The Battle of Shanghai: An Illustrated Guide

On August 14 1937, the day after the Battle of Shanghai began, misfired bombs rained death and destruction on civilians in downtown Shanghai.

“Bloody Saturday” claimed 2,000 lives in what was then the deadliest aerial bombardment the world had seen, and for the following three months, the Battle of Shanghai ravaged the city. Coming on the heels of the Spanish Civil War and the Second Italo-Abyssinian War, the devastation wrought by modern warfare so shocked Gum, Inc. President Warren Bowman that he conceived of the “Horrors of War” richly illustrated bubblegum trading cards, designed to convince young people to choose peace over war.

The 240 cards featured “gruesome and gorgeous” key scenes from each of the three wars with explanations on the reverse (a supplementary series, with Hitler, was produced later). Each card was packaged with Horrors of War bubblegum, available for one cent. They proved immensely popular, even catching the eye of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who used them to illustrate why the United States should stay out of foreign wars.

In addition to the Battle of Shanghai scenes, the Sino-Japanese War series includes cards on the Japanese occupation of Nanjing, cholera outbreaks in Pudong in 1938, and the bombing of a French Catholic orphanage in Zhejiang.

14 August, 1937: Japanese Flagship Assailed in Whangpoo

14 August, 1937, 4.27pm: Chinese Bombs Rain Death in Shanghai

Three bombs hit the intersection of Nanjing Road and the Bund just seconds apart: one hit the Palace Hotel and two hit the Cathay Hotel across the street. Barely a quarter of an hour later, two more bombs landed on the Great World, where an estimated 10,000 refugees were lining up.

August 17, 1937: Mobs Add Terror to Shanghai Shambles

With anti-Japanese feeling running high, there were numerous instances of vigilante mobs attacking Japanese, sometimes mistakenly, and those considered traitors or spies.

August 20, 1937: USS Augusta Is Hit By Shell As Shanghai Burns

Like the Bloody Saturday bombs, the USS Augusta shelling was accidental, yet the damage it caused was no less serious: another casualty of war.

August 23, 1937: Bomb Kills Passengers on a Shanghai Trolley

August 23, 1937: Shanghai Shoppers Blown Up By Bombs

Shanghai was still reeling from the Bloody Saturday bombings when two more bombs fell: one striking the Sincere Department store on the corner of Nanjing and Zhejiang Road, and the second on the U.S. Navy warehouse on Sichuan Road.

October 29, 1937: Girl Scout Carries Flag to Doomed Men

During the final battle for Shanghai, the Sihang warehouse, just across the Suzhou Creek from the International Settlement, became the last stand for the Chinese troops. The story of a girl scout crossing enemy lines to bring the soldiers a new flag, and hope, may be apocryphal, but it’s been circulating since 1938!

November 1937: Shelling the Lost Battalion at Close Range

Every August, Historic Shanghai conducts a “Bloody Saturday / Battle of Shanghai” walk through the story of the August-October battle.

Join us on August 11 2024, 10am for this year’s “Bloody Saturday’ walk! Details: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/HRuWlXnkyxiApI23dK7CCw