Battle of Shanghai (1932)

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Battle of Shanghai
Japanese troops in burning Shanghai
Japanese troops in burning Shanghai
date January 28 to May 5, 1932
place Shanghai , Republic of China
output Armistice agreed
Parties to the conflict

China Republic 1928Republic of China (1912–1949) China

Japanese EmpireJapanese Empire Japan

Commander

China Republic 1928Republic of China (1912–1949) Jiang Guangnai Cai Tingkai Zhang Zhizhong
China Republic 1928Republic of China (1912–1949)
China Republic 1928Republic of China (1912–1949)

Japanese EmpireJapanese Empire Shiozawa Kōichi Nomura Kichisaburō Ueda Kenkichi Shirakawa Yoshinori
Japanese EmpireJapanese Empire
Japanese EmpireJapanese Empire
Japanese EmpireJapanese Empire

Troop strength
19th Army of the
5th Army
Shanghai Expeditionary Army
losses

approx. 13,000

exact numbers unknown

approx. 13,000 civilians

The Battle of Shanghai , also known as the Shanghai Incident , was a brief conflict between Japan and China in early 1932 that was in the broader context of the Manchurian Crisis . It began on January 28th and ended on May 5th with a League of Nations- brokered ceasefire that declared Shanghai a demilitarized zone .

Naming

In Chinese literature on the subject, the term “incident of January 28” ( Chinese  一 · 二八 事变  /  一 · 二八 事变 , Pinyin Yī Èrbā Shìbiàn ) is mostly used for the conflict , while in the West terms such as “Shanghai War of 1932 ”or“ Sino-Japanese War of 1932 ”are common. In Japan the conflict is known as the “First Shanghai Incident” ( Japanese 第 第 上海 事 変 , Dai-ichi-ji Shanhai jiken ), alluding to the “ Second Shanghai Incident ” of 1937.

background

As one of the “ contractual ports ” and gateway to the outside world, Shanghai played an important role in Chinese economic life. The foreign concessions had led to an enormous economic boom at the beginning of the 20th century. Japanese companies such as Zaibatsu Mitsui , Japanese banks, trading companies and cotton mills were also located in the city and benefited from the favorable framework conditions. Between 26,000 and 30,000 Japanese lived in the city in the early 1930s, primarily in the district known as “Little Tokyo”.

In July 1931, before the beginning of the Manchuria crisis , the Kuomintang government, based in Nanjing not far from Shanghai, launched an anti-Japanese boycott after a minor incident over land rights in Japanese-occupied Korea ( Wanpaoshan incident ) had come, which, however, had strongly fueled nationalist emotions. The deeper background was probably the strong competitive pressure on the Chinese economy, especially in the textile industry, from Japanese companies. Such boycotts had already taken place several times before, but in 1931 it spread to Manchuria and had significant aftermath. In the face of the Mukden incident provoked by Japan and the ensuing international crisis in which Japan occupied all of Manchuria, the Chinese in Shanghai continued their calls for boycotts until 1932. Again and again there were armed incidents between the boycott supporters, who, among other things, confiscated Japanese goods, and Japanese naval troops and consular officers stationed in Shanghai .

In addition, there were strong internal Chinese rivalries at this time for the leadership of the Kuomintang (KMT), which intensified after the Japanese occupation of Manchuria in September and led Chiang Kai-shek to resign from his leadership positions in mid-December 1931 . A " Cantonese faction" around Wang Jingwei , Sun Fo and Eugene Chen temporarily took power and intensified anti-Japanese rhetoric. Three divisions of the National Revolutionary Army were withdrawn from operations against the communists in Jiangxi Province and relocated to the capital Nanjing area. These formed the basis for the 19th March Army , which would later mainly lead the confrontation with the Japanese in Shanghai. When the cantonal faction of the KMT realized that it had no means to avert the impending national bankruptcy, it soon felt compelled to approach Chiang again and propose the formation of a coalition government. At the beginning of January 1932, as a first step in this rapprochement, the compromise candidate Wu Tiecheng ( 吳鐵城 ) was appointed mayor of Shanghai.

There were also upheavals in Japanese politics at this time: the liberal Rikken Minseitō ( cabinet Wakatsuki II ), ruling since 1930, lost power to the more conservative Rikken Seiyūkai under the new Prime Minister Inukai Tsuyoshi at the turn of the year 1931/32 .

Ultimately, the conflict had long been planned by the nationalist Japanese military in the Kwantung Army , especially the Japanese military attaché in Shanghai, Major Tanaka Ryūkichi (田中 隆吉). The Japanese just lacked a suitable occasion to launch their military campaign. The actions in Shanghai were intended to divert the world's attention away from Manchuria. On the other hand, the Japanese naval command wanted to make a “contribution” to the expansion of Japan in China and to counter the successes of the Japanese army in Manchuria.

Phase immediately before the start of the fighting

On January 18, 1932, there was a dispute between Japanese monks of the nationalist Nichiren sect and Chinese workers in a towel factory in the Zhabei ( 閘北 ) district . One Japanese was killed and several injured. During the night, the Japanese returned and destroyed the factory's machines and started fires. When they left, there was a scuffle with the Chinese police, in which some Japanese were again injured.

The Japanese Consul General Murai Kuramatsu (村井 倉 松) protested to the Chinese authorities, and the Chinese Lord Mayor Wu Tiecheng agreed to apologize and punish the guilty. On January 22, 1932, the commander of the Yangtze River patrol of the Imperial Japanese Navy, Rear Admiral Shiozawa Kōichi , bypassed the consular authorities, turned directly to Mayor Wu and demanded the suppression of all anti-Japanese activities in the city. On January 25, the director of Mitsui's local Fukushima Kimiji branch addressed the city council to highlight two incidents he believed to be particularly serious: a January 9 newspaper article in Minguo , a semi-official KMT newspaper in which the Japanese published Emperor Hirohito had been denigrated and the attack on the Japanese monks on January 18. Ultimately, he demanded the closure of all anti-Japanese boycott societies and the withdrawal of all Chinese troops 15 km from the area of ​​the city of Shanghai by January 28, 1932. If these requirements were not met, he threatened the occupation of the Chinese districts by Japanese troops.

Despite the fact that the Minguo newspaper was closed by the Chinese authorities, they continued to insist on the dissolution of the anti-Japanese organizations organizing the boycott. To underline the demands, the Japanese cruiser Ōi and the 15th destroyer squadron arrived in Shanghai on January 23, 1932 , and a day later the aircraft mother ship Notoro and other ships until the navy troops reached a combat strength of 1833 men. In view of the escalating crisis, the Chinese government under Sun Fo resigned on January 25, 1932.

The Chinese responded by gathering troops of the 19th March Army around the city's foreign quarters. However, this happened without an instruction from the KMT government, which wanted to avoid an open conflict with Japan. On January 27th, the Japanese factory owners started sending their Chinese workers home. This was part of a process that had been planned for weeks to take the confrontation to extremes. Japanese civilians fled from Hankou and Nanjing further upriver , but also from Shanghai itself. Rumors were spread by Japanese officers that the Chinese were planning to attack Little Tokyo by soldiers in civilian clothes. The military commanders of the Western Concessions agreed at a meeting on January 27 to prepare for the next day to declare a state of emergency. In the evening, the Japanese consul Murai gave Mayor Wu a one-day ultimatum to deliver all confiscated goods, otherwise he would have to face the consequences of a Japanese naval attack. A written version of the ultimatum listed eight items of anti-Japanese incidents that would entitle the Japanese to consider themselves at war with China. On January 28, 1932, a few hours before the expiration of the Japanese ultimatum, Wu informed the Japanese consul general that the demands would be accepted and fulfilled. As expected, the Chinese response was deemed insufficient by the Japanese hardliners and military.

Course of the conflict

Troops of the 19th March Army in street fighting

On the afternoon of January 28, around 3,000 Japanese naval troops from the Special Landing Forces under Captain Samejima Tomoshige advanced into the Zhabei district and fought their first battles with units of the 19th March Army. However, the Japanese were hopelessly outnumbered and had to withdraw. Admiral Shiozawa then requested air support from the recently arrived aircraft tender Notoro , whose Yokosuka E1Y3 seaplanes bombed gun emplacements outside the city and the Shanghai North Station, where an old Chinese armored train was located, in foggy weather on January 29 . Numerous damage to civilian objects and fatalities occurred. On this day, the first reinforcements for the special landing forces were landed, which in the course of the conflict had reached division strength.

On January 30th, Chiang Kai-shek decided to temporarily relocate the seat of government to Luoyang , as Nanjing, which is close to Shanghai, could become a target for the Japanese. At the same time he ordered the 5th Army to assemble near Suzhou in order to come to support the 19th March Army if necessary.

On February 1, the aircraft carriers of the 1st Carrier Division, Kaga and Hōshō , arrived with 80 aircraft off Shanghai. Their Nakajima A1N2 fighters engaged in dogfights with Chinese fighters the following month before the carriers were withdrawn after the March 3 ceasefire. Among other things, they succeeded in shooting down a Boeing Model 218 , flown by American pilot Robert Short on February 22nd , which had previously shot down a Mitsubishi B1M3 torpedo aircraft . From February 23 to 26, attacks were carried out on Chinese airfields near Suzhou and Hangzhou , among others . The bombardment of Zhabei was the most devastating of an urban area since the First World War until the operation of the Condor Legion against Guernica in 1937.

On February 4, the Japanese leadership had sent the 3rd fleet under Nomura Kichisaburō to the region, Nomura took over the management of the operations around Shanghai from Shiozawa after his arrival, his chief of staff was Shimada Shigetaro . The commander of the Special Landing Forces Samejima was replaced by Rear Admiral Uematsu Tōma around the same time . Before handing over command on February 7, Shiozawa had made one last, unsuccessful attempt to capture the Wusong forts at the mouth of the Huangpu River . Nomura, too, initially believed in a quick win, but soon realized that the situation was much more difficult than expected. In the meantime the Japanese were preparing to deploy army troops, including the 9th Division , whose mobilization in Kanazawa had been decided on February 2. The unit and the 24th Mixed Brigade arrived in Shanghai by mid-February, transported by destroyers. Lieutenant General Ueda Kenkichi , commander of the 9th Division, took over command of all ground forces in Shanghai after his arrival. On February 14th, due to this development, the 5th Army was ordered from the Chinese side to reinforce the 19th Army of the March in the city.

On February 25, General Shirakawa Yoshinori took over command of all Japanese units that were combined to form the Shanghai Expeditionary Army. Before leaving Japan, he had received personal instructions from Emperor Hirohito for his task. He finally managed to turn the tide with further reinforcements arriving from Japan ( 11th Division and 14th Division ) and force the Chinese to the negotiating table. With the withdrawal of the 19th March Army and the 5th Army from Shanghai on March 3, most of the fighting in the Shanghai incident ended, although sporadic firefights continued inside and outside the city limits.

Negotiating an official ceasefire

Memorial event for Chinese fallen

There had been several brief truces in the course of the fighting, with the British Ambassador to China, Sir Miles Lampson , standing out. His Japanese counterpart was the special envoy and later Foreign Minister Matsuoka Yosuke . On March 4, the League of Nations passed a resolution calling for an immediate and permanent ceasefire. The Chinese side unilaterally agreed to such a move on March 6th. On March 14, the Lytton Commission , investigating the Mukden incident on behalf of the League of Nations, arrived in Shanghai to initiate negotiations on a permanent ceasefire between the parties. During the negotiations, the Korean nationalist Yun Bong-gil bombed General Shirakawa in Hongkou Park on April 29 (he died on May 26). Shigemitsu Mamoru , Ambassador to China, Admiral Nomura and Consul General Murai were also seriously wounded in the attack, which followed a military parade to mark the emperor's birthday .

On May 5, the ceasefire agreement was finally signed. It provided for the demilitarization of Shanghai and the area within a radius of 20 kilometers. No Chinese troops were allowed to be stationed in the area. The Japanese reached a concession here by gaining the right to station a smaller unit (2500 marines) in Shanghai. The Japanese proposal to convene a round table conference of the powers that be on the future of Shanghai was quietly buried by the other powers.

Result

The Japanese plan to use the Shanghai incident to divert attention from the Manchurian crisis had largely paid off. On March 9, Puyi was enthroned as Emperor of Manchukuo by the grace of Japan. However, this had to be paid for with a serious loss of reputation in the international community. Japan, which continued to pursue a policy of expansion in northern China in the years that followed until 1937, increasingly fell into isolation.

A few days after the armistice, the May 15 incident occurred in Japan , the murder of Japanese Prime Minister Inukai by radical nationalists. The officer cadets were dissatisfied with the outcome of the Shanghai negotiations, among other reasons. This incident ended party rule in Japan, resulting in a de facto military dictatorship.

literature

  • The Republic of China from 1912 to 1937: Draft Political Event History . In: Dieter Kuhn (Hrsg.): Würzburger Sinologische Schriften, Edition Forum . 3. Edition. Heidelberg 2007, ISBN 3-927943-25-8 , chap. 14. The Shanghai incident in January 1932 and its consequences ( PDF ).
  • Donald A. Jordan: China's Trial by Fire: The Shanghai War of 1932. University of Michigan Press, 2001, ISBN 0-472-11165-5 .
  • Ian Nish: Japan's struggle with internationalism: Japan, China, and the League of Nations, 1931–3. London / New York 2000, ISBN 0-7103-0437-4 .

Web links

Commons : Battle of Shanghai (1932)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Jordan: China's Trial by Fire , p. 1.
  2. Jordan: China's Trial by Fire , pp. 3-4.
  3. Kuhn, p. 506, p. 508
  4. a b Kuhn, p. 506
  5. Kuhn, p. 507
  6. ^ Paul E. Fontenoy: Aircraft Carriers: An Illustrated History of Their Impact. ABC-Clio, 2006, p. 64; Mark Peattie: Sunburst: The Rise of Japanese Naval Air Power, 1909-1941. Naval Institute Press, 2013, p. 50 ff.
  7. ^ Ian Nish: Japanese Foreign Policy in the Interwar Period. Praeger, 2002, p. 82.