The Shanghai Badlands
Wartime Terrorism and Urban Crime, 1937–1941

This book details the inner workings of terrorist groups operating in China between 1937–41.

Frederic Wakeman, Jr (Author)

9780521528719, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 25 July 2002

244 pages
22.9 x 15.4 x 1.8 cm, 0.396 kg

"This study takes the reader on a tour of political terrorism and urban crime on the borderlands of the various settlements in Shanghai from the beginning of World War II China to 1941." Arif Dirlik, The Historian

Between August 1937 and December 1941, when the Chinese sectors of Shanghai were occupied by the Japanese, terrorist wars broke out between Nationalist secret agents and assassins of the Japanese military authorities. The most intensely disputed area was the western suburb, the Badlands, but warfare was not restricted to that zone. A spate of assassinations, bombings, and machine gun raids took place under the noses of the authorities. Thanks to the release of secret Chinese police files by the CIA, the inner workings of these terrorist groups and their links to the notorious Green Gang can now be exposed for the first time. In so doing, this book also explores the social history of Shanghai's underworld, the worsening relations between the US and Japan before World War II, and the rivalry between leaders Chiang Kai-shek and Wang Jingwei during China's War of Resistance.

Prologue: consequences
1. Island Shanghai
2. Blue Shirts
3. National salvation
4. Retaliation - pro-Japanese terrorists
5. Provocation - the Chen Lu assassination
6. Capitulation - the Xi Shitai assassination
7. The puppet police and 76 Jessfield Road
8. Terrorism and crime
9. Rackets
10. Terrorist wars
11. Dim-out
Epilogue: outcomes
Bibliography.

Subject Areas: 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000 [HBLW], Asian history [HBJF]