1937: Belle Haven Resident Witnesses Battle of Shanghai

Cathay Hotel/Sasoon House, now the Peace Hotel, Shanghai

My listeners may be reminded that I host and produce both the Greenwich, A Town for All Seasons Show and Asia Today with Jeffrey Bingham Mead on Radio 1490 WGCH in Greenwich, Connecticut and WGCH.com anywhere via the Internet. 

In the course of conducting show research at Greenwich Library I stumbled upon the article below. Dated December 2, 1937, Mrs. Arthur Bull Sullivan of 76 Bush Avenue in the Belle Haven section of Greenwich was in Shanghai during the invasion by Imperial Japanese Forces. 

Describes Horror of War in China:

Mrs. Arthur Bull Sullivan Recounts Experiences in Shanghai

Source: Greenwich Press. Greenwich, Connecticut. December 2, 1937, Pages 1 and 40. 

Note: Original spellings of place names from the text of the article have been retained. 

A month after the bombing of the Cathay Hotel in Shanghai, a jagged hole still remained in the street outside, a grim reminder of the indescribable horror of the war in China. Mrs. Arthur Bull Sullivan of 76 Bush Ave., Belle Haven, who returned from a trip to Shanghai on Thanksgiving Day, recounted tales such as this and others about her experiences in the Far East.

Mrs. Sullivan left for China in the middle of August, to visit her daughter and son-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. A. U. Fox. Shortly before she left, the report came from China that a shell, later found to be a dud, landed in the apartment where Mr. and Mrs. Fox lived. The shell tore through the window frame and went right through a newspaper Mrs. Fox was reading at the time. Her husband quickly picked up the shell and threw it out into the courtyard down below. 

Mrs. Sullivan arrived in Shanghai ten days before the birth of a grandson, on Sept. 28. She remained until Oct. 17, spending most of the time in the French Settlement, where the Foxes have an apartment. Mr. Fox is a member of a New York brokerage firm, with offices in Shanghai. Mrs. Fox went to China two years ago to marry him there. She is the former Isabelle Sullivan, well-known in Greenwich. 

Japanese newspapers proved infuriating to Mrs. Sullivan during her eight days in Japan. The publications there seemed to feel that Japan was saving the Chinese from the Bolsheviks, Mrs. Sullivan said. She told of the tremendous preparations before the war started and the readiness of the Japanese. On the other hand, she described China as unprepared. There were only 100 airplanes left out of 400 when she started home.

Many things happened while Mrs. Sullivan was in Shanghai, and were there or was far from over. She stayed up until 3 o'clock the night before she sailed, watching the Japanese planes flying overhead, the red glare from the Chinese anti-aircraft guns, and the lacy fingers of the searchlights attempting to pick up the flying craft overhead.

And telling of the Hotel Cathay bombing, Mrs. Sullivan advised the Press reporter to imagine Macy's in New York, jammed full of people, struck by a bomb. People were blown to pieces in a way quite indescribable, she said. She also recalled that most of the bombing had been done by the Chinese themselves, whose marksmanship she thought exceedingly poor. 

"The Japanese were ruthless in their destruction," she said, pointing out that the centers of education as the Rockefeller Foundation and other colleges and institutions were ruthlessly destroyed. 

An amazing commentary upon the Chinese was brought back, one of the first instances of its kind reported. Mrs. Sullivan said that machine guns, their muzzles trained upon British troops, were discovered in a hut destroyed by fire. Cross-examination of some Chinese soldiers brought the laconic reply that the guns were there in case the British evinced pro-Japanese leanings. 

Mrs. Sullivan said that most of the Chinese were "apathetic" about the war. She expressed the opinion that some of the Chinese just do not care, the idea being that there are so many Chinese to kill that the war will last a long time. She recalled the time Chapei was bombed while she watched from the Foxes apartment in the French Settlement. She called to the Chinese "boy" to come see the destruction. The “boy" only grinned, Mrs. Sullivan noted. 

The pilot who guides boat into the Wangpoo River comes aboard 70 miles out because of the treacherous waters, Mrs. Sullivan said. She described her trip from Japan, the 36-hour wait before the Japanese would allow the boat to proceed into the harbor. It took the boat three hours to go 15 miles, she said, ascribing the long trip to the treacherous waters and the hulls of ships sunk purposely by the Chinese. 

Mr. and Mrs. Fox are still in Shanghai. The family here received a cable from them Thanksgiving Day. Mrs. Fox remained with her husband, who stuck to his job under the most trying circumstances. Mrs. Sullivan said that Mr. Fox bought his wife a ticket to leave the country with other “evacuees,” but she chose to remain by his side. Incidentally, persons leaving China could only take two suitcases with them, Mrs. Sullivan said.

Besides being a ruthless peoples, according to Mrs. Sullivan, the Japanese used a clever ruse in routing a detachment of Chinese that goes back to the days of Troy and the wooden horse. She told of one incident where the Chinese prisoners had to dig their own graves before being disposed of. The wooden horse stepped into a modern role when she told the story of captured water buffalo and they used to which the Japanese put to them. It seems that the invaders hid behind the beasts and crept up close enough to the defenders of a small fort to take them unawares.

The Japanese put on a good show for Mrs. Sullivan the day she sailed up the Wangpoo River. It was raining at the time, she recalled, and planes were swooping down over the boat. Suddenly Japanese convoys loaded with troops appeared, to impress the foreigner with the greatness that was Japan.

Life in the International Settlement has its curfew, Mrs. Sullivan declared. People have to be indoors long before midnight. Buildings are piled high with sandbags, and troops of all nationalities are in evidence. She thought it “outrageous” the way America had “fallen down on the job,” with little evidence of American interest in the settlement, she declared.

On the return voyage, Mrs. Sullivan completed her trip around the world. She sailed from Vancouver on the first leg of the trip and took an Italian steamer from Shanghai to Naples. There she changed to the Vulcania, landing in New York last week. The phrase, "glad to be home," took on a new life when Mrs. Sullivan said it.