A City on the Brink: Shanghai in 1937

By October 1937, Shanghai—Asia’s most cosmopolitan metropolis—had become a battleground. The Second Sino-Japanese War, ignited two months earlier, saw Japan’s Imperial Army advancing with terrifying efficiency. Their boast—“three months to conquer China”—seemed plausible as they deployed 14 elite divisions and over half their navy against Shanghai’s defenders.

Chiang Kai-shek’s National Revolutionary Army, though outnumbering the Japanese 80,000 to 30,000, was outgunned. The Chinese troops, many equipped with little more than rifles and grenades, faced artillery, tanks, and naval bombardment. By late October, the defense collapsed at Dachang, forcing a full retreat. Yet one unit received counterintuitive orders: stay and fight.

The Impossible Mission: Defending the Unholdable

The Sihang Warehouse, a six-story concrete fortress on Shanghai’s Suzhou Creek, belonged to four joint banks—hence its name (“Sihang” meaning “Four Banks”). Isolated on three sides by Japanese forces and bordered by the British Concession to the south, it became the last pocket of Chinese resistance in Shanghai.

On October 26, Lieutenant Colonel Xie Jinyuan, acting commander of the 524th Regiment’s 1st Battalion, led 400 men (later mythologized as the “Eight Hundred Heroes” to exaggerate their strength) into the warehouse. They barricaded doors with grain sacks, booby-trapped stairwells, and prepared for annihilation. Xie ordered every soldier’s name recorded—not for glory, but to ensure their families would receive pensions.

Four Days That Shook a Nation

### Day 1: The Element of Surprise
On October 27, Japanese troops, believing Shanghai secured, walked into a hail of bullets from the warehouse. Stunned, they regrouped for a full assault by afternoon. Chinese defenders, firing from upper windows, repelled wave after wave. Across the creek, thousands of Shanghainese civilians gathered, cheering every fallen enemy soldier.

### Day 2: The Flag Rises
That night, 22-year-old Yang Huimin, a Girl Scout, crawled through gunfire to deliver a Republic of China flag. At dawn, it flew atop the warehouse—visible proof China still fought. The spectacle ignited patriotic fervor; crowds wept and sang anthems.

### Day 3: Sacrifice Beyond Measure
Japanese engineers advanced under steel plates, carrying explosives to breach the walls. Corporal Chen Shusheng, a 21-year-old from Sichuan, strapped grenades to his body and leapt onto them, dying in a blast that saved the position. His blood-written note to his mother read: “To die for righteousness is my wish.”

### Day 4: The World Takes Notice
By October 30, frustrated Japanese commanders violated international law, firing poison gas and incendiaries. Yet the warehouse held. Foreign journalists, documenting the standoff, broadcast China’s defiance globally.

Retreat and Betrayal

Under foreign pressure (Britain feared Japanese retaliation against the Concession), Chiang ordered a withdrawal. On October 31, Xie’s men crossed into the Concession—only to be disarmed and interned for four years. Isolated in a camp, they drilled daily, singing:

“China will not perish! See our heroes at Sihang!”

In 1941, after Japan occupied the Concession, survivors were enslaved as laborers. Xie, assassinated earlier by collaborators, never saw victory.

Legacy: From Oblivion to Remembrance

Postwar neglect gave way to revival. In 1949, Shanghai’s new communist government honored Xie’s widow. Today, the preserved warehouse is a museum; its bullet scars testify to an act of defiance that galvanized a nation.

The “Eight Hundred Heroes” proved a truth: in war’s darkest hour, courage outlasts bullets. Their stand—though strategically minor—became a symbol that China, against all odds, would endure.

As their song promised: China did not perish.