The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1932-03-07
BY RANDALL GOULD
United Press stan Correspondent
fCnnvrlght. 1892. BY United Pressl

SHANGHAI, March IA thou
sand dead, soldiers and helpless
noncombatants alike, lay huddled in
the ruins of war-torn Shanghai to-
day as a grim reminder of the bit
ter attack and defense of China's
great seaport.
Hordes Of sightseers, like burghers
on an afternoons outing, added the
GROWING touch to panorama of
smoking houses and fields where
only a few hours before men were
fighting to the death.
In this awful picture of carnage
they realized possibly for the first
time the true extent of the battle
and the toll of Chinese and Jap
anese lives in the Kiangwan and
Chapel districts. Most of the bodies
were of soldiers, but there were
many farmers, women and children.
Avoid Chinese Bodies
Japanese soldiers, in control of
the area since Chinese defenders
evacuated to point twelve and
one-half miles beyond the interna-
tional settlement, rapidly removed
their dead. They scrupulously
avoided Chinese bodies except in
the main centers of the villages.
The trenches beyond Kiankwan
gave mute and CHASTITY evidence Of
the havoc wrought by long range
Japanese artillery, aided by air.
plane spoilers. The positions for
merly held by the Chinese were
strategically located on high ground
commanding open fields, practical
ly impregnable to frontal attacks.
But high explosives had blasted
every trench line into gaping ruins.
In some places bodies were placed
in piles, but for the most part they
were spaced at intervals of from
five to twenty feet. Sometimes the
presence of a rice bowl or cup
showed the victim had died while
eating. Many bodies were in a
nearby canal, where enemy shells
killed them as they drank.
Many Victims Were Boys
Even more pitiful, a majority of
the Chinese soldiers were boys
hardly beyond childhood. Several
had their clothes burned off and
lay grewsomely contorted where ex-
plosives partly had buried them. A
soldiers foot and ankle protruded
upward from a shell pit.
The Cantonese cemetery beyond
Kiagwan was reached by an open
field, dotted with bodies of fallen
soldiers. Many were flung across
grave markers. One trooper had
sought shelter behind two collins
awaiting interment.
Gashes in the ends of the caskets
showed how he met death from a
thanking Japanese machine gunner,
apparently after the capture of a
trench.
The cemetery temple was riddIed
by shellf1re. A burned body in
crawling position indicated an oc-
cupant had sought the open with
clothing af1ame. Near an unframed
gilded Buddha lay the body of an
aged peasant woman who had been
bayoneted.
Dead Animals Everywhere
Dead horses and other animals
were everywhere. Most of the cats
escaped with singed hair, but are
now dying Of starvation. Practi-
cally all the outlying houses were
burned, while in the town areas,
notably Kiangwan, Tazang and
Chenju, masses of dwellings were
reduced to fragmentary walls by
aerial bombs, Red Cross trucks
stood in ruins, apparently the re-
suit of shell fire.
Some of the air bomb pits were
fifty feet across. In every section
exploration was hampered by the
presence of uneXploded mines and
thousands of potato masher" type
hand grenades, with which the
Chinese evidently were we'll sup
piled.
Japanese soldiers patrolled the
districts, exploding the grenades as
a precautionary measure. Troopers
off duty joined with civilian SOU
venir hunters, posing for pictures
while standing over bodies waving
Japanese flags. japanese fathers
escorted their families through the
ruins as though on a holiday.
A number of foreigners also
gained access to the battlefields, but
were searched vigorously by soldiers
on loo wing