Eight Hundred Heroes: China's Lost Battalion and the Fall of Shanghai [9781922539205]

Overview

Acclaimed historian Stephen Robinson brings to life a legendary last stand in a revelatory new account of the Defense of Sihang Warehouse.

Shanghai 1937. With invading Japanese troops poised to capture one of the worlds greatest cities after almost three months of brutal urban warfare, the Chinese Army begins to retreat – except for a single battalion that stays to fight. These Eight Hundred Heroes defended Sihang Warehouse, a six-storey concrete building and natural fortress, from wave after wave of Japanese assaults.

The incredible battle waged for five long days. Thousands of spectators looked on from the relative safety of the British Concession inside Shanghais International Settlement. Western journalists with front row seats to the spectacle spread the story across the globe as the plight of the heroes captured the sympathy of the world. Their valour raised Chinese morale, as did the actions of the heroine Yang Huimin, a Girl Guide who delivered a Chinese flag to the defenders that flew over Sihang Warehouse as a beacon of hope.

Eight Hundred Heroes is a thorough depiction of this legendary battle, for the first time bringing together first-hand accounts of the Chinese participants and the observations of Western witnesses. It explores how this incredible feat of heroism became an enduring myth that helped define modern China.