Shanghai at War

Witness History

BBC

History, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 19 May 2022

⏱️ 10 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In 1937, Japanese forces entered Shanghai - spelling the end of a period when the Chinese city had been a thriving commercial centre governed by international powers and known as the "Paris of the East". During the eight-year Japanese occupation, local people in Shanghai endured starvation and brutal treatment; while foreigners scrambled to escape as their lifestyle of servants and glamourous parties slowly disappeared. Josephine McDermott speaks to Liliane Willens, who lived through the invasion and occupation of Asia's most international city.

PHOTO: Japanese troops in Shanghai in 1937 (Ullstein Bild via Getty Images)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Choosing what to watch night after night the flicking through the endless
0:06.8	searching is a nightmare we want to help you on our brand new podcast off the
0:11.8	telly we share what we've been watching
0:14.0	Cladie Aide.
0:16.0	Load to games, loads of fun, loads of screaming.
0:19.0	Lovely. Off the telly with me Joanna Paige.
0:21.0	And me, Natalie Cassidy, so your evenings can be a little less
0:24.9	searching and a lot more auction listen on BBC sounds. Hello and thank you for downloading the Witness History podcast with me Josephine McDermott.
0:41.1	Today I'm taking you back to the Chinese city of Shanghai in the late 1930s
0:46.4	and 40s. I've been talking to a former foreign resident about how one of the most
0:51.5	international cities in Asia was invaded and occupied by the Japanese.
0:57.0	It's 1943 and Japanese troops are staging regular inspections of
1:06.0	foreigners homes in Shanghai.
1:08.0	Lillian Willans was a teenager at the time,
1:10.0	but she still remembers their visits with fear.
1:13.2	The Japanese from time to time came to a visit.
1:16.4	They were just interested whether you had a radio, you're not allowed to communicate
1:21.8	overseas with anybody.
1:24.0	They were fearful of spies.
1:26.0	There was a radio and a gramophone in Lillian's living room.
1:30.0	The radio was broken, but her parents had decided it would be suspicious to take it for repair.
1:36.0	When Japanese troops came inside one day, the family found it hard to explain themselves.
	...

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