Steamboats On The Yangtze River - Japanese Takeover

Japanese Takeover

On January 28, 1932, the Japanese attacked the Chinese nationalists around Shanghai. Around midnight, Japanese carrier aircraft bombed the city in the first major aircraft carrier action in the Far East. Three thousand Japanese troops proceeded to attack various targets, such as train stations, around the city. From 1931 to 1933, the cruiser Tenryū was assigned to patrol the Yangtze River and was thus in combat during the January 28 Incident at Shanghai in 1932. The Battle of Shanghai of 1937 was the first of the twenty-two major engagements fought between the National Revolutionary Army, Republic of China and the Imperial Japanese Army, Empire of Japan during the Second Sino-Japanese War. It was one of the largest and bloodiest battles of the entire war. On August 13, 1937, the Japanese and Chinese exchanged fire in Shanghai in the ongoing war. The Chinese 88th Division retaliated with mortar attacks. Sporadic shooting continued through the day until 4pm, when the Japanese headquarters ordered the naval ships of the Third Fleet, stationed in the Yangtze and the Huangpu River to open fire on Chinese positions in the city. In the late night of August 13, Chiang Kai-shek ordered Zhang Zhizhong to begin the Chinese offensive the next day. On August 22, the Japanese 3rd, 8th, and 11th Divisions made an amphibious assault under cover from naval bombardments and proceeded to land in Chuanshakou (川沙口), Shizilin (獅子林), and Baoshan (寶山), towns on the northeast coast some fifty kilometers away from downtown Shanghai. Japanese landings in northeast Shanghai suburban areas meant that many Chinese troops, who were deployed in Shanghai's urban center, had to be redeployed to coastal regions to counter the landings.

The most infamous incident was the Panay incident, when USS Panay and HMS Bee were dive-bombed by Japanese aircraft in late 1937 during the Rape of Nanking. The tanker Mei Ping was sunk in the same attack. After that outrage, much of the population and government of China fled inland to the wartime capital at Chungking, thousands of journeys were made by steamer. Whole factories, libraries, and households were picked up and moved up the perilous river. Even the National Palace Art Collection, the storied treasure of the Chinese Emperors, was boxed and moved inland. Junks, carts, and sampans were pressed into service, and cargoes kedged through the Three Gorge Rapids, with ropes and gangs of men.

In 1939 the Japanese put further restrictions on foreign shipping on the lower Yangtze, trying to undo the near British Monopoly. The Europeans were forced to leave the Yangtze River with the Japanese takeover of the Settlements in 1941. The former steamers were either sabotaged or pressed into Japanese or Chinese service.