Shanghai forced landing incident

The Shanghai forced landing incident (Shanhai-gō fujichaku jiken) was an aircraft accident that occurred during the Sino-Japanese Incident (Second Sino-Japanese War). It is an incident said to have shaken the Japanese military, less because of the accident itself than because the accident aircraft was carrying secret military documents.

Course of the accident

It was at 8:30 am on 1 December 1941 (Shōwa 16) (Monday) that the Shanghai (a DC3 aircraft) belonging to China Airways took off from Dachang airfield in Shanghai. China Airways was an airline founded in 1936 with investment from the Provisional Government of the Republic of China, the Reformed Government of the Republic of China and others, which are today regarded as puppet regimes of the Japanese military, and it could be called a Sino-Japanese joint venture. Also, since this was in the midst of the Sino-Japanese Incident, with the Japanese military and the Nationalist government of the Republic of China led by Chiang Kai-shek at war, not only the crews of the flights being operated but also most of the passengers were Japanese and people connected with them.

The Shanghai landed at 11:20 at Taipei airfield in Taiwan, then under Japanese rule, which was an intermediate stop. After passengers disembarked and boarded and the aircraft was refuelled, it took off again at 12:30 heading for Guangdong Province. Guangdong Province was under the control of the Japanese military, but the areas along the way were under Nationalist control, and the aircraft was scheduled to pass over "enemy" territory. According to the schedule it was to arrive in Guangzhou 3 hours after leaving Taipei.

However, communication ceased after a last message reporting that it was passing over Shantou. China Airways and the other airfields were uneasy about the loss of communication, but since a radio failure was also considered possible, they waited for the Shanghai to appear at Canton airfield. However, even after the scheduled arrival time of 4 pm had passed, the aircraft could not be sighted. After 5 pm, when its fuel would be exhausted, China Airways reported to the China Expeditionary Army General Headquarters that the aircraft had very probably come to grief. The headquarters, on receiving the report, was thrown into great confusion, and a search for the aircraft that had made a forced landing was begun that same day.

Then on 3 December, a Japanese Army reconnaissance aircraft (Type 98 direct co-operation aircraft) found the Shanghai, which had made a forced landing on the Shichaodong Heights roughly midway between Xiantou and Guangzhou. The cause of the accident is not clear, but it is presumed that it strayed into the mountains owing to bad weather and was forced to make a forced landing. The nose of the Shanghai was considerably damaged, but the fuselage section retained its original shape and there might have been survivors. However, the site was within enemy territory and a rescue was difficult. Moreover, at the time, in the event of a forced landing in enemy territory, military personnel were to fight and then take their own lives, and civilians were to be taken prisoner or take their own lives like the military personnel, so it was not a situation in which the Japanese military would intervene. However, immediately after finding the aircraft, the Japanese military bombed the forced-landed aircraft with bombers and destroyed it. This was done because the accident aircraft was carrying highly confidential documents, including the operation orders and code books for the operation to capture Hong Kong at the outbreak of war with the United States and Britain scheduled for 8 December, and it was feared that they would fall into enemy hands.