Refugee Crisis in Shanghai – Terrorized Chinese Rush Frenchtown in 1937

This headline accompanied the photograph I posted yesterday of fighting in Chapei (Zhabei) in November 1937 as terrified Chinese outside the international concession flocked into Frenchtown to seek sanctuary from the Japanese bombardment.

For the record the French Concession authorities reported that the number of persons by April 1938 who had arrived and were seeking refuge in the International Settlements was 150,000, including foreigners and displaced Chinese. 80,000 refugees were registered in Settlement camps – mostly comprised of Chinese from the interior of the country displaced by the Japanese invasion.