This film is part of Free
Shanghai China - Personal Film 1 - C. 1937
Gruesome home movie scenes of metropolitan Shanghai brought to its knees in the first major battle of the Second Sino-Japanese War.
Overview
In the summer of 1937, Shanghai, a thriving centre of culture, finance and industry much admired by the rest of the world and nicknamed "The Pearl of the Orient", was reduced to rubble. This chilling amateur film captures the brutal onslaught against the city and its residents by the Imperial Japanese Army. The attack lasted three months and claimed an estimated 300,000 lives.
Japan had occupied much of China’s north east in 1931, but in 1937 it turned its attention towards Shanghai. China’s poorly equipped National Revolutionary Army was no match for Japan’s military might, although they managed to defend the city for three months while vital industries were moved to the interior and their dogged resistance seriously dented their enemy's morale. The Battle of Shanghai, known in Chinese as the Battle of Songhu or "813", denoting the date (13th August) when the conflict started, was one of the largest and bloodiest of the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945).
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