Japanese losses in the Battle of Shanghai: are the numbers i

[sjchan]

Japanese losses in the Battle of Shanghai: are the numbers in Senshi Sosho correct?

More than 60 years after the end of the Sino-Japanese war, many details of the war are still unclear. The loss of most Japanese records at the end of the war means that much information on the Japanese side, such as Japanese casualties for many campaigns, are still not known.

The publication of Senshi Sosho provides authoritative numbers for some of the campaigns, including the Battle of Shanghai. These numbers are widely cited and seldom questioned. However, a problem with Senshi Sosho is that it relies heavily on primary sources e.g. after action reports by staff officers and field commanders. While these are valuable resources, they are not always complete or totally accurate. An alternative resource is the legions of unit histories published after the war, many with detailed casualty lists painstakingly reconstructed by the veterans of the various combat units. By examining this information, one comes up with figures that sometimes agree but often at odds with the official figures in Senshi Sosho.

I have spent the past several years researching this topic, and I would like to present a synopsis of my results in a series of posts. Given that we have many Japanese experts in this forum, I will appreciate comments from them - my translation of Japanese terms in particular is unlikely to be accurate.

I will start with the Battle of Shanghai -- an extremely costly battle for the Chinese, and even though less so for the Japanese army, nonetheless one of the bloodiest of the entire war. The official Japanese casualties regarding this battle in Senshi Sosho, from Aug 13 to Nov 8, is 9,115 killed and 31,257 wounded, for a total of 40672.

A similar figure appears in “The Diaries of the Commander of the 101st Division” by伊東政喜:

The entry for Nov 15 indicates that up to Nov 2, the cumulative losses for the main combat units are as follows:

11D : Officers 41 K 157 W Others 2161 K 5747 W
101D: Officers 46K 160 W Others 1332 K 5272 W
3D: Officers 82 K 203 W Others 2775K 7864 W
9D: Officers 61K 145 W Others 1412 K 6756 W
13D: Officers 38K 174 W Others 746 K 2934 W
Taiwan Garrison Brigade: Officers 12K 22 W Others 327 K 944 W

The total number of battle deaths is 9,065, which is similar to the figures in Senshi Sosho. This confirms that these figures probably come from the same or similar sources at the time of the battle.

But this is by no means the only figures from Japanese sources.

For example, in the diary of Matsui Iwane, the memorial service on Feb 5, 1938 is for more than 18,000 battle souls. Given that neither the pursuit of routed Chinese forces after the Battle of Shanghai nor the Battle of Nanjing proper are particularly costly for the Japanese forces, the vast majority of the battle deaths should be attributed to the Battle of Shanghai itself.

Moreover, according to the Jan 15, 1938 entry in the diary of上村利道, the total battle deaths of the Shanghai Expeditionary Army up to the end of 1937 is 16,609, with 1796 additional deaths due to sickness, once again giving a total number of deaths to be 18,000+.

There is a big difference between 9,000 and 18,000 battle-related deaths. Which is the more accurate number?

The unit histories of many units involved in the Battle of Shanghai provided us with clues to this question.

[john whitman]

As you know, the China war is poorly understood in the West. I hope you can give us more. Thanks for this post.

John

[sjchan]

Let’s first look at 11D.

The official regimental history《歩兵第四十三聯隊》 of 43rd Infantry Regiment, one of the four infantry regiments of the 11D, contains a wealth of information regarding the Battle of Shanghai. In particular, detailed after action reports for key periods of the battle are included, together with tables of casualties figures:

9.11-10.6： K229 W664
10.9-10.19： K99 W123
10.26-11.4： K96 W144
11.5-11.14： K21 W 45
Total killed 435

However, the regimental history also includes a detailed list of men killed in action, including dates. This list was compiled shortly after the Battle of Shanghai in Aug 1938 after the division has left East China and has the opportunity to consolidate its records. After I have processed the data (I cannot guarantee my counting is 100% correct, but usually double checked to make sure accuracy is within a few percentage; ditto for other figures compiled by me) I come up with the following death counts

9.11-10.6： KC433 KW13 KS 64 Total K 410
10.9-10.19： KC103 KW5 KS 8 Total K 116
10.26-11.4： KC91 KW1 KS 6 Total 98
11.5-11.14： KC60 KW2 KS 6 Total 68
Total KC = 687 KW = 21 KS = 84
Total killed = 792
(KC=killed in combat KW=wounded in combat and died later of wounds KS=died of sickness)

Since the second list is much more detailed than just the tables summarizing casualties in the after-action reports, it seems clear that casualties in after action reports in this case understated total casualties. This is probably due to the exclusion of deaths due to wounds and sickness (which usually occur some time after the initial battle and at a different location e.g. field hospital) as well as the difficulties to keep track of everything in the heat of the battle.

But even this number is not complete, as we should really add the casualty figures for Aug 23 to Sep 10: KC225 KW 1 KS 3

Thus just from Aug 23 to Nov 14, the 43rd Infantry Regiment suffered a total of 1051 killed due to all causes, or roughly twice as many as one would have concluded if one just looks at the after action reports.

Is this an isolated case, or we can find similar cases for other units?

Let’s now turn to another unit of 11D, the 44th Infantry Regiment, the sister regiment of the 22nd Infantry Brigade.

It turns out that the after action reports included in the regimental history of the 43rd Infantry Regimental is for the entire 22nd Infantry Brigade, so the table of casualties also include those of the 44th Infantry Regiment:

9.11-10.6： K293 W639
10.9-10.19： K155 W258
10.26-11.4： K52 W207
11.5-11.14： K50 W 72
Total killed 550

The regimental history of the 44th Infantry Regiment 《江南の土佐魂 歩兵第四十四聯隊史和知部隊戰記》also has a list of combat death, which however is not as detailed as that of its sister regiment. It simply includes a list of combat deaths:

9.11-10.6： K391
10.9-10.19： K178
10.26-11.4： K81
11.5-11.14： K79
Total killed 729

Adding in the battle deaths from Aug 23 to Sep 10, which totals 245, we arrive at the figure of 974 killed in the Battle of Shanghai.

Now according to numbers in “The Diaries of the Commander of the 101st Division”, the 11D suffered a total of 2200 killed. This number is consistent with the roughly 1000 killed suffered by the 22nd Infantry Brigade stated in the after action reports, but is just 50% of the number given by the post war regimental histories.

According to the regimental history of the 22nd Infantry Regiment《二十二聯隊始末記》, the regiment suffered 800+ killed up to the end of 1937. I do not have casualties figures for the last infantry regiment of the division, the 11th Infantry Regiment, but assuming it is on the same scale as the other regiments i.e. 800-1000 men, and adding casualties suffered by the support troops (artillery, engineers, transport etc.), it seems that a reasonable estimate of the battle deaths of 11D should be around 4000.

How about the other units then?

[sjchan]

Now let’s look at 3D next.

The losses of the 34th Infantry Regiment were provided in a detailed list (included death due to various causes) in “History of the 34th Infantry Regiment” 《歩兵第三十四聯隊史》

The numbers are similar to that given in the summary of losses in p. 451 of the text: death due to combat 1248; death due to diseases 62; wounded 2146.

The losses of the 6th Regiment can be found in “History of the 6th Infantry Regiment” : the regiment suffered 1001 killed and 2041 wounded up to Nov 8. However this detailed set of figures do not include death due to diseases.

Unfortunately similar figures for the other units in the division are not available. However, based on the figures from the above two regiments, one can estimate that the total number of killed for the infantry regiments are probably in the neighborhood of 4000+, and with additional losses (estimated at 10% of the infantry losses) of the various support troops, the total number of killed is probably closer to 5000, which is far higher than the figures given in the “The Diaries of the Commander of the 101st Division”.

We now turn to 9D.

According to 《敦賀連隊史》 the 19th Infantry Regiment lost 825 killed and 2284 wounded up to Nov 10
Similarly, based on 《富山聯隊史》, the 35th Infantry Regiment lost 822 killed and 1800 wounded up to Nov 18
The 7th Infantry Regiment, based on 《金城聯隊史》, lost 684 killed and 1470 wounded up to Oct 28 and 1055 killed up to Dec 24.
Finally, according to 《鯖江歩兵第三十六連隊史》 the 36th Infantry Regiment lost 696 killed up to Nov 9.
Also 《金城聯隊史》 recorded that the four infantry regiments together lost 2576 killed and 5362 wounded up to Oct 28, and the entire division (including support troops) lost 2830 killed and 6512 wounded; and 3833 killed and 8527 wounded up to Nov 9. Finally it claimed that for the entire four months (Sep to Dec 1937) the entire division lost 4562 killed and 13785 wounded.

Once again it is clear that the figures in “The Diaries of the Commander of the 101st Division” ,which are similar to those in Senshi Sosho, is much lower than the detailed numbers provided by the histories of the various regiments.

In fact I think the actual losses might be even a bit higher. The reason is that according to figures provided by《金城聯隊史》 , the division actually lost an additional 700+ killed but 5500+ wounded between Nov 9 and the end of the year: this is a highly unusual ratio. One possible reason is that due to the chaotic situation in the heat of the battle, many wounded/sick cases were not properly recorded and were simply added to the last period. Furthermore, it seems that none of the above detailed figures include deaths due to diseases. Finally, the 9th Division is one of the earliest to be committed to the Battle of Shanghai; it seems reasonably that their losses will be on par with other divisions sharing the same fate i.e. 3D and 11D. I think the total deaths due to all causes for 9D should be 4000+.

[Jerry Asher]

Hi SJ: Thanks for your work and postings. Not sure this is of any help--But I once made a list of merchant ships listed as sailing with wounded from Shanghai to Japan from Nov. 1937 to March 1938. If I recall it involved twenty two ships and also a Navy hospital ship was on a two week turnaround schedule. Most of my data was from Hisashi Noma's "Japanese Merchant Ships at War." Would it be of assistance for me to dig around and post? PS Did the regimental histories, in part or whole tell what ships were used to transport which troops and when? At one level the battle is fascinating as a contest between shipping and railroad capacity of the Chinese vs shipping of the Japanese.

[sjchan]

Thanks Jerry for the offer. If we know the schedule and capacity of the hospital ships then we have a rough idea of the number of seriously ill or wounded transported back to Japan; however the proportion of each will not be known. There would, I imagine, some handled by field hospitals in Shanghai particularly after the Chinese forces have been pushed back. So it will not be able to generate precise figures of Japanese casualties in my mind.

Some regimental histories contain information regarding transport; but mostly they focus on the battles in Shanghai.

[sjchan]

Let me continue ...

We now come to 101D.

《戦记甲府连队》records that 101D lost 1774 killed in action up to Jan 29, 1939, which is similar to the figures given in “The Diaries of the Commander of the 101st Division” by伊東政喜. Even though the figures in this book are usually too low, this figure will be considered accurate given the lack of better information; in any case since 伊東政喜 is the commander of the 101D he may have better figures for his own outfit.

We do have much better information on 13D.

《若松聯隊回想録》records that the 65th Infantry Regiment suffered 620 killed and 1009 wounded up to Nov 11.
《高田歩兵第五十八聯隊史》records that the 58th Infantry Regiment suffered 431 killed and 697 wounded up to Nov 2.
《歩兵第百十六聯隊概史》 records that the 116th Infantry Regiment suffered 390 killed and 592 wounded up to Oct 30 and 412 killed and 650 wounded up to Nov 27.
Finally, 《歩一〇四物語 : わが連隊の記録》records that the 104th Infantry Regiment lost 573 killed up to Nov 11.

Furthermore, a book covering major battles of 13D, 《郷土部隊戦記》indicates that up to Oct 28 (when the battle of Shanghai was still raging, though in its last stages) the entire division lost 1900 killed as well as 3900 wounded; these figures are largely in agreement with those provided by the regimental histories quoted above. It can been seen that the figures given in “The Diaries of the Commander of the 101st Division” by伊東政喜 are far too low. An estimate of 2000+ killed for the entire 13D (including support troops) seem to be a conservative estimate.

The last major infantry unit involved in the Shanghai fighting is the Taiwan Garrison Force, which consist primarily of the 1st and 2nd Taiwan Infantry Regiments and the Taiwan Artillery Regiment.

Based on a list of combat deaths in 《軍旗はためくところ : 台湾歩兵第一聯隊史》 , I manage to get a total of about 240 combat deaths for the 1st Taiwan Infantry Regiment up to Nov 2. Assuming similar casualties for the other infantry regiment and smaller losses for artillery units, one can probably say that total combat deaths suffered by this force is about 500+.

Since 101D, 13D as well as the Taiwan Garrison Force joined the Battle of Shanghai later than the first 3 units, their losses are, not surprisingly, somewhat lower.

So now if we add up the rough losses of the above 6 major units, we have a total of 4000+5000+4000+1500+2000+500 = 17000 killed in action. This does not include losses by misc. support units; and I suspect in many figures death due to diseases have not been included as well (since these are more difficult to calculate).

So how does my calculation based on unit histories compare with other figures for total Japanese losses as recorded in other sources?

[sjchan]

Almost forgot about the last installment, here it is.

I have also noted the figures given in Senshi Sosho, which are similar to those in “The Diaries of the Commander of the 101st Division”, but much lower than my calculation (regarding combat deaths) based on unit histories.

My calculation does agree pretty well with the Jan 15, 1938 entry in the diary of上村利道(Deputy Chief of Staff of the Shanghai Expeditionary Army), the total battle deaths of the Shanghai Expeditionary Army up to the end of 1937 is 16,609, with 1796 additional deaths due to sickness, giving a total number of deaths to be 18,000+. Note this includes the battle deaths of the Battle of Nanjing as well as the pursuit of defeated Chinese forces after the Battle of Shanghai, but since the casualties of these battles were considerably smaller than the Battle of Shanghai, I would say the two set of figures agree well in terms of number of deaths.

But how about the number of wounded and sick?

Another source, the regimental history of the 34th Infantry Regiment of 3D, contains a figure of 10,076 killed, 30,866 wounded, 20,172 sick and 897 deaths due to sickness. This is similar to the Senshi Sosho figures, but with number of sick added.

The Jan 15, 1938 entry in the diary of上村利道 actually gives more than the number of combat deaths, it also enumerates the number of dead due to sickness (1,796), number of wounded (86,007) but no information on the number of sick. This set of figures is both interesting and puzzling. It is interesting in that although the number of troops killed in action and died of diseases are vastly different from that in the regimental history of the 34th Infantry Regiment (10,076 vs 16,609, 897 vs 1,796) the ratio of battle deaths to death due to diseases is actually fairly close (11.2 to 1 vs 9.2 to 1); this seems to me that a ratio of say 10 to 1 is probably a fair estimate. If we assume the ratio of sick and death due to sickness (20,172 to 897) is a reasonably accurate one, and taking 1,796 as the more accurate estimate of the number of death due to sickness, then the number of sick can be estimated to be roughly 40,000.

The number of wounded given by上村利道 is puzzling; the ratio of death to wounded is almost 5:1 which is highly unusual – the figures based on unit histories quoted above is in the range of 2 to 2.5 to 1 which is far more reasonable. If we take 16,609 combat deaths as the base figure, we would expect something like 40,000 wounded. Did he include both wounded and sick (estimated at 40,000 above)? Maybe, but there is no way to tell.

So a preliminary conclusion is that in to the roughly 17000 combat deaths there should be added about 1800 death due to illness for a total of almost 19000 deaths due to all causes, and an estimated additional 35000 to 40000 wounded and 40000 sick; all told about reduction in combat strength of about 100,000 for the 3 month long Battle of Shanghai.

[sjchan]

Postscript: I noted that even though there are literally hundreds of unit histories and a similarly large number of personal memoirs related to the Sino-Japanese war, there are only a handful of Japanese books devoted to specific campaigns or battles. Is it because most people consider Senshi Sosho to be the definitive work and hence there is little need to do more, or is it because Japanese historians consider the study of these battles not particularly interesting or worthwhile? Or because the war as a whole was such a painful experience that veterans or historians would rather reminisce than revisit and analyze these battles?