The Old city area viewed from the sky

The Old city area viewed from the sky

mardi 2 février 2010

1932 Sino-Japanese conflict in Shanghai: Maps of the ceasifire agreement

The 1932 Sino-Japanese conflict was the first instance of modern war in the midst of a large metropolis. It left thousands of military and civilian casualties and turned a vast number of neighborhoods into ruins. While the fighting lasted only a few weeks beginning at the end of January 1932, a ceasefire agreement was signed only on 5 May after protracted negotiations through the mediation of Western powers. Attached to the agreement was a set of 14 maps that showed the area of fighting and various post-war dispositions. The maps must be read in connection with the text of the agreement.

I found a partial set of the original maps (8/14) signed by the Chinese and Japanese delegates, as well as by the official witnesses to the agreement at the U.K. National Archives. These are valuable documents as they show the local topography at a scale of 1/5000, including a unique cover of the Zhabei area. An assemblage of the available maps can be found on Virtual Shanghai (Map ID 774). Individual maps are also available under Map ID 765-772. One easy way to find the whole set is to search under "Hu bei dixing zongtu" in the search box for 'Transliteration'.

The missing maps must be somewhere in the vaults of the U.K. National Archives that holds a huge collection of maps (11 million items). Unfortunately, large numbers have not yet been catalogued. Further research should lead to their eventual retrieval.

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