“...An island, an oasis in
the midst of the stark, frightful wilderness which was once the Chinese
city...on one side are streets and houses swarming with life; on the other is a
cratered and barren moon-landscape...In this city – conquered, yet unoccupied
by its conquerors – the mechanism of the old life is still ticking, but seems
doomed to stop, like a watch dropped in the desert.”
-W. H. Auden & Christopher Isherwood,
Journey To A War
(1939)
After the Japanese occupation in 1937,
things in Shanghai changed somewhat. On the surface, the mad parties and
associated feverish activities continued, but they became more desperate as the
new regime tried to clamp down on their subjects. Curfews, restrictions, the
imposition of rationing and segregation into camps, all put the kibosh on the
party town, slowing it down if not stopping it in its tracks. Both the Axis and
Allied powers saw control of Shanghai as crucial to the war effort in China
but, given the economic empires that were flourishing there, few parties
attempted anything serious for fear of losing their stakes in a potential
‘post-war boom’.
Before 1941, the Americans were, as they
had been in the Boxer Rebellion,
largely ambivalent towards the situation; when they did decide to commit, they
were deeply distrustful of the British and consequently, the OSS shared little intelligence with the SOE. The British secret service in
Shanghai was composed largely of the entrenched taipans who were appointed mainly due to their local knowledge:
their efforts were noticeably sophomoric and crude and their ranks became
deeply divided on issues of policy and strategy. As well, they perceived the
American efforts – and not incorrectly - as largely co-opted by the Kuomintang
forces in Chungking and loftily chose to disregard US assistance.
On the Axis side of the equation, the
Germans and the Japanese were united in only one thing: when the rest of the
world was busy carving up China for their own benefit in the Nineteenth
Century, these two countries had made no overt moves to grab
extraterritoriality powers for themselves; consequently, they enjoyed fewer of
the legal and commercial liberties enjoyed by the other nations represented in
Shanghai. This put them in the same boat as other “stateless” peoples living in
the city: White Russians and Russian Jews.
The Japanese, having conquered Shanghai
in 1937, were initially happy to allow the Nazis free reign within their new
territory; however, they were suspicious of Hitler’s rhetoric concerning “white
races” as it applied to them and were always cautious in dealing with their
‘allies’. The Germans, on the other hand, were divided not only between the
Nazi and non-Nazi factions in their midst, but also along the lines of the
Gestapo and the SS, each of whom chose to run their own intelligence-gathering
efforts at the expense of the other. Eventually, the German factions spent more
time watching each other than they did anybody else.
Against this turgid background of cloak
and dagger murkiness, many individuals – almost inevitably for Shanghai – saw
an opportunity to make money. Many people embarked upon careers as
collaborators, double- or even triple agents and information brokers. By
playing all sides off against each other, adventurers and con-artists ran rings
around the warring powers and lived life in the fast lane for as long as it
would take them.
*****
This period is heralded by a marked
change from the Shanghai lifestyle of the ‘20s and early ‘30s; Keepers who wish
to focus on this period – a great location for dark, pulpy, noir-ish storytelling – should start
here. There is almost so much blood, espionage, dirty money and back-alley
treachery that considerations of the Mythos could take a back seat.
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