Truth of 1937 Shanghai-Nanjing Battles
Japanese people despised Chinese incredibly badly before WWII.
Most of the Japanese people looked down on Chinese after the Japanese-Sino War (1894 - 1895). This national atmosphere was further intensified after the Japanese-Russo War (1904 - 1905).
Samurai Japanese were treated badly by Western powers when Japan stopped the national isolation in the middle of the 19th century. Samurai swords and matchlocks could not compete with modern weapons the US and European countries had. So, samurais modernized themselves and their country to become a modern military power. Now they knew that China failed where they succeeded. As proud samurai, namely rulers of Japan in the samurai era, had looked down on merchants and farmers, most of the Japanese adopting the samurai spirit started to despise Chinese (as well as Koreans). Those Japanese started to think of themselves as almost equal to Europeans and Americans. They thought they were now superior to Chinese (as well as Koreans), though Japanese learnt many things from Chinese classics and the ancient Chinese civilization.
This mind set of regarding Chinese people as inferior to Japanese is one of keys to understanding tragedy in the Shanghai-Nanjing Battles in 1937.
As this feeling to put a slight on Chinese prevailed so much in the Japanese society before WWII, nobody was against a claim by the Imperial Army that foolish, rude, and unfriendly Chinese politicians and generals should be hit hard once or twice and then they would honestly obey the Empire of Japan. Accordingly the Imperial Army stationed in Manchukuo invaded northern China around Beijing to hit hard Chinese troops so that they would be suppressed. It was because Imperial troops stationed in Manchukuo (to defend the puppet nation against the Soviet Union) were sometimes attacked by Chinese troops deployed along the border area between northern China and Manchukuo. (China had even concluded a secret agreement with the USSR to check military operation of the Imperial Army of Japan in its dependent state Manchukuo.)
But this arrogant feeling in the Japanese people, or especially among the Japanese elites, toward China and Chinese of course gave offense to Chinese people and especially the Chinese elites.
So, Chiang Kaishek, the then Chinese president, decided to launch a large-scale military campaign to Shangahai where one regiment of the Imperial Marines of Japan was stationed with other troops of the US and European countries. Shanghai in 1937 was an international city and not subject to the Chinese Government led by Chiang Kaishek. Chiang never dreamed that this campaign would fail. His troops were trained by German generals for years and equipped with German and Czech weapons. Chiang could mobilize hundreds of thousands of troops for this operation to take and occupy the richest city in Asia. So, this operation must have been successful. Tokyo would send a few divisions for defense of Shanghai. But they would be wiped away by his Army so intensified with help from Germany and the USSR.
But, Chiang Kaishek was wrong. Japanese soldiers dispatched from Japan to Shanghai were too strong. Chinese divisions were defeated and ran away from Shanghai to Nanjing. Japanese troops chased them so quickly without much planning and thinking. On 300-km roads from Shangahai to Nanjing 300,000 dead bodies of fallen Chinese soldiers were left.
But it was just a beginning of tragedy, since Japanese generals and soldiers, who were fighting enemies whose number was ten times larger, looked down on Chinese politicians, generals, officers, soldiers, civilians, and farmers so badly.
One of the causes of tragedy of the Shanghai-Nanjing Battles was disdain of the Japanese people for Chinese. But, other was Chiang Kaishek's arrogance to attack Japanese troops defending Shanghai while Chiang mobilized and deployed divisions and units ten times more than Japanese troops.
From a Japanese point of view, Chiang Kaishek should have called for suspension of hostilities when his Army failed to invade Shanghai and take on Imperial troops of Japan who were dispatched from the north China front line and the Japanese mainland. Then, Imperial troops should not have ventured their lives for the battles between Shanghai and Nanjing against enemies ten times larger in the land of hostility while those Japanese divisions and regiments were not supplied with enough foods and other resources needed for management of a large number of prisoners of war they might have taken if any.
(But why no foods and resources? It is because the Shanghai-Nanjing Battles were started, on initiative of Chiang Kaishek, so abruptly for the Empire of Japan. The Imperial Government could not prepare its troops with sufficient foods and other resources for the Battles. They were forcibly drawn to the war...)
Shanghai Street in 1930s
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Mat 7:16 Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?