Gudao, Lone Islet
PROLOGUE
From time to time, a city steps onto the world stage as the embodiment of modernity to which people flock for entertainment and fame, power, money and limitless opportunity. In the 1930s the International Settlement of Shanghai was such a place.
In Shanghai the Nationalists overthrew the Manchu dynasty in 1912 and established the Republic of China. Shanghai was also the birthplace of the Chinese Communist Party in 1921. Peking held sway as the centre of governmental authority, but the whole of China looked to Shanghai for the latest in business, fashion, literature, movies, entertainment and urban design. By the time of this story, much of the Treaty Port of Shanghai was built in the Art Deco style. It was a city ahead of its time, a mosaic of many different ethnic groups, a hotbed of spying and power plays, a fine place for rackets, drugs and international business, a crossroads of empire.
After their 1931 invasion of Manchuria, in raids reaching the Chinese area of Shanghai, the Japanese became the first power to bomb civilians during the 1930s, (beginning the inconceivably cruel fourteen year ordeal of Chinese civilians). European nations passed trade embargoes against Japan in an unsuccessful attempt to stop the massacres and terrorization of Chinese civilians. By the summer of 1937, the Japanese imperial forces had reached Shanghai. Within a few days, millions of terrified Chinese civilians surged across the Garden Bridge, exploding throughout the foreign concessions and trebling the population to 4 million. Treaty Port authorities closed off all entries. …
As storm clouds gathered over Britain and its colonies, and over the European allies and Japan, in particular after the declaration of war in Europe, British officials forming the backbone of government in the International Settlement of Shanghai resigned and prepared to leave, to take their families to safer places in the Commonwealth, and to offer their services there, on Allied territory, for the coming conflict.
But now the Settlement found itself tightly drawn into the embrace of the British Empire. British Ambassador Sir Archibald Clark Kerr (later Lord Inverchapel) began addressing groups of British Shanghai Municipal Council officials, and in particular the police, to persuade them that it was their duty to the Empire (not to mention the substantial British commercial stake in Shanghai) to stay and preserve order. In speaking with individuals he allowed the word treason to enter the conversation.
When, in early December of 1941, they attacked Pearl Harbor the Japanese started a war that left behind it unresolved and important issues having implications for the present day. At the same time the Japanese forcibly took over the gudao, lone islet, of safety provided by the neutral International Settlement, and the legendary vitality of Shanghai that the Chinese called jenao or hot din came to a stop. This story begins a few months before the December 1941 Japanese attack.
