The term China Marines, originally referred to the

United States Marines The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through com ...

of the

4th Marine Regiment The 4th Marine Regiment is an infantry regiment of the United States Marine Corps. Based at Camp Schwab in Okinawa, Japan, it is part of the 3rd Marine Division of the III Marine Expeditionary Force. Mission Close with and destroy the enemy by fi ...

, who were stationed in

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flowin ...

, China from 1927 to 1941 to protect American citizens and their property in the

Shanghai International Settlement The Shanghai International Settlement () originated from the merger in the year 1863 of the British and American enclaves in Shanghai, in which British subjects and American citizens would enjoy extraterritoriality and consular jurisdictio ...

, during the Chinese Revolution and the

Second Sino-Japanese War The Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) or War of Resistance (Chinese term) was a military conflict that was primarily waged between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. The war made up the Chinese theater of the wider Pacific Th ...

. Those Marines stationed at the embassy in Peking and the consulate in Tientsin referred to themselves as North China Marines. Due to the cheap labor available, China Marines lived a relatively comfortable lifestyle, with each squad able to hire Chinese men to do their cleaning and run their errands. This, plus the inexpensive goods available on the local market, made an assignment to the China Marines highly coveted. Most of the China Marines were withdrawn in November 1941, but the North China Marines in Peking and Tientsin were scheduled to be withdrawn on December 10. (All weapons and ammunition except rifles and pistols had been crated and shipped by rail to the embarkation port.) However, Imperial Japan attacked the United States on December 7, and the Marine Embassy guards, plus a fourteen-man Naval medical detachment, a total of 203 men, were captured and held as

slave labor Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

until the war's end in August 1945. A 204th man, a retired officer who had been living in Peking and recalled to duty, was immediately released. He continued living in Peking until he was included in the roundup of civilians and sent to the Weihsien civilian internment camp in March 1943. He was returned to the US on the exchange ship

Teia Maru MS ''Aramis'' was built for France's '' Messageries Maritimes'' for the France-Southeast Asia colonial route. One of her distinguishing features was that her funnels were square-shaped. She was built to carry 1,045 civilian passengers in first, ...

in September 1943. The last commander of the China Marines was Colonel

William W. Ashurst William Wallace Ashurst (October 30, 1893 – February 18, 1952) was a brigadier general in the United States Marine Corps, who was a last commander of the North China Marine Detachment. He was captured by Japanese forces on December 8, 1941, ...

. With the rapid expansion of the Marine Corps during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

and the capture of the rest of the 4th Marine Regiment at Corregidor, the surviving China Marines were few in number and highly regarded. After Japan's surrender, the 1st and 6th Marine Divisions, also known as China Marines, were sent to occupy northern China from 1945 to 1948. On January 31, 1996, Marines from the 2nd Battalion 5th Marines, as part of the

31st Marine Expeditionary Unit The 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit (31st MEU) is one of seven Marine Expeditionary Units in existence in the United States Marine Corps. The Marine Expeditionary Unit is a Marine Air Ground Task Force with a strength of about 2,200 Marines and ...

(31st MEU), Special Operations Capable (SOC), made their first visit to Shanghai, China, since World War II. The 31st MEU-SOC visited China again on November 22, 2006, during a port visit to

Zhanjiang Zhanjiang (), historically spelled Tsamkong, is a prefecture-level city at the southwestern end of Guangdong province, People's Republic of China, facing Haikou city to the south. As of the 2020 census, its population was 6,981,236 (6,994,832 ...

American Legion China Post One

American marines holding up a Japanese patrol in Shanghai, 1930s

American Legion China Post One, formed in 1919, one year after the "Great War" and chartered by the American Legion on 20 April 1920, was originally named the General

Frederick Townsend Ward Frederick Townsend Ward (; November 29, 1831September 22, 1862) was an American sailor and soldier of fortune known for his military service in Imperial China during the Taiping Rebellion. Early life and education Ward was born in Salem, Massa ...

Post No. 1, China. It is the only post nominally headquartered in a communist country, and has been operating in exile since 1948 — presently in Henderson, Nevada.China Post One
/ref>

In popular culture

Author

W.E.B. Griffin William Edmund Butterworth III (November 10, 1929 – February 12, 2019), better known by his pen name W. E. B. Griffin, was an American writer of military and detective fiction with 59 novels in seven series published under that name. Twenty-one ...

often writes of China Marines in his book series '' The Corps''. Book 1 of the series in particular highlights the pre-World War II lives of China Marines. In his Presidential Agent series, he several times makes reference to American Legion China Post No. 1 in Exile as a post comprised in the main of retired military special operators who can be hired for assorted purposes. Neal Stephenson's book ''

Cryptonomicon ''Cryptonomicon'' is a 1999 novel by American author Neal Stephenson, set in two different time periods. One group of characters are World War II-era Allied codebreakers and tactical-deception operatives affiliated with the Government Code an ...

'' contains descriptions of the exploits of the China Marines in

. The book begins with the evacuation of Shanghai in 1941.

References

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External links

ChinaMarines.com

China Marines Band

China Marines.org

American Legion China Post One
{{US Marine Corps navbox Military units and formations of the United States Marine Corps United States Marine Corps in the 20th century American military personnel of the Boxer Rebellion United States military presence in other countries China–United States relations

American Legion China Post One

In popular culture

See also

References

External links