1939 Kanda Map of Hongkou, Shanghai, Second Sino-Japanese War (World War II)

A very rare Japanese map of Shanghai by Kanda Susumu (神田粛), produced during the Second Sino-Japanese War, after much of the city had been captured by Japanese forces. Compared to other contemporary maps of Shanghai, which focus on the foreign concessions or the entire city, it is unusual for focusing so squarely on the Japanese neighborhood of Hongkou.

A Closer Look

Oriented towards northwest, this map focuses on the Japanese neighborhood of Hongkou in the Shanghai International Settlement. The area sits at the intersection of three waterways: the Huangpu River (黃浦江) at bottom, the Suzhou Creek (蘇州川) at left, and the Hongkou Creek (虹口クリーク) at center and right. This map is atypical in focusing so intently on one part of the city, reflecting its intended audience of travelers from the Japanese home islands.

Kana is provided for Chinese placenames to approximate Chinese pronunciation. Illustrations highlight certain businesses, such as a department store and grocery store selling goods and victuals from the home country, with red arrows pointing to their locations. Advertisements are squeezed in where possible without altering the overall aesthetic; for instance, the border of the map is composed of a running advertisement for 'National' (ナショナル) brand lightbulbs and batteries. The table at bottom lists Japanese businesses along main roads in Hongkou with telephone numbers.

Additionally, businesses (clubs, guesthouses, shops, manufacturers, etc.) are noted on the map itself with black circles and text, while public institutions and major businesses, such as the Japanese consulate (日本領事館) and the New Asia Hotel (新亞細亞ホテル), are shaded in red. Thick red lines along streets indicate the streetcar network in that part of the city. Shanghai (North) Station sits at top-left, with a timetable for trains to other major Chinese cities. The city's Shinto Shrine, shown in a photograph on the verso and on the map's sleeve, is located at top-right.

Though published a year and a half after the event, the destructive battle for the city (discussed below) still looms over the map. A circle at top accompanied by an illustration of a dove provides information for commemoration services (for fallen Japanese soldiers) held every Sunday morning. At left, a business proudly proclaims that it is a designated supplier for the Japanese military.

Verso Content

The verso content begins with a section on 'Things to Keep in Mind and Reference Material,' including information on the Japanese Residents' Association (日本居留民團), an important organization that operated like a governing council for the city's Japanese residents. However, most of the verso provides information on travel to cities up the Yangzi River as far as Hanyang (Wuhan), which could be reached by ferry, railway, or automobile. These cities had also been conquered by Japan in the opening months of the Second Sino-Japanese War and Japanese interest and investment in them grew as the country's military tried to consolidate its gains.

Shanghai in the Treaty Port Era

Although it was already a sizable port by 1842, Shanghai expanded at a tremendous pace when it was designated a treaty port after the First Opium War (1839 - 1842). British and French traders and missionaries were leased land outside of the walled 'Chinese City,' particularly along the Bund (waterfront). Due to the extraterritoriality clauses of the Treaty of Nanjing and subsequent 'unequal treaties,' over time the areas where Westerners resided effectively became exempt from Chinese jurisdiction. In 1862, the French split with the Americans and British, creating a distinct French Concession, causing the 'Anglos' to form the International Settlement. As a strategically located entrepot near the mouth of the Yangzi River, Shanghai quickly became a gateway to the entire Yangzi Delta. The light administration of the foreign concessions led to the city's reputation for economic dynamism, multiculturalism, partying, crime, drugs, prostitution, and urban poverty.

In the early 20th century, Japanese businessmen and their families began to form a more prominent segment among the foreign residents of Shanghai. They tended to settle in Hongkou, on the north side of the Suzhou Creek in the International Settlement, as seen here. The growing Japanese presence created tensions with the established Anglo-American elite of the Settlement who were hesitant to delegate spaces to Japanese representatives on the city's leading institutions such as the Shanghai Municipal Council and Chamber of Commerce. A degree of integration was accomplished, in large part because, regardless of nationality, the city's elite maintained shared interests and concerns, including an increasingly powerful and radical workers' rights movement in the city. At the same time, Japan's rising militarism and territorial encroachments against China, and a resulting surge in Chinese nationalism, caused friction between Shanghai's Japanese and Chinese communities. Particularly after the Battle for Shanghai in 1937, the Japanese population of the city boomed, bringing in more working-class migrants, including from Korea and Taiwan. This period marked the high point of Japanese influence in Shanghai, with tens of thousands of Japanese nationals residing in the city and the country's businesses, military, and culture exerting a greater and greater influence. For four years, the foreign concessions sat as a 'solitary island' surrounded by Japanese-occupied territory, but when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor and Western colonies in East Asia in December 1941, the foreign concessions were also occupied, and the city effectively fell under a military administration.

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' 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. Hongkou presented a special problem; since Japan's navy could operate fairly freely on the Huangpu, it could be used by Japan to land reinforcements, but as it sat in the International Settlement, Chinese generals were reluctant to attack it directly and potentially cause a diplomatic rift with other foreign powers.

Despite the valiant efforts of Chinese troops, Japanese forces had naval and air superiority and were able to receive sufficient resupply and reinforcements. They held their ground against Chinese attacks until a counterattack was prepared that launched a wide pincer around the outskirts of the city, similar to the Soviet victory at Stalingrad six years later. Chinese forces fled in disarray to escape encirclement and prepared for a retreat to Wuhan and then Chongqing, deep in the country's interior.

Publication History and Census

This map was published on May 19, 1939 (Showa 14) by Kanda Susumu (神田粛), a local publisher whose only other known work was a 1939 handbook for Japanese visitors to Shanghai (titled 大陸進出読本). It appears to be a one-of-a-kind item, with no other known examples in institutional collections or on the market.