Shanghai, Republic of China
July 17th, 1941
7:19 PM
THE last forty-eight hours almost seemed surreal. It would have sounded unlikely weeks ago, madness months ago, and speculative fiction as late as a couple years ago.
The mostly Anglo-American Shanghai International Settlement, the French Concession, and "Japantown" in Hongkou were where foreign nationals in Shanghai lived, in an increasingly tense peace as the conflict between China and Japan escalated. The peace negotiations were at a breaking point, with Matsui's Japanese delegation threatening to walk out. Both sides entrenched their unreasonable positions further.
Then, it happened. An incident of "police brutality" and "kidnapping" occurred in the International Settlement two days ago. The exact circumstances were unclear, but a suspected opium dealer with connections to Du Yuesheng alleged he was beaten by the police in the International Settlement, and detained without being charged. Police Commissioner Smyth and his deputy Watari hotly denied these allegations, but no Chinese official would take a Briton and a Japanese on their word against a Chinese citizen in these trying times.
News reached Chiang through Du and this proved to be the last straw. British, French, American and Japanese nationals were to be expelled from Shanghai, their concession rights terminated immediately. The National Army was sent in to enforce this. On July 16th, at noon Shanghai time, foreign nationals were given twenty-four hours to prepare for evacuation.
Predictably, chaos ensued. A mad scramble of ships assembled by Shanghai's piers, ready to evacuate Americans to the Philippines, Japanese to Taiwan, Britons to Hong Kong and French to Indochina.
The evacuation ships were severely overloaded, as residents piled on them with whatever belongings they could carry, and many were in danger of sinking. Everything from small liners to trawlers joined in the effort, and warships waited, watching, in international waters.
The situation worsened when Japanese railway troops and American Marines fired warning shots at looters pouring into the International Settlement and Japantown before the evacuation was complete. This led to firefights between Shanghai police and National Army soldiers on one side; the retreating Japanese, American, British and French police and soldiers on the others. The National Army also committed armoured cars to the "enforcement action" which led to widespread panic.
Eventually, order broke down, and evacuees piled onto any ship they could. British, Japanese and American destroyers rushed to aid ships in danger of sinking, and the Chinese forces interpreted this as an act of aggression. Aircraft attempted to attack the warships, which lay down thick smokescreens to obscure their charges. American P-38 Lightnings from the Philippines and IJN Zeroes were scrambled to provide air cover for the evacuation, engaging with Stukas, I-16s and Bf-109s flown by the Chinese Air Force.
Ships simply made for whatever port they could, and had stopped bothering to check the nationality of the evacuees, resulting in some diplomatically tense moments. Fortunately, cool heads prevailed when diplomats conceded that a rescue effort such as this was not tantamount to kidnapping, and that carefully separating evacuees by nationality and destination would have been utterly impossible.
The effects were far-reaching. Chiang ordered Wu Peifu to send additional forces eastward, to brace for a new Japanese retaliatory offensive. Wu refused. Chiang dismissed Wu from command, and repeated his request to Sun Chuanfang. Sun too, refused. Chiang angrily dismissed him as well. The result was that Wu and Sun, and the armies they controlled, proclaimed themselves to be separate from the "power-mad" Chiang. They stopped flying the KMT Sun, and proclaimed themselves to be the "New Union of All China", under the five-pointed Beiyang Star. Wu's forces had a powerful new ally as well.
At 6pm, July 16th, 1941, the United States of America declared war on Germany and the Republic of China, for "repeated and deliberate acts of aggression against American citizens, a reckless disregard for American lives, and propagating a regime of violence and tyranny". The expulsion of Americans from Shanghai, during which 37 American Marines and civilians were killed, was deemed to be the last straw. German influence on Chiang was blamed, and the United States agreed to back Wu in expelling Chiang and his German advisors from China. There was a big problem, however. Wu's forces were on the other side of China, with the National Army between them.
This also had the effect of making the United States and Japan allies. Few would have expected that. A conference was hastily organized to help deal with the "China Situation". The Southern China Area Army was also mobilized from Japan, the first division being dispatched to aid in the defence of Hong Kong.
MacArthur's contingency speech was broadcast.
MacArthur promised to arrive.