1937 Map of Destruction Caused by Battle of Shanghai, Second Sino-Japanese War

This is a c. 1937 map of Shanghai illustrating the destruction wrought on the city by the Battle of Shanghai. That battle was the first major battle of the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937 - 1945) and raged from August through November 1937.

A Closer Look

The primary purpose of the map is to show areas of the city that were 'completely burned' (colored in solid black), areas partially burned (shaded with diagonal lines), areas that were bombed (marked with black dots), and areas that were firebombed (noted with a black dot inside a white circle). As is clear from a quick glance, the fighting was concentrated in a few areas of the city, in part because both sides were careful not to cause destruction in the areas of the foreign concessions inhabited by British, Americans, and citizens of other foreign powers.

As a result of the fighting, Zhabei (閘北, often Chapei in Western-language sources) was destroyed almost to a building, the Japanese inhabited area of the International Settlement in Hongkou was largely destroyed, and Nanshi (南市), adjoining the old Chinese walled city (城廂) to the south of the French Concession, was badly damaged. Additionally, the city's railway stations and rail lines, the recently built civic center of the Shanghai Special Municipality in Jiangwan (the inset map at bottom-right), and several factories and warehouses on the waterfront in Pudong suffered heavy aerial bombardment. A thick black line running from top center to center notes the Chinese Army's First Line of Defense (第一道防線), breached by Japanese troops in October, leading to the Chinese troops' desperate defense of Dachang (大场镇), after which the campaign entered its final phase.

The Battle for Shanghai and Its Aftermath

Starting with the Japanese invasion of Manchuria (the 'Mukden Incident') in September 1931, Chinese and Japanese troops fought on-again, off-again battles in northern China for several years. One of these many skirmishes took place on July 7, 1937, at the 'Marco Polo Bridge' (Lugouwiao 盧溝橋), just to the southwest of Beijing. Chiang Kai-Shek was reluctant to throw his armies into a full-scale war against the better trained and equipped Japanese forces but was forced to bow to public pressure and launch the long-expected war. Chiang decided to dedicate the bulk of his forces to a battle for Shanghai, which raged in the closing months of 1937. Chinese-administered parts of the city, particularly Zhabei and Wusong to the north and east of the International Settlement, saw extensive bombardment and house-to-house fighting.

Even the foreign concessions were not spared, most notoriously in the 'Black Saturday' incident, when a Chinese aircraft attempting to bomb a Japanese battleship on the Huangpu released its payload early, right into the most heavily-populated part of the International Settlement, killing some 3,000 civilians, including many foreigners. These events are referred to by the black dot in the Public Recreation Ground (now People's Square) at center, towards bottom left, and the dots between the Recreation Ground and the waterfront of the Huangpu River (known to foreigners as 'the Bund').

Despite the valiant efforts of Chinese troops, Japanese forces had naval, air, and artillery superiority and were able to receive sufficient resupply and reinforcements. They held their ground against Chinese attacks until a counter-attack was prepared. Severely weakened by the fighting in Shanghai and with many units in disarray, Chiang arranged a hasty defense of Nanjing while planning for a retreat to Chongqing, deep in the Chinese interior, to prepare for a long-term war of attrition.

As for Shanghai, the Chinese-administered parts of the city fell under a collaborationist administration that was incorporated into a national puppet regime based in Nanjing, following Japan's sanguinary capture of the Chinese capital. The foreign concessions were occupied by Japanese forces in conjunction with the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 and abolished in 1943.

Publication History and Census

This map contains no publication information, is not known in any institutional holdings, and does not have any known history on the market. This map probably dates from soon after the end of the battle in late November 1937 and was most likely published in the city's foreign concessions.