Ravaged by War

One thing I’ve learned in my research for the book is how much destruction Guangzhou suffered during the Sino-Japanese War during World War II, of which I had been largely unaware. From late 1937 to late 1938, the city was under constant air raids by the Japanese. Here’s a list I compiled from a book chronicling Guangzhou history:

1937

• August 31: Japan conducts its first air raid of Guangzhou as six planes bombed Baiyun Airport.
• October: Repeated Japanese air raids force four local universities to move their campuses out of Guangzhou.

1938

• Jan. 25: Japanese air raid on Guangzhou destroyed Italian embassy.
• February 28: 50-some Japanese bombers, divided into 10 waves, bomb Guangzhou.
• March: Japanese planes bomb Guangzhou Airport and Sun Yatsen University.
• March 27: 54 Japanese bombers bomb Guangzhou.
• April: Japanese air raid on Xiguan and Liuhua Bridge area, destroying countless houses. More than 100 female employees of a sewing factory were killed or injured.
• April 13: 22 Japanese planes attack various parts of Guangzhou.
• May 28: 71 Japanese planes attack Guangzhou, droping 50-some bombs, destroying more than 600 buildings, killing 600-some residents and injuring almost a thousand.
• May 29: 36 Japanese planes attack Guangzhou in two waves, destroying schools and 300-some residential buildings, killing or injuring 500-some residents.
• May 30: Japanese air raid kills 400-some people, injuring 700-some.
• May: Night air raid on Huanghua village. Entire village leveled, 100-some people killed. Survivors erected a stone tablet at the entrance to the village: “Mourning Huanghua with blood and tears”.
• June 1: Japanese air raid. Guangzhou in a state of alarm all day.
• June 3: Japanese air raid on Pearl River in Guangzhou, destroying more than a dozen ships.
• June 4: 61 Japanese planes, in two waves, conduct intensive bombing of Guangzhou, dropping more than 100 bombs, destroying more than 200 residential homes, killing more than 2,000 residents.
• June 5: 34 Japanese planes bomb Guangzhou, killing more than 600 people. Campuses of Sun Yatsen University also bombed.
• June 6: 40-some Japanese planes drop 100-some bombs on Guangzhou, destroying 700-some buildings, killing more than 2,000 people. Guangdong Province’s governor estimated that Japanese air raids to that point had killed more than 5,000 people.
• June 8: 50-some Japanese planes bomb Guangzhou at night, hitting South China University, Meihua Middle School, and a power plant, causing power outage to the whole city.
• July 2: Six Japanese planes bomb Guangzhou.
• Jul 12: Japanese air raid kills 300-some.
• July 14: Japanese air raid kills almost 1,000.
• Aug. 8: Air raid kills 700-some residents. Also hit a French Catholic church, killing and injuring more than 100 nuns.
• Aug. 9: 48 Japanese planes bomb Guangzhou, killing or injuring 160-some people, destroying 200-some homes.
• Sept. 17: 30 Japanese planes bomb Guangzhou.

In October 1938, after a year of intensive bombings, the city finally fell to the Japanese, but that wasn’t the end of the air raids. First the Nationalist military conducted a few bombings of its own to destroy airfields in Guangzhou instead of leaving them for the enemy. Then, from 1942 to 1945, Allied planes conducted numerous raids until the Japanese surrender.