Photos show how Japanese warplanes targeted Tongji

The remains of the physiology research building in Tongji University after it was bombed by the Japanese in January 1932. Attacks then and in 1937 are the subject of a new exhibition. — Ti Gong

Previousely unseen photographs feature in an exhibition telling the story of how Shanghai's prestigious Tongji University was bombed on several occasions by Japanese warplanes.

A total of 150 pictures plus film footage feature in the exhibition at the Battle of Shanghai Museum which opened yesterday.

This marked the 77th anniversary of the start of the Battle of Shanghai in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression.

Some of the exhibits are from the archives of Tongji University, while the remainder come from individuals and institutions in China and other countries.

Together, they tell how the university was bombed in January 28, 1932 and August 13, 1937.

Most of the exhibits are on show for the first time, said Zhu Dazhang, director of the Tongji University Archives.

Among rarities are photographs taken by August Rehbein, a German who taught in the school attached to Tongji between 1929 and 1934.

His photographs of savage behavior by the Japanese army were presented to the university archives by his grandson, Oliver Moebert.

Elegant buildings

Tongji University, originally known as Deutsche Medizinschule, was built in 1907 in downtown Shanghai.

After those premises were closed in 1917, Chinese members of the school board moved it to the Wusong area of Baoshan District, in houses rented from other schools.

In 1919, they bought land and began to build a campus, which was finished in 1924.

It featured a Romanesque auditorium, factories where students could work as interns, elegant residential buildings for German teachers and gardens with fountains.

By 1932, it was renowned for medicine, engineering and science. But on January 28, the Japanese army bombed the university several times, causing severe damage.

Classes were held in houses for seven months until students could return to campus.

In August 1937, the Japanese again bombed the university repeatedly, destroying almost all its buildings.

Local newspapers criticized the attacks as deliberately targeting cultural institutions, as Tongji was of no military significance.

The university moved to temporary homes in Zhejiang, Jiangxi. Guangxi, Yunnan and Sichuan provinces, before returning to Shanghai in 1946.

A factory was built on the ruins of the Wusong campus.

Tongji University is now located in Yangpu District.

The exhibition runs until mid September.