The 4th Regiment of the United States Marine Corps
received orders on January 28, 1927 to embark for
expeditionary duty in the Far East. This was the beginning
of a 15 year tenure in China, protecting lives and property
of American citizens in the International Settlement of
Shanghai. The 4th Regiment never had to draw their weapons
although the Chinese Revolution and the second Sino-Japanese
War were within miles of the International Settlement.
The 4th Regiment had been called for service
to protect American lives and property because of the
increasing political turmoil between Chiang Kai-shek's
National forces and the Communists. By April of 1927, the
crisis was over and Chiang Kai-shek's forces had control of
Shanghai.
The International Settlement was not involved in
the conflict and the 4th Marines began to settle into their
surroundings. The regiment changed its name on February 13, 1930,
the regiment was officially designated the 4th Marines, a change
which applied to all regiments in the Marine Corps.
Shanghai in
1842 was a sleepy provincial town, but the arrival of the white man
began a remarkable commercial boom. By 1927 the city had a
population of about three million and it was the leading port of
China. The International Settlement consisted of British, Japanese,
Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and Dutch communities. France also
had an independent concession just to the south of the Settlement.
Other nationalities included White Russians who had fled the
Revolution in their country twenty years earlier and there was also
a thriving community of Sikhs who had left India in the early
thirties. Quite a few Sikhs joined the Shanghai International
Police Force and these men and the 4th Marines helped each other
out on numerous occasions. The International Defense Scheme,
indented to protect the Settlement against Chinese attack, had been
drawn up by the commanders of the British, American and Japanese
garrisons at Shanghai.
"There were American citizens over there which we
protected, but most of our duties were strictly guard. Standard
Oil Company was over there and we used to guard them. Then we had
our own areas that we to guard. We had to guard the hospital. The
navy hospital. And so it was one day on and two days off. The
first thing you do is buy a teakwood chest. Then you go down, you
start buying this and buying that, whatever you could afford. The
ivory was the most important thing that we could buy. It was
real, real inexpensive there and you could buy like a Hamilton
wrist watch was like a Rolex today. You could get that for less
than a hundred dollars. Some silks, some kimonos, and just a
little bit of everything that you could. You just kept packing it
and packing it and hopefully we can get it home, you know. The
4th Marines had their our own club in town, and, of course,
everybody would go to the club. If you would venture out to say,
French town, there were several bars. Most of them went to what
they call the Green Hall Bar. It was a popular place that
everybody would go there. And it was just a regular beer place,
you know. So everybody would get drunk as a hoot owl. The French
police is the one that you really have to really be careful with,
and if you got caught by the French police. They would throw you
in their jail and it's like being thrown in jail in Mexico. You'd
never get out of that place. Boy, it's terrible. So you had to
really be on your toes." - Pete George
It was choice duty. Among other things, labor, women, jewelry
and other items were available and cheap. Each squad could hire a
Chinese man to do all the work. Clean the room, make the beds, do
the laundry, shine shoes, and run errands. Billets and headquarters
buildings were converted schools, office buildings, or private
mansions, rented from their owners or the Shanghai Municipal
Council. In April of 1938, the past members of the 4th Marines gave
the present marines a club all to their own. On April 9th, the 4th
Marines Club opened as the finest enlisted men's club in the world.
The club included a Noncommissioned Officer's Bar, a Private's Bar,
three lane bowling alley, billiards, gymnasium, library,
restaurant, movie theater, a ballroom, dining and private rooms.
A new crisis began in September of 1931 when the invasion of
Manchuria marked the beginning of the Imperial Japanese efforts to
conquer China. The rise to power of Chiang Kai-shek worried the
Japanese militarists, who realized that the Nationalist drive to
the north as a threat to Japanese ambitions in Manchuria. Japan did
not want a strong, unified China.
On September 18, 1931, following a "staged explosion" by Japan
on the South Manchuria Railway, Japanese forces moved out from
positions guarding the track to occupy the principal southern
Manchurian cities. This invasion by Japan led a state of war
between Japan and China and also permitted the Japanese militarists
to take control of the Japanese government. On January 7, 1932, the
United States stated it would not recognize Japan's Manchurian
conquest. Japan's answer was to proclaim 'independence' of
Manchukuo under the puppet emperor, Henry Pu Yi.
Stuck right in the middle of all this was the 4th Marines
stationed in Shanghai at the International Settlement. The US was
opposed to Japanese aggression against China, but our garrison at
Shanghai was a partner of the Japanese and other powers in a plan
to defend the International Settlement against the Chinese. There
was no provision for dealing with a situation where one of the
partners to the agreement attacked the Chinese. The Japanese agreed
to withdraw from the International Settlement and the 4th Marines
along with the British had no choice but to remain neutral in the
eminent war for Shanghai.
The 4th Marines turned to strengthen their defenses along
Soochow Creek to the north. On the other side of Soochow Creek was
Chapei, the location of the battle between China and Japan. By
February 7th, 1932 the entire 3 ½ miles of front lines had been
barb wired and sandbagged with machine guns ready. The battle for
Chapei lasted until March 3rd and neither the Chinese nor the
Japanese encroached on the International Settlement but from their
front lines, the 4th Marines had grandstand seats for the war.
In 1937, the mascot of the 4th Marines arrived on the scene.
Along the banks of Soochow Creek, a small and underfed puppy began
to post guard along side other Marines. The men of the 4th Regiment
began to help feed the lost puppy and it wasn't long before he was
taken back to live with B Company. They named him Soochow and he
became the mascot of the China Marines. He was outfitted with three
different uniforms; greens, khakis and even dress blues. Soochow
would hit the clubs and restaurants with his fellow marines and on
many Saturday nights, Soochow could be seen riding in his own
rickshaw back to his billet.
The second battle for Shanghai began on August 13th, 1937. Once
again north of Soochow Creek, the Chinese and Japanese were locked
in combat. Not until the final offensive launched by the hoarding
Japanese Army in October did the Chinese retreat from Shanghai.
The withdrawal of the Chinese army from Shanghai left the
International Settlement and the French Concession as two tiny
islands of Western authority in a hostile Japanese sea. The Allied
numbers were sparse compared to the Japanese army of 300,000, the
British numbered 2,500 - French numbered 4,000 and the 4th Marines
numbered around 1,000.
Yet with even these small numbers, the International Settlement
continued business as usual. The Chinese post office, radio and
telegraph offices, and central bank all continued to operate within
the Settlement. The greedy Japanese were furious because they could
not control these institutions nor lay their hands on the rich
revenues. A new threat to the neutrality of the International
Settlement came upon on August 10, 1940, when the British announced
the withdrawal of all forces from Shanghai and North China. By the
end of 1940, Admiral Thomas C. Hart, commander of the Asiatic
Fleet, was convinced that war with Japan was inevitable. All but
the 4th Marines and the Yangtze River Patrol gunboats had departed
by early 1941.
Japan's war machine moved southward in April 1939 with the
seizure of the Hainan Islands. That hostility combined with
repeated bombings and other atrocities against civilians in China,
led to the move of the United States Fleet from the West Coast to
Pearl Harbor in May of 1940. Japanese occupation of northern
Indochina in August and her alliance with Germany and Italy in the
Tripartite Pact, on September 27th had resulted in war material
restrictions and to strategic conversations among Americans,
British, and Dutch concerning Pacific defense. When Japan completed
their Indochina occupation in July 1941, President Roosevelt
countered by freezing Japanese assets.
In Shanghai, the 4th Marines had been making plans in the event
of hostilities breaking out. Colonel Peck prepared a desperate
escape plan in case the Japanese attacked the International
Settlement. Mounted in all available motor vehicles, the 4th
Marines were to break through the roads blocks on the Settlement
boundary and drive west towards territory controlled by Chiang
Kai-shek. Peck intended to keep the 4th Marines together as a
military force as long as possible. But, "when the regiment hit
something it couldn't crack," the men were to be instructed to
break into small groups and attempt to make their way as best they
could to the nearest Nationalist-held territory and then to
Chungking, some 900 miles away.
"The Japanese would just test you and see what you
would do. They would come on into our settlement, and, of course,
what we would do is just force them back out again. And I think
two occasions we got into gunfire with them. It was not in our
end of the field but First Battalion, they ran into it. They had
a gun fight with the Japanese. Most of it, see, was down towards
where the harbor was. The Japanese were down in there with their
destroyers and light cruisers so they had a lot of run-ins down
there. They thought that they could just come on in and do it,
and, of course, we had orders that if they come into your sector,
well, you're to put them out, or, if not, then you get into a gun
fight with them so that happened a few times. The Japanese would
capture the Chinese people and would execute them every other day
at 5 o'clock in the afternoon. These were the Communist Chinese.
Now, Chiang Kai-shek was down in Chungking, but it was the
communist regime that actually took over China. It was Mao and
his group that we would catch and then turn them over to the
Japanese. We watched a lot of killings over there." - Pete
George
The summer months passed with only minor skirmishes and Colonel
Samuel L. Howard, commanding officer since May 14, 1941, gained
permission for withdrawal of the regiment in early November. The
liners President Harrison and President Madison were charted for
this purpose.
Thousands of cheering people waving Chinese and American flags
lined the streets to see the regiment, which had played such an
intimate part in community life for over 14 years, parade through
the Settlement for the last time. At the dock, members of the
Municipal Council, the foreign consuls and diplomatic
representatives, the commanding officers of all military units,
including the Japanese, and the heads of many civic organizations
gathered to bid the Marines farewell. The 4th Marines including
Soochow were finished with Shanghai, their ships bound for the
Philippines.
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