Evening star., 1943-06-01
CHAPTER II.

CHAPTER II.
That last night in Shanghai !
went out on the balcony for last
look at the city that had been my
home for three years, except for
assignments in Japan, Manchukuo
and North China and trips to the
front with the japanese Army. I
had moved to the hotel after Mrs.
Lee had returned to Honolulu on a
tip the Orient was not going to be
safe much longer.
In the twilight, Shanghai sprawl
ed vast and uneasy from the mas
sive buildings of the Bund through
the jumbled tangle of slums where
100000 Chinese lived in space built
for half that many, and then on out
to the residential areas, where
Americans, BritonS, Frenchmen and
the people of a score of nations had
tried to reproduce the atmosphere
of their own home countries on the
mud flats of the Yangtze delta.
Shanghai and the other great
cities of the eastern coast we're all in
the grip of Japanese military rule; :;
regime characterized by corrup-
ton, graft, violence, poverty and
narcotics. Beyond and between the
japanese lines was the real China
of 400,000,000 people, free and un-
conquerable, but sadly undermined.
They had been unable to fight
against a japanese war machine
which American airplanes, gasoline,
steel, scrap iron and automobiles
had made great and powerful.
I recalled that if Shanghai could
last until 1912 it would be 100 years
old. But the chances seemed slim
Since 1887, Shanghai had been in its
death throes as a white mans city
For more TRAN four years Shanghai
had been living practically in a
state of siege, with bombs, bullets
and barbed wire for its daily diet,
with its streets sinking of the death.
starvation, misery and corruption of
war. The sound of assassins' pis-
tolls and the explosion of terrorists
bombs had become a part of every
day life.
X X *
In Shanghai, and not enough rice.
The price of rice kept going up and
up, and so did the number of starved
Chinese whose bodies were picked
up from streets each morning.
From my hotel balcony 1 watched
the Wretched and tattered Chinese
street scavengerS follow the rice
trucks along Foochow road. They
carried short brooms and dustpans,
and fought for the few crumbs of
rice that tumbled to the pavement
when the trucks passed. Sometimes
they chased the trucks and slit the
bags with long knives, ignoring the
blows rained on their heads by truck
guards armed with bamboo poles
1 went back up to my room, and
an American naval officer from the
gunboat out in the Whangpoo called
I asked him if we would have trou-
BILE defeating the japanese Navy.
He replied with the estimate of our
among our Navy officers, Their ship
handling is superb, their morale and
discipline are excellent. Their gun
merry is not so good and they lack
imagination and daring They
haven't fought since they beat a bat
tered Russian fleet in Tsushima
Straits in 1904"
I reminded him, well, as a Navy
We haven't fought since Dewey
the outnumbered and demoralized
Spanish fleet. The last real knock
down, dragout fight was between the
Monitor and the Merrimac"
On the morning of November Is, I
went aboard the Tjibadak. An Ar
gentine friend, Senor Roberto Mu-
jica Lainez, made it by the skin of
his teeth.
The 8,000-ton Tjibadak was in war
paint, her hull dark gray and her
masts light brown Her captain
wasted no time in casting off and
heading down the curving Whang-
poo and into the vast muddy Yang
TIE delta.
In Annoy, two days south of Shang-
hal down the China coast, we ran
into trouble. I snapped a few pic
lures of japanese ships and shore
installations, and then luckily
changed the roll in my camera be-
fore taking one more. A japanese
patrol boat spotted me and marine
officers in khaki uniform, with their
swords swinging threateningly, hur-
ried aboard and demanded that I
be brought to the bridge. They ex-
amined the camera. had not turned
the crank on my Rolleif1ex after
taking one shot and the shutter
would not click and the indicator
pointed to a." 1 told them that
meant no pictures had been taken.
The interpreter, anxious to show his
knowledge of cameras, confirmed
my statement. Hal! Yes! That is
SO. I myself having Rorreifrex." "
The senior officer, who had given no
sign that he understood English,
said, "Okay; you can CO."
The officers searched the ship for
other cameras, found and confiscat-
ed few, and then went ashore to
develop the films. The Tjibadak's
captain was sweating blood, fearing
his ship would be held up Indefinite
1y. but they let us proceed.
X X X
We steamed southwestward down
the coast for "a hours and next day
sailed into Hong Kong's beautiful