The burning of Shanghai in 1937 led to the Rape of Nanking and the eventual merger of the Sino-Japanese War into WWII.Here’s some background from The History Place: In December of 1937, the Japanese Imperial Army marched into China’s capital city of Nanking and proceeded to murder 300,000 out of 600,000 civilians and soldiers in the city. The six weeks of carnage would become known as the Rape of Nanking and represented the single worst atrocity during the World War II era in either the European or Pacific theaters of war. If you appreciate history and have a couple minuted to spare, read onAnd here’s a favorite poem of mine, recommended long ago by my friend Sylvia who lived through WWII and inspired Cynthia of my novels The Venus Deal,The Angel Gang, and For America.
THE NIGHT THEY BURNED SHANGHAI
Robert D. Abrahams, 1938
The night they burned Shanghai we had a date,
Bridge with the Watermans in Germantown.
“Now, John, be careful of the game you play;
Don’t overbid. Play safe.”
“I will, Louise.
Let’s not discuss it. I’m not good at cards.
Lord, it’s a long way in to Waterman’s –
Half Philadelphia’s length, if it’s an inch.
Why do we have to live near Valley Forge,
If all our dates must be in Germantown?”
(Tonight Shanghai is burning,
Bright Shanghai of the Bund;
The rickshas all are overturned,
The China-hands are stunned.
The curio shops are looted,
The fan-tan games are gone;
The shrieks of haunted children rise,
The bombing planes drone on.)
Read on . . . please
|
|