Casualties of Chongqing Bombing

by Emma Jacobs

Japan bombed China’s wartime capital Chongqing 203 times, destroying approximately 17,500 homes, injuring 14,100 residents, and killing 11,889 persons between February 1938 to August 1943  (Lan 111). Most casualties were civilians, and downtown incurred the most damage, which left citizens with psychological wounds and the city with generations-long construction issues. Although the Chongqing Bombing garnered patriotism and international support during the Second World War, Japan’s persistent attacks on families in China caused far-reaching grief and economic wreckage. ​

    Japan dropped more than 11,500 bombs during its five-year assault during the Chongqing Bombing from February 1938 to August 194, so explosions were frequent. However, some particular attacks stand out. For instance, the May 3rd and May 4th Massacres of 1939 resulted in nearly 4,000 deaths because Japanese planes utilized incendiary bombs throughout Chongqing’s most populated areas. 200,000 people were left homeless after fires ravaged the city for multiple days. Two years later, Japan executed the Great Tunnel Massacre of 1941, assaulting the Jiaochangkou bomb shelter where thousands of people seeking protection died from suffocation or endured severe injuries (​​Yangxin). These bombings were not unique, for hundreds of bombings occurred before, between, and after the May 3rd, May 4th, and Great Tunnel Massacre. 
    As Chongqing earned capital status and became China’s political and military hub during the Anti-Japanese War, the city became Japan’s primary target. One survivor, Wang Qunsheng, described Japan’stactics, saying, “[the Japanese] successively adopted ‘high-density bombing’, ‘fatigue bombing’, ‘moonlight bombing’ and ‘unrestricted bombing’” (“The Great Bombing of Chongqing in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression”). Such tactics were intended to force Chongqing into submission. The constant casualties motivated swift surrender, yet Chongqing’s anti-fascist leanings meant that its citizens persevered through five years of attacks.  
    Tragedies transpired on a massive scale, as Zhang Yongfang makes clear. At seven years old, bombs collapsed her house, burying her and her family under rubble, killing six people: 
“The deepest impression on me is that I was crawling between two wooden stakes in the rubble, crying and shouting, ‘Help me, I'm afraid!’ …  My aunt was still pregnant with a child, but when [they recovered her body], her head was gone, her neck was neatly broken, and her head was not found until the burial … The living people had no food to eat [and] the dead people had to be buried [but] the coffin shops in several nearby towns were all sold out” (“The Great Bombing of Chongqing in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression”).
With her sister, aunt, two migrant workers, and two unnamed victims dead, Zhang Yongfan’s stories reflect the fate of thousands, who similarly lost their family members and homes in the same manner. 
    Most historical inquiry into the Chongqing Bombings emphasizes men’s efforts, but historian Li Danke’s book Echoes of Chongqing: Women in Wartime China points to specific struggles survived by female residents. From 1999 to 2007, Li interviewed 20 women who survived the air raids, and most recalled food shortages, frequent encounters with dead bodies, and anxiety over the idea that their child may not live to see another day. One mother details losing four children, while others explained their experiences in orphanages, presenting incidents where young girls were sexually abused. Li argues that despite their many sufferings, women found joyful outlets in multiple ways: by spreading political pamphlets, performing dances for entertainment, or teaching children healing songs (Chai 102-103). In Chongqing, as bombs devastated their city and husbands left for battle, women toiled over food, income, and their children’s well-being. 
    Chongqing developed several bomb shelters but as the Great Tunnel Massacre proved, those spaces could not defend against constant bombings. While most citizens sought refuge in their homes, wealthy politicians built remote homes to avoid air raids. Chiang-Kai Shek, China’s leader from 1928 to 1949, spent his time safely away from Chongqing, staying within Nanshan and Geleshan mountains or in his holiday villa at the Southern Hot Springs (Danielson 183). The Yellow Mountain, also called the Huangshan Compound黄山, safeguarded Chinese officials with mountains and dense forests. These homes, some of which found nicknames like the “Cloud Peak House” or “Pine Hall,” offered superior safety and even had underground passageways that connected elites and protected them from destruction(198-200). The difference between Chongqing bomb shelters and the Yellow Mountain reinforces the danger civilians encountered, especially when compared to politicians’ luxury homes.


Historians have only recently begun to investigate the Chongqing Bombings: they have acquired statistics about casualties, injuries, and destroyed homes but cannot measure deaths indirectly caused by the bombs as well as civilians’ levels of psychological distress. In addition to deaths by bombs, Chongqing suffered intense pollution, Encephalitis, and smallpox outbreaks. After the May 3rd and May 4th killings, cholera and dysentery killed many(“The Great Bombing of Chongqing in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression”). These death tolls have gone unrecorded, but modern archival information and further historical study can reveal the true number of deaths caused by the Chongqing Air Raids.




Works Cited
Chai, May-Lee. "Echoes of Chongqing: Women in Wartime China." Asian Affairs, an American         Review 37.2 (2010): 102-3. ProQuest. Web. 21 July 2022.
Danielson, Eric N. “Revisiting Chongqing: China’s Second World War Temporary National         Capital.” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch, vol. 45, 2005, pp.         173–221. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/23889883. Accessed 22 Jul. 2022.
The Great Bombing of Chongqing in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression.         Xudong Reading History, 22 Sept. 2018.
Lan, Guo. “Arrangement and Research on Chongqing Bombing Archives.” Canadian Social         Science, vol. 11, no. 12, 2015, pp. 110–113., https://doi.org/10.3968/7968.
Yangxin, Zhang. “‘Chongqing Bombing’ and Foreign Embassies in Chongqing During             Wartime.” Galileo Galilei Italian Institute, 16 June 2020,                         http://www.galileiinstitute.it/the-mass-booming-in-chongqing-and-embassies-of-foreign-         countries-in-chongqing-during-wartime/. 

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