Lunghua Civilian Assembly Center

Lunghua Civil Assembly Centre was one of the internment camps eventually established by the Empire of Japan in Shanghai for European and American citizens, who had been resident under Japanese occupation since December 1941. Many had formerly lived in Shanghai within the Shanghai International Settlement before its occupation by the Japanese army.

James Graham Ballard was interned in the camp as an adolescent. His experiences there inspired the book (and subsequent movie) Empire of the Sun.

Lunghua Civil Assembly Centre was originally the Kiansu Middle School. It was located on Minghong Road about three miles (5 km) from Shanghai Longhua Airport. (Pre-WWII documents use the alternate spellings of Lunghua and Lunghwa; the modern anglicized spelling of the town is Longhua.) The school was damaged in the Second Sino-Japanese War and was empty until it was designated as a Civil Assembly Centre. It was then used from 1943 to intern 1,988 people.

"The camp was large, containing seven concrete buildings, five large wooden barracks (originally built as stables by the Japanese), and numerous outbuildings. There were fifty nine dorms and 127 rooms for families."

The buildings on the site were built orthogonal to each other. The overall site was aligned slightly east of north. Therefore, in the description below, when a building is described as being built east–west it is more accurately described as ENE–WSW, and when a building is described as being built north–south, it is more accurately described as SSW–NNE.

The Assembly Hall was the central building. North of it were the single storey wooden buildings A, B and C. These were built parallel to each other, with each having been built east–west and with Building A as the furthest north. South of the Assembly Hall, also built east–west, was the three storey Building F, which was the administration block. South of Building F was the entrance and southeast was the three storey Building E built north–south. East of the Assembly Hall was the three storey Building D which was an accommodation block for families, built north–south.

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