Shanghai-Japan

The Japanese Residents' Association of Shanghai

Bibliographic Data

ID3606885
AuthorsJoshua Fogel (0000-0002-3686-5415, corresponding author), Joshua A Fogel (0000-0001-5711-9713)
Year2000
Volume59
Issue4
Pages927-950
Publication date2000-11-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Journal of Asian Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0021-9118 • E-ISSN: 1752-0401
PublisherDuke University Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.2307/2659217
OpenAlexW4247069047
LanguageEN
Citations received10
References cited4

At noon on december 3, 1937, a Japanese military parade-perhaps in ironic imitation of other processions by foreigners in Shanghai-began marching down Nanjing Road through the foreign concessions in Shanghai and along the Bund. In the lead was a military police (kenpeitai) car escorted by mounted troops bearing sabers at the hilt. They were followed by a large infantry detachment, machine-gunners, and finally by artillerymen. Japanese aircraft flew by overhead, and Japanese civilians lined the route along the way and shouted out choruses of banzai. When they arrived at Jessfield Park, they were met by a contingent of Italian ladies-allies in the anti-Comintern pact-waving Japanese flags. The event lasted until 3 p.m. and involved all 6000 Japanese troops stationed in the city. The next day a smaller contingent of troops marched in orderly fashion from Garden Bridge south to the Bund and through the concessions (Tokyo asahi shinbun, December 4, 1937, and December 5, 1937; cited in Muramatsu 1991, 308-9). Lest there be any doubt about it, this was clearly intended as a victory march, an effort to demonstrate the new reality of Japan's preeminence in Shanghai. However much this display may have been directed at the Chinese, with whom Japan had now been at war for five months, the Western residents of the concessions-with whom the resident Japanese had been at loggerheads for many years-were the primary targets. No such event ever took place in any of the other centers of Japanese residence in China, only in Shanghai, where all the Western powers were present in full force

Ancient history · Archaeology · China · Counterattack · Economic history · FLAGS register · Geography · Infantry · Parade · Political science · Politics · Residence · Sociology · Victory · Demography · History · Japanese History and Culture · Law