Battle for a Doomed City: Gaming Nanjing 1937 (Part 1)

This article is written by G. Jökull Gíslason, an Iceland-based wargamer and historian with a special interest in the Second Sino-Japanese War. It shows how wargames and simulations can add … Continue Reading →

Mon Dieu! The Fate of a French Port in China

The Allied victory in the war in Asia in 1945 meant the end of not just Japanese imperialism in the region, but also, paradoxically, European imperialism. An example of this is the fate … Continue Reading →

Shanghai: Wicked Old ‘Paris of the Orient’

“Keenly observant”, “riveting”, ” marvellous, microscopically descriptive” — the reviewers have rained down the superlatives on Canadian non-fiction writer Taras Grescoe’s new book Shanghai Grand: Forbidden Love and International Intrigue in a Doomed … Continue Reading →

World War II Weekend!

From the World War Two Weekend at the Mid-Atlantic Air Museum in Reading, PA. The photos have kindly been provided by Ryan Daniels, a true expert on China’s long war … Continue Reading →

Childhood in Shadow of War

Margaret Blair was born in Shanghai in 1936 and spent the years from 1942 to 1945 in a Japanese internment camp. In her memoir Gudao, Lone Islet she paints a vivid … Continue Reading →

War On Display

The Armed Forces Museum in Taipei is one of the best places in the world to view objects from the Second Sino-Japanese War. Ryan Daniels recently paid the museum a … Continue Reading →

What War Does to Human Hearts: Interview with Geling Yan

 The Second Sino-Japanese War formed the backdrop for Chinese-born author Geling Yan’s novella 13 Flowers of War, which was adapted for the big screen as The Flowers of War. Now … Continue Reading →

Flying ‘The Hump’

This article, about one of the many American pilots who risked their lives to keep China supplied across the ‘Hump’ air route, is written by seasoned journalist George Morris. It … Continue Reading →

‘Uninvited’ War and the Mongol Trophy

When Japan surrendered in 1945, the race was on to grab as much territory in China as possible. Participants included Nationalist China and the Soviet Union, but also, unknown to … Continue Reading →

China’s Schindler

This article, by Dirk de Klein, was originally carried on his website. It is reproduced here with his kind permission. Ho Feng-Shan (born September 10, 1901 in Yiyang, Hunan; died … Continue Reading →