After the Chinese Boxer Rebellion in 1900, Italy, along with other European nations, was granted international concessions in China; small enclaves located within major cities entirely controlled and governed by the foreign power. In order to secure their Asian trade rights and to protect their interests, Italy stationed troops and maintained a small naval presence in her concessions in the cities of Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin.

Although Japan had begun their conquest of China in 1931 none of the international concessions were attacked or occupied by Japanese forces at that time. On the 6 November 1937 Italy signed the Anti-Comintern Pact with Nazi Germany and the Empire of Japan and then the position of her enclaves in China was further strengthened when Mussolini concluded the Tripartite Pact with Germany and Japan in 1940. Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour and the rapid conquest of Hong Kong, the Dutch East Indies, French Indo-China and British colonial possessions in Burma, Malaya and Singapore, no allied forces remained in the Far East to pose a threat to Italian interests after February 1942. The Japanese were probably not particularly happy to have large parts of three major Chinese cities firmly held under armed Italian control, but presumably they tolerated the presence as Italy was participating with Germany in a valuable trade in military equipment, scientific instruments, weapons and strategic goods between occupied Europe and Japan, largely shipped in submarines.

But what happened to the Italian concessions, the troops garrisoning them and the warships operating in the Far East when, with the 1943 armistice, Italy changed sides? From 3 September 1943 Italy became an enemy of Japan and the Italian garrison forces in the Far East suddenly found themselves isolated deep within Japanese territory. Japan immediately moved to occupy the Italian concessions, but what followed? Did the Italian troops resist the Japanese army takeover and end up fighting their former allies; did they simply surrender themselves to the uncertain fate of being POWs; or did they effectively mutiny against their own government and continue to fight alongside the Japanese?

Good question Meles. I wasn't even aware that Italy had concessions in China so this is all new and fascinating to me. There is mention of the Tientsin concession, however, on this website:

Cina - la concessione italiana

The last paragraph seems to say that following the 1943 armistice, the Japanese went in with overwhelming numbers and that the tiny Italian garrison surrendered. The key sentence is:

'Tutti furono fatti prigionieri ed internati – subendo un trattamento molto duro – nei campi di concentramento vicino a Tangashan in Corea.'

'All were taken prisoner and interned - undergoing harsh treatment - in concentration camps near Tangashan in Korea.'

It goes on to say that in 1944 Mussolini's short-lived Repubblica Sociale Italiana (RSI) ceded the territory to the pro-Japanese Nanking republic of China. The Nanking Republic under Wang Jingwei was a rival to Chiang Kai-shek's pro-Allied republic of China based in Chungking. It would later be to Chiang Kai-shek's Republic of China which the newly-established Italian Republic would finally cede the concession in 1947.

I suppose the situation in September 1943 wasn't dissimilar to that faced by Italian troops in the Balkans and Greek islands where the options were: disarm and surrender to German forces; resist the German takeover and hope for allied support; or declare renewed allegiance to Mussolini and become active alongside the Germans against the allies. As in China all of these options came with uncertainties and risks, for example the fate of the Acqui division on Cephalonia who after they had initially resisted the German take over, eventually disarmed and surrendered, only to be massacred by the Germans. The difference in China was that the Italians were few in number and very isolated, so that any resistance on their part would never get any allied support (and little allied aid was given to Italian resistance in the Mediterranean theatre), moreover, given the brutality of the Japanese to European POWs, surrender was a far more daunting prospect.

A little more information about the Italian forces in the Far East during WW2:

https://www.historynet.com/command-italys-far-eastern-army-and-navy-forces.htm


Dirk

Thanks for that article, Dirk. So in Beijing the hundred or so Italian troops, while completely outnumbered, put up a stiff resistance to the Japanese takeover, and then, despite having resisted valiantly, mostly opted to continue to fight on the Axis side. However in Tientsin the commander, with more men but still hopelessly outnumbered, reluctantly surrendered in order to spare the lives of civillians sheltering in the enclave. Meanwhile Italian ships were mostly scuttled but with a couple escaping to British territories. Having surrendered to the Japanese all those that refused to continue the war against the British and Americans were transported to prisoner-of-war camps, where their Japanese former allies badly maltreated them. As in in Greece it was a very difficult situation they suddenly found themselves in.

There's a video on this subject;

Thanks Trike. Mark Felton is the author of both the youtube and the linked article quoted by Dirk so it says much the same stuff, but it is interesting to see all the photos and film clips. Like Vizzer I was largely unaware of the foreign concession enclaves and treaty ports in China. I was also unaware of the blockade-running and clandestine trade undertaken by Italian and Japanese submarines running between Japan and Europe.

Another of MFs' videos, Meles. These flights were new to me as well.

New to me too although I have a vague recollection that Albert Speer mentioned the German flights in 'The World at War' TV series from the 1970s. And have you seen this one about a "Secret Japanese Submarine Mission to German-Occupied France"?



SPOILER ALERT - They made it to Bordeaux but on the return journey, with the submarine stuffed with new state-of-the-art German weapons and advanced technological proto-types, they hit a Japanese harbour defence mine and sank while on the home straight.

There were also occasional attempts by surface ships to run the blockade. The final attempt in late December 1943 by the ships Osorno and Alsterufer,carrying Tungsten and Rubber, resulting in a battle in Bay of Biscay between the cruisers Glasgow and Enterprise against a squadron of German destroyers and torpedo- boats:



An odd little fact I came across, was that the first German serviceman killed in WW2, was a Leutnant von Schmeling who was killed by the Japanese while acting as a military advisor with the Nationalist Chinese 88th Division during the Batlle of Shanghai in 1937.

Another little oddity. Pro-Czarist Russians who joined Imperial Japan: