Screen Archive South East is a public sector moving image archive serving the South East of England. The archive's collections of magic lantern slides, films, videos and associated materials capture the many varied aspects of life, work and creativity from the early days of screen history to the present day and serve as a rich and invaluable historical resource.
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Parades and air-raids in Shanghai
While the bombs fall on Shanghai its foreign expats continue to play, as this unique film shows. But it's only the lull before the storm - because the Japanese are on their way.
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Overview
For the expat communities living in 1937 Shanghai life just carries on as normal with military parades, banger-racing, stunt-driving and various sports of the four and two-legged variety. But at the same time this unique film captures glimpses of the devastation caused by Japanese air-raids on the Chinese parts of the city. We see the film-maker in his Shanghai Municipal Police uniform visiting blitzed parts of the city as well as spending time with his children.
The Japanese bombing of Shanghai, the effects of which are seen in this film, occurred between 23 August and 31 October 1937. By the end of 1937 the Japanese Army occupied most of the city except the International Settlement, where the film-maker lived. But it wasn't the first time that the city had suffered an attack from the air. On 29 January 1932 about 1000 citizens were killed when the Japanese bombed the suburb of Chapei. However, the numbers killed in the 1937 air-raids was significantly higher. After 8 December 1941 Japanese forces occupied the entire city, and in time sent most of Shanghai's foreign nationals, including the film-maker, who was in the Shanghai Municipal Police, to internment camps.
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