Shanghai 1937: Stalingrad on the Yangtze (42 page)

A Japanese Type 89 medium tank outside a partly destroyed government building in the northern outskirts of Shanghai, middle of September 1937. Japan had an advantage in armor but was never fully able to utilize it because of the difficult, water-rich terrain near the city.
Courtesy Asahi Shimbun.

Japanese artillery on the move during the attack on Yanghang, September 1937.
Courtesy Asahi Shimbun

The autumn rain caused tanks and other heavy wheeled equipment to become bogged down. But the cavalry could still move. October 1937, when this photo was taken, saw a stalemate reminiscent of the static warfare on the Western Front two decades earlier.
Courtesy Asahi Shimbun

Japanese soldiers simulate an attack across a creek near Shanghai, October 1937. The photographer’s position, well above the protective embankment, shows that this photo is posed.
Courtesy Asahi Shimbun

Like the Germans discovered in Russia, the Japanese in China eventually realized that rain and mud could be formidable enemies. By October 1937, the bright sun of August had given way to chilly and damp weather.
Courtesy Asahi Shimbun

The creeks and canals of the countryside around Shanghai were a net advantage for the defense and posed serious logistical problems for the Japanese attackers. October 1937.
Courtesy Asahi Shimbun

Japanese infantrymen in their trenches north of Suzhou Creek on November 1 1937. Engineers have prepared a smokescreen and the soldiers are ready to go over the top. They are carrying as little gear as possible for the sake of mobility. The lack of composition gives the photo an immediate feel like few others from the Shanghai battle.
Courtesy Asahi Shimbun

Japanese soldiers march into Nanshi, the southern pre-dominantly Chinese part of Shanghai, in early November 1937. Parts of the district were just as devastated as Zhabei further up north, which had been subject to deliberate arson by retreating Chinese.
Courtesy Asahi Shimbun

Japanese infantry prepare to move into the last unoccupied part of Chinese Shanghai. The city appears deserted. The advance of the Japanese Army in the last part of the battle set off large refugee streams as word spread of its ruthless treatment of civilians in areas under its control.
Courtesy Asahi Shimbun

A Japanese soldier’s grave near Shanghai. The Japanese army preferred to cremate its dead, but the high fatality rates in the battle often made a hasty burial, or no burial at all, a preferable method. This grave, however, seems to have received special care and attention.
Author’s collection