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Mark said:
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I am pretty well read in many aspects of military history, but I have an incredible blind spot on the second Sino-Japanese War 1931 - 1045. This battle is a perfect example. I never knew that Shanghai was a fully Europeanized city before the war, witI am pretty well read in many aspects of military history, but I have an incredible blind spot on the second Sino-Japanese War 1931 - 1045. This battle is a perfect example. I never knew that Shanghai was a fully Europeanized city before the war, with walled French and International Zones, but a bustling city of commerce much like today. This 4-monthy battle, in which the best units of the Chinese (Chang Kai Chec) nationalists attacked to take the city from the Japanese and disrupt the Japanese attacks on China from Manchuria and the north. Nearly 1 million men were involved and civilian casualties and the stark brutality were beyond belief. This was in many was a racial war between two Asian races with no holds barred. I am still reading, but the Japanese finally triumphed and held the city but the entire battle was a huge blow to their military's sense of invincibility and racial superiority. The Japanese had all the technology -- armor, naval support, air power, fortified entrenchments -- and the Chinese had all the manpower and bravery. On the first day of the war, a Chinese air attack on a Japanese cruiser anchored in the river went awry and the bombs landed in the International Zone where thousands of refugees were packed in for protection. Thousands died in the worst way. It was called "Black Saturday." I had never heard of it or this battle (compared to Stalingrad in the book for its intensity, brutality and destruction) before. A huge gap in my knowledge....more
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