793.94/5116
Memorandum by the Vice Consul at Shanghai (Ringwalt)3
The attached statement and report4 were furnished me by Colonel Thorns, S. V. C.5 In my opinion they are of great interest and shed very considerable light on an otherwise obscure situation, particularly with reference to the opening of hostilities on the night of the 28th of January.
It seems quite plain that both Chinese and Japanese were prepared for the outbreak of hostilities. For example, the Chinese had a secret telephone wire leading down from a breastworks on Paoshing Road to a point overlooking the Japanese Public School so that troop movements of the Japanese in this neighborhood could be reported direct to this post.
The Inspector in charge of Hongkew Police Station has informed me that there was no indication that Chinese police evacuated Chapei until they were driven out by the Japanese forces and any claim to the contrary on the part of the Japanese was patently false. To his own personal knowledge there were some eighty or ninety Chinese police functioning east of Szechuen Road extension the night of the Japanese occupation, who were caught by the Japanese advance and were unable to make their escape. He believes that they retired to private houses and changed clothes, and that these men furnished the nucleus of the plain clothes brigade in this particular district. To the best of his knowledge all Japanese residents of Chapei were withdrawn before the night of the occupation, with the possible exception of a few Japanese concentration camps in the immediate vicinity of their military headquarters, which could be readily defended.
In so far as the movements of the Chinese members of the Shanghai Municipal Police were concerned, they were withdrawn from all areas within the Japanese sector as of 4:30 on January 28 when the State of Emergency went into effect.
I have conversed informally with Major Gerrard regarding the operations of the Japanese troops and it appears to be his unofficial opinion that the Japanese never intended to stop from the first. This [Page 596] opinion would seem to be borne out by the attached report regarding the efforts of the Japanese military to attack the Chinese troops through West Honan Road Gate.
I was an eye witness to a good deal of what went on during the first night of the occupation and happened to view the assembling of the Japanese troops near the Public School about 11:15 p.m. prior to their being dispatched into Chapei. My impressions were that the whole affair was being treated in the light of a picnic by the Japanese, with speeches, flashlight photographs and general gayety. It was quite obvious that the occupation had been worked out a long time in advance as anyone could testify who saw the troops landed at the various jetties on the Bund and Broadway and from this point loaded on busses which fell into line with almost the same precision as a parade of wooden soldiers.
At about a quarter to twelve the troops left the assembly point at the Public School for various streets leading into Chapei, where they met with considerably more opposition than they had anticipated. Apparently they immediately called for reinforcements. As the firing was getting rather promiscuous at this time, I decided that discretion was the better part of valor and decamped. On the way back, I was able to view the mopping up methods of the Japanese troops. A squad of some fourteen or fifteen with rifles and machine guns would approach a street corner and on turning the corner would sweep the street, sidewalk and shops with machine gun bullets. I noticed considerable sniping, which handicapped the movements of the mopping up squads very considerably. I passed a number of wounded and dead civilians. Some had been shot and others bayoneted.
From this point I returned to the office of the United Press and from this window saw Japanese reinforcements being landed at the Customs Jetty, at which point they were bundled on to trucks and dispatched to Chapei.
Someone has said that the explanation for the Shanghai venture is that the Japanese Navy was jealous of the highly successful Manchurian expedition in which the Japanese army participated. The Navy hoped to duplicate this success in Shanghai.