Remembering Japan's invasion of Shanghai

From 1931 until 1945, Japan relentlessly attacked and occupied parts of China in an attempt to subjugate the Chinese people and expand their empire in Asia. 

That time saw many hideous atrocities commited by the Japanese forces against the Chinese inside their own country, including the Nanjing Massacre in 1937, where China’s then-capital was decimated by a six-week rampage of mass murder, rape and destruction. 80,000 women were raped, and up to 350,000 Chinese lost their lives. 

Then there was Unit 731 in Harbin, a covert biological and chemical warfare research unit where the Japanese conducted horrific experiments on Chinese men, women, children and babies, including live dissections without anesthesia, deliberate infection with deadly diseases to study effects, and being stabbed, shot or burned with new weapons to test their effectiveness. 

Today I’m at the site of a very important historical event in my neighborhood here in Shanghai, a place where 452 brave Chinese soldiers made a last, final stand against the invasion of the Japanese way back in 1937. 

They weren’t able to stop the takeover of the city, but their actions did provide a much-needed morale boost for the Chinese people during that hideous time. 

Let’s go beyond the propaganda as I explain the little battle that played a part in the Chinese People’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression.