37I reinforced Shanghai
39:39and stuck to resistance.
39:42We were totally defeated.
39:45It was my fault.
39:46With the end of combat,
39:48an uneasy calm
39:50descended over Shanghai.
39:52Amateur filmmakers
39:53explored the now
39:55quiet battlefields.
39:57They found
39:58the discarded tools of war.
40:01Lillian Willen's father,
40:03an insurance salesman,
40:05drove to the
40:06Chape area
40:07of Shanghai
40:08to assess the damage.
40:10He took his daughter
40:11with him.
40:12When we went there,
40:13I was shocked to see.
40:14Buildings broken,
40:16everything was broken down,
40:17shattered,
40:18and people in the streets.
40:20So there was
40:22a little store
40:23and I saw
40:23a gleaming white bicycle
40:25and I told my father,
40:27I'm going to take it.
40:28He said,
40:29absolutely not.
40:30Someone,
40:31it owned someone
40:32by someone
40:32and the person
40:34could have been killed.
40:35And I think then
40:36I realized
40:37what death meant.
40:38I was 10 years old.
40:40Nanjing,
40:41China's capital city,
40:42was now the target.
40:44No one seemed
40:45to notice
40:46that the Imperial
40:47Japanese Army
40:48had failed
40:49to fulfill
40:50its primary mission
40:51in Shanghai,
40:52to destroy
40:53China's armies
40:54and with it,
40:55China's will to fight,
40:57a mistake
40:58that would be repeated
40:59again and again
41:01for the next
41:02eight years.
41:04The Japanese
41:05could never quite
41:06pull off
41:07their decisive victory.
41:08They tried
41:09in North China,
41:10they thought
41:11they could clean it up
41:12really quickly
41:12and indeed
41:13they scored
41:13military victory
41:14after military victory
41:15and got nothing
41:16in exchange
41:17except more territory
41:18which they couldn't
41:20possibly occupy
41:21because it was so vast.
41:22The advance
41:23towards Nanjing
41:24was even more brutal
41:25than what had just
41:26taken place
41:27in Shanghai.
41:28Author and historian
41:29Peter Harmsen
41:30reads from the diary
41:32of one Japanese soldier.
41:35We'd take all the men
41:36behind the houses
41:37and kill them
41:37with bayonets
41:38and knives.
41:40Then we'd log up
41:41the women and children
41:42in a single house
41:42and rape them at night.
41:44I didn't do that myself
41:45but I think
41:46the other soldiers
41:47did quite a bit
41:48of raping.
41:48Then before we left
41:50the next morning
41:50we'd kill all the women
41:52and children
41:52and to top it off
41:53we'd set fire
41:54to the houses
41:55so that even if
41:56anyone came back
41:57they wouldn't have
41:58a place to live.
41:59The Japanese military
42:01was imposing
42:02a strategy
42:02that would later
42:03be termed
42:04kill all,
42:05burn all,
42:07loot all.
42:07I don't think
42:09that the Japanese
42:11enlisted soldier
42:12became a rapacious
42:14villain independently.
42:16I think officers
42:17looked the other way
42:18or in some cases
42:20encouraged that kind
42:22of conduct
42:22because they felt
42:23well it releases
42:24pressure
42:24and provides
42:26an outlet for them.
42:27They were burning
42:28so much
42:29that some officers
42:30said well look
42:30if we're here
42:31for the winter
42:31we need the shelter
42:32so stop it
42:33and it stopped.
42:35I think when they
42:36were told
42:36when they were ordered
42:37to do things
42:37they did it
42:38and when they
42:39were allowed
42:40to do things
42:41they did them
42:42as well.
42:43Confusing
42:43and contradictory
42:44orders from
42:45Chiang Kai-shek
42:46contributed
42:47to an ineffective
42:48defense of
42:49Nanjing.
42:51On December 13th
42:52the capital
42:53of the Republic
42:54of China
42:54officially fell.
42:56The Japanese
42:57troops occupying
42:58the city
42:59went on a rampage
43:00of rape and murder
43:01that lasted weeks.
43:04American educator
43:05Minnie Vautrin
43:05witnessed it
43:07all at
43:07Jinling Women's College.
43:09She wrote
43:10in her diary
43:11There probably
43:12is no crime
43:13that has not been
43:14committed in this
43:14city today.
43:16Thirty girls
43:17were taken
43:17from language school
43:18last night
43:19and today
43:20I have heard
43:21scores of
43:21heartbreaking stories
43:22of girls
43:23who were taken
43:23from their homes
43:24last night.
43:25One of the girls
43:26was but 12 years old.
43:28Food,
43:29betting,
43:29and money
43:30have been taken
43:31from people.
43:32I suspect
43:33every house
43:33in the city
43:34has been opened
43:34again and yet again
43:35and robbed.
43:37Tonight a truck
43:37passed in which
43:38there are eight or ten
43:39girls and as it
43:40passed they called
43:41out,
43:42Xiu Ming,
43:43Xiu Ming,
43:45save our lives.
43:47Americans wanted
43:48no part of a war
43:49in China
43:49or anywhere else.
43:53Isolationism,
43:53an overwhelming
43:54belief in America
43:56first,
43:57summed up the
43:57attitudes of many
43:59in the United States.
44:01Another war,
44:02not for me.
44:02This time America
44:03should keep out
44:04and I know
44:04I will.
44:05And all our efforts
44:07should be made
44:07to keep out
44:08of the fight.
44:09The United States
44:10actually reduced
44:11military aid
44:13to China
44:13after the fall
44:15of Nanjing.
44:16China would have
44:17to fend for itself.
44:18For four long years,
44:20China stood alone.
44:23Then,
44:23We interrupt this broadcast
44:25to bring you
44:25this important bulletin
44:26from the United States.
44:27Flash,
44:28Washington,
44:28the White House
44:29announces
44:30Japanese attack
44:31on Pearl Harbor.
44:32British,
44:33American,
44:34Australian,
44:35and Dutch citizens,
44:36like the children
44:37who attended
44:38the Shanghai
44:39American School,
44:40were now
44:41enemy nationals.
44:44Eventually,
44:45entire families
44:46were sent
44:46to brutal
44:47civilian prison camps.
44:49And there were times
44:50there I seen
44:51different people
44:53being slapped around
44:54by the Japanese
44:55for whatever,
44:57I don't know
44:57the reasons.
44:58And I know
44:59my mom was slapped
45:00around a couple,
45:01three times.
45:02there in the hallway.
45:03Japs would take
45:05a body count.
45:08And I remember
45:10my mom didn't
45:11wake me up
45:12to stand in line
45:16for the body count.
45:18Japs went in there
45:19and just grabbed me
45:20and hauled me
45:21out of bed.
45:21My mom tried
45:22to intercept
45:24and they knocked
45:25her around.
45:26the world.
45:26Still,
45:27as badly
45:28as foreigners
45:29were treated,
45:30the Chinese fared
45:31far,
45:32far worse.
45:34The story
45:35of what were
45:35euphemistically
45:36called comfort women,
45:38women forced
45:39into sexual servitude
45:40by the Japanese military,
45:42is a vivid example
45:43of the brutality
45:44of the Japanese
45:46occupation of Shanghai.
45:48Government
45:49sanctioned brothels
45:50were established
45:50for use
45:51by Japanese
45:53soldiers
45:53and sailors.
45:54from people's
45:56history.
45:58From people's
46:00they were
46:00forced to
46:02become a
46:02female-carnic
46:02a female-carnic
46:03And it was
46:05so large,
46:05there were
46:05hundreds of
46:06million people.
46:07This is the
46:08first
46:09in people's
46:10history.
46:11It was
46:22Following America's entry into the war against Japan, the United States supplied China with hundreds of millions of dollars of
46:32military aid, but most of it did not arrive until late 1944 and 1945.
46:39No American ground units were ever sent to fight in China, and some of the American trained and equipped Chinese
46:49units were sent to help liberate Burma, a British colony.
46:54By August 1945, an estimated 1 million Japanese troops were stationed in China.
47:04If China had surrendered, many of those troops would likely have been sent to places like Iwo Jima and Okinawa.
47:11How many more Americans would have died if not for the sacrifices made by their Chinese counterparts?
47:19For the Japanese military, the end came suddenly, unexpectedly, totally.
47:27Now it was the Japanese who were the prisoners, and the Allies who held a victory parade in Shanghai.
47:35American military personnel were there in abundance.
47:40China's other wartime Allies were honored, too.
47:44Many foreigners believed Shanghai would return to what they thought was normal, but the world had changed.
47:52I always see my own eyes, the military ships from American and Britain, down on the river of Pu-Huanpu.
48:05Huampu.
48:06And on the street, always navies and MPs.
48:11I said, I asked you, why? The Japanese have left us.
48:14And why you come here? What for?
48:17And it's not me. I asked me, why?
48:22Because I said, this is our fatherland. This is my own land.
48:27We do not meet other help.
48:30The war provided the Communist Party of China with the opportunity to not only build a powerful army,
48:37but also introduce a new consciousness, a different vision of what it meant to live, work, and be Chinese.
48:47A new China was being born, one that had little need for foreigners, Japanese, European, or American.
48:57It would be decades before foreigners would once again play a role in China's economy or find a place in
49:05the life of Shanghai.
49:07The lives of the leading figures in the Battle of Shanghai were forever changed, just as China was.
49:15In 1945, Chiang Kai-shek was the leader of a fractured, devastated country.
49:21The Chinese Civil War was again underway.
49:23Eventually, the defeated nationalists fled to the island province of Taiwan.
49:30Chiang would live out his life in what was the last holdout of the Republic of China.
49:35He died there in 1975.
49:39Matsui Iwane was arrested, charged, and tried for war crimes.
49:44Found guilty, he was sentenced to death.
49:48Matsui Iwane was executed in 1948.
49:52Chiang Kai-shek, the commander of the 800 heroes, became an internee in the officially neutral British-run international settlement.
50:02Assassins, believed to be working for the Japanese military, murdered him there.
50:08Minnie Vautrin is revered in China for her heroism during the rape of Nanjing.
50:13But she never recovered from her experiences.
50:17Distraught and depressed, she committed suicide in 1941.
50:23Zhang Zhejiang would continue to serve as a general in Chiang Kai-shek's army.
50:29He was one of the few nationalist generals who did not flee to Taiwan.
50:33In the 1950s, he served as vice chairman of the People's Republic of China's National Defense Commission and was a
50:42member of the National People's Congress.
50:45He died in 1969.
50:46Claire Lee Chennault, the architect of the plan that saw Chinese aircraft mistakenly drop their bombs on innocent civilians in
50:561937,
50:58would find redemption as the commander of the American Volunteer Group, better known as the Flying Tigers.
51:05While the unit was considered a part of the Chinese military, it was secretly funded by the United States government
51:13in order to circumvent America's strict neutrality laws.
51:18That fiction was discarded after Pearl Harbor.
51:22In early 1942, the AVG provided virtually the only good news coming out of East Asia.
51:29America was transfixed by the Flying Tigers.
51:33An estimated 20,000 Jewish refugees made their way from Europe to Shanghai, escaping near a certain death in the
51:41Holocaust.
51:43Shanghai's Jewish Refugee Museum tells the story of their flight and survival, as well as that of Shanghai's other Jewish
51:52communities.
51:53Following the war, many made their way to Israel.
51:56Others, like Lillian Willans, were eventually allowed to enter the United States.
52:03She went on to teach French at prestigious American universities.
52:07She is also an author and a lecturer.
52:10When she returned to China years later, she found a country utterly transformed.
52:16I was quite taken aback when I finally decided to go there.
52:21There were no more beggars.
52:22There was no poverty in the streets.
52:24They may be poorly dressed.
52:26That was 1990, if I have to calculate the date.
52:30And I was quite amazed because when I left China, there was nothing, absolutely poverty, beggars, no industry, nothing.
52:44And then when I went back repeatedly, I was taken aback completely.
52:49Hundred-story buildings, the highest I had ever seen was 20 stories in Shanghai.
52:54Still, it would be a mistake to dismiss old Shanghai as simply a place of foreign exploitation.
53:03There certainly were times of sharing, compassion, and even love.
53:08The bond between foreign children and their Chinese amma, or nurse, was strong.
53:14Yet war would sweep all of those relationships aside.
53:19The Battle of Shanghai really shaped, and continues to shape, Chinese attitudes and beliefs.
53:25It marked the first time that many people in China felt an allegiance to a Chinese nation state,
53:30as opposed to a region, or a province, or a city.
53:33It also offers a lesson on how, from a Chinese perspective,
53:36other countries may speak out on behalf of China, in support of China, but they won't necessarily act.
53:42At the same time, the battle reinforced territorial sovereignty as the foundation that all other policies are built on.
53:50Shanghai today is once again prosperous.
53:53Even the casual observer can recognize the signs of growing affluence.
53:57The city is helping to set the pace, as China pivots to a more consumer-driven economy.
54:04In fact, the city and its people are more successful than ever before, but with important differences.
54:13Today, Shanghai is a Chinese city run by the Chinese.
54:19Foreigners once more flock to Shanghai.
54:22In fact, there are so many, an entire industry has emerged to meet their needs.
54:28But now, the balance of power is different.
54:32Many work for Chinese companies, under a system described as socialism, with Chinese characteristics, for a new era.
54:42None of this would have been possible, without the events that took place in Shanghai, 1937.
54:56He wants to take revenge by forgiving.
55:00PBS America follows a formerly imprisoned and officially exonerated alleged al-Qaeda terrorist
55:06on his search for his tormentors in In Search of Monsters.
55:11Next.
55:12Next.
55:13Next.
55:27Next.
55:33Next.
55:34You
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