上海1937，被遗忘的中国斯大林格勒保卫战 [美国媒体]

Shanghai 1937: ThisIs China’s Forgotten Stalingrad

上海1937，被遗忘的中国斯大林格勒保卫战


 
In the summer of 1937, the “Pearl of theOrient” became a slaughterhouse. A million Chinese and Japanese soldiersengaged in savage urban combat in China’s coastal city of Shanghai.

1937年夏天，素有“东方明珠”之称上海成为杀戮之城，共有100万中国军队和日本军队在这里进行残酷的城市战争。

Before the battle, Shanghai had been athriving metropolis bustling with Western traders and missionaries, Chinesegangsters, workers and peasants and Japanese soldiers and businessmen.

在战争开始前，上海已经是一个蓬勃发展的大都市，充斥着各式各样的西方商人、传教士、中国帮派、工人、农民以及日本士兵和日本商人。

As many as 300,000 people died in the epicthree-month struggle that pitted China’s best divisions against Japanese marines,tank, naval gunfire and aircraft.

超过30万中国精锐部队在这场抵抗日本海军陆战队、坦克、大炮、军舰、战机的3个月浩劫中牺牲。

Yet even in China, few people remember theBattle of Shanghai, says Peter Harmsen, author of Shanghai1937: Stalingrad on the Yangtze. The clash receded beneath anotherhorrific memory: the Rape of Nanking.

《上海1937，长江之畔的斯大林格勒保卫战》作者皮特，哈穆森说道，目前即使在中国也很少有人会记起这场残酷的战争，人们更多记起的是骇人听闻的南京大屠杀。

Shanghai “was one of 22 major battles ofthe Sino-Japanese War that are listed in official Chinesehistoriography,” Harmsen told War is Boring in an email. “Many Chinese haveheard about the individual battles, but it’s mainly just specialists andmilitary history buffs who actually remember when exactly they took place—andhow and why.”

上海是被中国官方教科书正式列为抗日战争中的22个主战场之一，哈穆森在邮件中写道。虽然很多中国人听说过这场战争中的个人英勇事迹，但只有那些真正的军史专家和泛黄的军装真正的记忆着这场战斗时间、原因及过程。

It was an unfortunate confluence of forcesthat brought war to Shanghai in August 1937. China and Japan had been inlimited conflict since 1931, when Japan invaded Manchuria in search of empireand raw materials. In 1937, Japan seized Beijing after the Marco Polo Bridge incident.

上海卷入1937年八月的这场战争，有着错综复杂的原因。日本为了掠夺资源和扩充版图，从1931年起开始侵略中国东北三省，在此之前中日之间一直为局部冲突。1937年卢沟桥事变爆发，日本侵占北京。

Enough was enough. Nationalist Chineseleader Chiang Kai-Shek had spent the 1930s trying to destroy the Communists.Now was the time to stand up to Japan.

然而在整个三十年代，国民政府领导人蒋介石主要精力却放在TG上。现在终于到了正式抵抗日本的时候。

Just why he chose Shanghai is unclear,Harmsen explained. “For example, it has been argued that Chiang wanted todemonstrate China’s willingness to resist Japanese aggression in front of a biginternational audience and therefore picked Shanghai because of its large expatpopulation.”

然而蒋介石选择将上海作为此次战场的原因却不为人所知，哈穆森解释道，一些人认为蒋介石之所以选择上海，一个原因是为了在国际社会面前显示自己的抗日决心，另一个原因是上海有许多外国人。

“Others have pointed out that theriver-rich countryside in the Shanghai area offered fewer tactical advantagesto Japanese tanks than the flat north Chinese plains,” Harmsen added.

但是，还有一些人认为是因为相对于中国华北平原，上海周边拥有众多的河道，这可作为阻碍来降低日本的坦克战术优势，哈穆森解释道。

Ironically, it was bellicose Japan that wasn’t lookingfor a fight in Shanghai. The Japanese army was focused on securing north China,where it could grab territory and resources as well as keep an eye on itsarch-rival the Soviet Union. It was the Japanese navy, often perceived as beinga little less militaristic than the army, that was determined to hold Shanghai.

可笑的是，日本军队并没有将上海作为优先战场。为了掠夺更多的领土和资源，以及防范苏联，日本将更多的军力集中在中国华北地区。然而却是一直被认为没有陆军好战的日本海军执意占领上海。

As often happens with wars, it was a tinyspark that detonated the powder keg. The mysterious murder of a Japaneseofficer on August 9, 1937—an event that might have been a police matter in morepeaceful times—escalated into open warfare.

正如许多战争发生的原因一样，一次小小的冲突成为了引爆战争的火药桶。1937年这场全面战争，因为一位日本军的神秘死亡事件而引起，在和平年代这不过是由警察处理的治安事件。

Deploying his German-trained divisions—the pride of theNationalist Chinese army—Chiang tried to push the small Japanese garrison intothe Huangpu River.

蒋介石派遣了自己引以为豪的德械训练部队投入战场，试图将数量很少的日本宪兵队赶进黄浦江。

But the Chinese lacked heavy weapons andthe experience to use them against fortified urban positions. The vastlyoutnumbered Japanese marines stubbornly hung on, supported by naval gunfire andair support.

但是在城市战争中，中国军队缺乏重武器以及使用重武器进攻日本军队的城市防御要塞的经验，而数量不占据优势的日本海军陆战队，也依靠来自海军和空军的炮火支而援顽强抵抗。

“The massive fatality rates among officersand, to an even larger extent, the rank and file were the result of Chineseforces employing frontal attacks against a well-armed entrenched enemy,”Harmsen writes in his book.

面对日本军队的层层壕沟防御，中国军队不得不发动多次的主动进攻，这造成了军官和士兵高死伤率。哈穆森在书本中写道。

“The men who, as a result, were dying bythe hundreds were China’s elite soldiers, the product of years of effort tobuild up a modern military,” he adds.

中国为建设现代军队而辛苦培养的数百名中精英军官在这次战斗中牺牲。他补充道。

The Japanese responded with an amphibiouslanding north of the city in September. They advanced south toward Shanghai,fighting across the numerous towns and waterways barring their path to thecity.

为了扭转战争局势，日本在1937年9月以两栖舰在上海北部登陆，为了向南开进，日本军队践踏无数的村庄和河道进向上海开进。

Though supported by tanks, artillery,naval gunfire and aircraft against a numerous but ill-armed foe, they stillsuffered heavy losses. “The number of bodies grew so fast that not all could becremated, the way the Japanese preferred to dispose of their dead, and allprivates and junior officers had to be hastily buried instead,” Harmsen writes.
“For an army claiming to honor its deadsoldiers more than those who remained alive, it was a blow to morale.”

虽然有坦克大炮、海军、空军的支援，以及面对数量众多但是训练欠佳的中国军人，日本军队依然遭受了巨大的损伤。日本军队因士兵尸体过多而来不及焚烧，不得不匆匆对初级军官进行随意掩埋。哈穆森写道。同时为了激励士气，日本军队鼓吹阵亡士兵比活着的士兵更值得尊重。

By November, a second Japanese amphibiouslanding south of the city compelled the Chiang to withdraw. There are noconclusive casualty figures, but Chinese estimates range from 187,000 to300,000, according to Harmsen. The Japanese official history admits 9,100 dead,but the actual number might be twice as great.

到11月时，由于第二批日本两栖舰在上海南部登陆，中国军队被迫撤出上海。虽然无法获得准确的伤亡数字，但是中国方面给出的伤亡率是18.7万到30万。日本官方历史仅承认9100人死亡，但实际日本军队死亡数字会高出一倍。

Although the title of Harmsen’s bookrefers to Shanghai as China’s “Stalingrad,” a reference to the massive 1942battle between Russia and Germany, he acknowledges that this is merely ametaphor.

虽然哈穆森的书名将上海比作斯大林格勒， 引用1942年发生在德国与苏联之间的大规模战争，但是他承认这仅仅是一个比喻。

The two battles resembled each othermilitarily in as much as both were city fights, but Shanghai never matched the intensityand savagery of Stalingrad and its two million casualties.

尽管这两次战争相似之处在于都是城市战争，但是相比斯大林格勒战争的强烈程度和残酷程度，以及200万的伤亡率，上海还是无法比拟那次战争。

But just as Hitler and Stalin believedthat prestige alone demanded they fight for Stalingrad to the last, so Shanghaibecame a symbol of Japanese power and prowess as well as Chinese determination.

正如希特勒和斯大林都宣称为了荣誉而要求士兵在斯大林格勒战斗到最后一刻。上海淞沪会不仅展现了日本强大的军事力量，也展现中国人民抵抗日本侵略的决心。

Unlike the Stalingrad battle, the Battleof Shanghai took place under the eyes of numerous Westerners who could bearwitness to the slaughter. “It was as though Verdun had happened on the Seine,in full view of a Right Bank Paris that was neutral; as though a Gettysburgwere fought in Harlem, while the rest of Manhattan remained a non-belligerentobserver,” American journalist Edgar Snow wrote.

与斯大林格勒保卫战不同的是，许多西方人亲眼目睹和见证了这场发生在上海屠杀。
正如发生在塞纳河左岸的凡尔登战役，右岸的中立区巴黎亲眼目睹整个战争。正如发生在哈莱姆的葛底斯堡战争，曼哈顿地区亲眼目睹整个战争。美国记者爱德格.斯诺写道。

In the end, China abandoned Shanghai—andlost its best divisions in the process. Their absence would be keenly felt asthe Sino-Japanese War continued into World War II. But China had shown that itwould and could fight against Japanese aggression.

最终，中国军队撤出上海，并在战争中损失了最精锐的部队。此次淞沪会战中损失的精锐中国军队使中国在后续的整个抗日战争期间显得力不从心。但是，这场战役表现了中国军队敢于抵抗和有能力抵抗日本的侵略。