File:Letter, 24 January 1939, page 3 of 7.jpg

English: "But a war nevertheless, at Shanghai or Hong Kong, with the exception of a devastated area on either side of the Whang Poo approaching Shanghai. That portion was subjected to a heavy artillery fire by the Japanese razing most of the buildings. The work of reconstruction has already commenced, but whether it is being carried on by the Chinese, Japanese or W.P.A. I couldn’t find out. No one seems to know and no one seems to care.

While anchored at Chin Wa Toa I saw several train loads of Japanese wounded put aboard a hospital ship, but with that, and the aforementioned exceptions, one cannot conceive the fact that someplace in China a war is raging and men, according to the press dispatches, are dying like flies. During our stay in Shanghai, we saw no Japanese soldiers. There is a reason for this as we were not allowed outside of the International Settlement, and the Japanese are occupying Han Kow, the place where the settlement stops and Shanghai proper begins."

From the Edward L. Parke Collection (COLL/5627) at the Archives Branch, Marine Corps History Division

OFFICIAL USMC PHOTOGRAPH