The Battle of Shanghai (January–March 1932): A Study in the Space-time of War

The 1932 Battle of Shanghai was the first instance of a modern war waged in a large city. This paper examines how the conflict unfolded from one urban district—Zhabei—to a large area north of the city, all the way to Wusong, from a densely populated and built-up urban area to the countryside; and how the conflict’s nature and the balance of power shifted drastically. The Japanese army was not prepared to wage a war that, in its first phase, amounted to an urban guerrilla campaign by the Chinese, while the displacement into rural areas played to the advantage of the Chinese troops. This paper looks at the crucial role spatial factors played in the successes and failures of the contending armies.