In 1937, NYC Chinatown did its part to resist Japan's invasion

The year 1937 was a somber one for Chinese and Chinese Americans. It was the year that Japan invaded the mainland, and it concluded with the horrible Nanjing Massacre some 80 years ago.

The events were painfully felt by the Chinese community in the United States, but they also spurred what had been an insular Chinese community to action.

In New York, home to a bustling Chinatown, the Japanese invasion also did something that could not be accomplished since the founding of Chinatown around 1860: It led to a temporary cessation of hostilities between China's warring tongs, namely the On Leongs and Hip Sings.

The On Leong Tong and the Hip Sing Tong waged a bloody turf battle for control of Manhattan's Chinatown over a span of 25 years, starting around 1900. Many of the future gangsters began arriving in New York in the late 1800s, after public jobs were closed to them in San Francisco.

But in 1937, they put aside their differences and formed the New York Overseas Chinese Anti-Japanese Salvation General Committee for Military Funds.

On Sunday, Nov 7, 1937, more than 2,000 Chinese marchers representing almost every society, club and tong in the city coursed through Chinatown collecting funds to aid Chinese refugees and to resist the Japanese invasion of the mainland.

The Chinese Hand Laundry Alliance, a powerful organization, closed its 1,500 shops to join the 67 groups represented in the parade, the New York Daily News reported.

The New York Times reported about the parade under the headline "2,000 Chinese Aid War-Fund Drive" in a story on page 4 the next day.

At that time, Japanese forces were encircling Shanghai.

On the same page were headlines that read "Big Battle Raging at Shanshi (Shanxi) Capital" and "Chinese Defenses Shift at Shanghai". Another headline said "China Relief Aid Mapped".

"Thirty women carried a huge Chinese flag, into which bills and coins were thrown as the parade inched forward. The streets were packed with cheering watchers and window space and perches on fire-escapes were at a premium," the Times reported.

There was a "dragon" that "gobbled money offered to it in long streamers of bills", the story said. The parade stopped at 7 Mott Street, where a banner with $1 bills sewn on to form Chinese characters translated to: "Fight against Japan to the very bitter end to save China."

Dr Hu Shih, professor of philosophy at what was then called Peiping University, who was a representative of the Chinese Minister of Education, told an audience of 1,500 in the China Theatre earlier that day that the Chinese people should be prepared for a long war and not be discouraged by the somber news from China. He said that his country was "prepared to resist to the end", the Times reported.

Also speaking that day was General Hwang Chen-shan, an aid to Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek of the Nationalist government.

Sadly, a little more than a month later, the Nanjing Massacre began in which up to 300,000 Chinese were believed to be killed by Japanese forces.

The News reported that Chinese across the US contributed to a war fund that raised $1.5 million in 1937. Six months later, 12,000 people marched in what was the largest Chinese demonstration in the US at the time, the paper said.

I contacted the Museum of Chinese in America in New York with the hope of getting more information on the 1937 parade, but so far it hadn't located anything in its archives.

But the demonstration that November day showed that in a time when it was much harder to get overseas news, the Chinese community was fiercely determined to do what it could for its homeland.

Contact the writer at williamhennelly@chinadailyusa.com