Headscratchers / Night Raid 1931

• Should they really be speaking Japanese so loudly in China the year being what it is?
  • Yes, seeing as how the Japanese military was one of the major occupying powers in China in the inter-war years. It's like having Englishmen speaking English in Hong Kong in 1931. Shanghai was one of the most cosmopolitan cities in the world, with significant numbers of White Russian refugees, Germans, Italians, Americans, French, British, Japanese... pretty much every major power was represented in a large way. Moreover, in 1931 Japan had not yet launched its full-scale invasion of China (that happened in 1937) so Chinese attitudes to Japan, while not friendly, were not to reach the fevered pitch of hatred that came later.
    • That being said, they were getting there quite quickly. By this point in time even the warlords were starting to get united behind the idea of opposing Japan at the expense of putting aside their own rivalries, and Chiang was becoming incredibly unpopular for continuing to pursue the war against the CCP at the expense of confronting the Japanese. On top of this, it was never quite clear that the Japanese weren't in the process of launching a full-scale invasion since they were continuing to advance furiously in the Northeast and the situation in Shanghai itself was ratcheting up towards a localized war between the KMT and the Japanese. So it probably isn't that wise to be doing it so loudly.