The Japanese Are TOP DOGS IN SHANGHAI

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 286, 3 December 1938, Page 3 (Supplement)

The Japanese Are TOP DOGS IN SHANGHAI

ByMarc T. Greene

SHANGHAI, October 2fl. THE Japanese are endeavouring to bring into existence a new Tokyo-in-Shanghai north of Soochow Creek and in the Hongkew district, but it* birth is being attended with sombreness and gloom. The I'll rt of (hp International Settle- ' ll; " t or v'i.l Hf. on thc north sid.. .11* Mi., mil,l.lv -reek n„d also north of i lir even muddier tfiiitu™ I'll River extrude! from the waterside to R.iii.l, some three quarters of a mile. Hpvimiil tlmt. wn« Chinese territory out " f ''<• m » under Municipal Council sii per v ision through the Extra-Settle-in.'tit. lina.ls arrangement. tin* north bank of the pu tin- Settl. merit area reachefl eastward a couple of miles to the district known as Yimgtu S/e-poo, also inland for some |

distiinee. All this is now as much in the possession of the Japans.; as in the region outside the old Settlement bounds. Pnssage across the Creek bridges is easy for a Kiin.pean if he conducts himself with d.ie respect toward the Japanese ofli.-.-rs stationed thpre and the various sentries— hut not

so easy for n Chinese, lie, or she, must have a pass with a photograph attached to it. Moreover, he must not only conduct himself respectfully in tlie* presence of the Japanese guardians of the portals but with reverence. Stand nt the end of the Harden Bridge, or any other of the several spans of Soochow Creek, and •;ont. ;mplate the Chinese throng as it pa3»es to and fro. If, contemplating, you do int grasp something symbolic, as well as significant, out of it all you are singularly undiscerning. Every Chinese Mast Bow At the Settlement end of the bridge are two or three European sentries, but in the middle are the Japanese guard huts. There are numerous soldiers and petty officers and a black-moustached officer or two. Y m note, amused, that practically all the young Japanese officers have carefully cultivated Hitler moustaches and call attention to them l>v frequent graceful gestures. Kai'h Chinese pauses mid. if a man. doffs his hat. Then, graciously signalled to advance, every mar. find every woman and every little child makes a low bow. To the women the officer responds by a curt md. However being as appreciative as anybody of the singular charms of a really attractive Chinese woman, the officer makes a very definite responsive bow to such and accompanies it with a leer and amirk. This is said to have opened the way to a alight relieving of the gloom of the new Tokyo-in-Shanghai in the case of n.ore than one gallant Hitlcr-moustached Japanese officer. However that may be, there is no deviation from the foregoing procedure, going or coming, night and day. Moreover, it must be repeated at Boone Road where the first sentry line is maintained,

and again even more definitely at Range Road. Beyond that you -.re in a district the Japanese considered "morally" theirs even prior to 1931 because of the predominating Japanese population. B:it farther on, in the neighbourhood of Hongkew Park, formerly lived a numlier of Americans. Farther still, at Kiangwan, the Chinese were developing what they called a civic centre and had put up a number of handsome buildings long since the victims of Japanese air tar-get-practice. You traverse this region to-day with cauti >n and furtively, even though you once lived here. The other day the sec retary of the Shanghai American Club was strolling that way, the present restricted foreign areas of the city leav ing little opportunity for extended walks. Rounding a corner he suddenly found a Japanese bayonet in the hands of a very ill-disposed-looking sentry

within a couple of inches of his stomach. He turned around and walked back. To have done anything else would have been, as he said, the occasion of just one more "incident" and the exchange of a note or two. He would have been the "incidentce"—■ with a hole in his stomach. Chinese Shops Closed Yesterday I wandered for s »me time through the Hongkew district and a gloomier spot I have rarely encountered. Along North S/.echtian Road, once the main thoroughfare of this very busy section of huge Shanghai, there lias not been much destruction lint the aspect of the tilings suggests a city smitten bv a deadly epidemic. Here were Chinese ships of every conceivable sort, cafes, cabarets, hotels, movies, restaurants and department stores. Each and everyone of tlicin is

closed, boarded Tip, the ends of battered eigns hanging down, panes of glass broken, dirt and debris in the doorways, bits of wire holding the doors themselves together. The Shanghai General Post Office, now under Japanese control, stands at the commencement of North Szechuan Road beside Soochow Creek. Next it is the recently-constructed New Asia Hotel, a huge affair which has been the scea* of a number of kidnappings and assassinations, the latest that of a puppet official. The hotel is now closed and barred to the public, but several officials of the Japanese-controlled '"Reform Government" live there, and it is the meetingplace of Japanese spies, informers and agents provocateur. Now and then Chinese from the foreign districts succeed in getting across the Creek and. in one guise or another, into the hotel itself in order to dispose of a puppet official with hatchets. Beyond that there is singularly little excitement in the Tokyo-in-Shanghai. To every block there is perhaps one open shop, mainly Japanese. Japanese officers and soldiers are numerous and in the side streets you see Japanese children playing, quite as in Tokyo. The Japanese military are occupying the middle-class apartment houses in this district where once lived Eurasians, Russians and the lower ranks of European clerks and shop attendants. Only one spot in the least cheering is left, the Astoria Sweet Shop and Tearoom, once a popular afternoon gatheringplace almost opposite the side-door of the old Astor House Hotel. It is run by a Greek who still does considerable business with the Japanese officers and civilians living in the now exclusively Japanese Broadway Mansions Apartments. On the other hand the Astor House itself is the very epitome of the gloom that has descended upon the once-livelv Shanghai north of Soochow Creek. Tt is open for business, yet dingy and forlorn. You sauntar through the lobby

to be greeted with frowning stares by half a dozen Japanese officers, and by looks readily interpretable as beseeching by the Russian girl who still sits idly behind the news-stand. The Japanese have, however, introduced sundry "homeside" arrangements in the endeavour to make the new Tokyo-by-tlie-Creek bright and gay for young Japan overseas. These mainly take the form of "girl houses." This business being well-organised and svstematised in Japan, even as the Japanese assert they propose to make it in international Shanghai when presently they come into full and complete control thereof, there exist in Hongkew houses of several grades, those for the common soldiers at one yen for an hour's female society to those for the higher officers with the cream of Tokyo and Kyoto lights-of-love at a very large number of yen. Russian Girls Remain There even remain a few of the Russian girls who used to frequent this neighbourhood and their lot and condition now are enough to stir your pity. There are also a couple of dance-halls with Japanese and a few Chinese dancing partners, the latter bought or spirited over from the Settlement and French Concession. These allegedly bright spots in the new overseas Tokyo arc about as gay as an American nightclub in the prohibition era. That is all there is to Hongkew today, both the former International Settlement part of it and the Chinese districts. It carries with it on a large scale the atmosphere of a ship that the last rat has deserted. If you knew it before the look of it now fairly steeps you in gloom. The silence compared with the clamour of the old days in every hour of the twenty-four is uncanny. If it is, as you suspect, a symbol of what Japanese possession may mean to Shanghai—and to China—your pity for that tormented country is deeper than ever. J