A Social and Visual History of the Dadao: China’s ‘Military Big-Saber’ (I)

Author and scholar Ben Judkins describes the Dadao, or ‘big saber’, which, despite the pre-modern technology used, played an important role in the Second Sino-Japanese War, and in Chinese military … Continue Reading →

VIP visit to Singapore

Not long after the capitulation of Allied forces in the Dutch East Indies on March 5, 1942, a military delegation from countries allied to Japan visited the areas where the … Continue Reading →

Japan’s ‘Knee Mortar’

The ‘knee mortar’ was among the most peculiar weapons that the Japanese Army brought with it to battlefields in China and elsewhere in the 1930s and 1940s. This detailed article … Continue Reading →

‘Sons of the Dragon’

This article by Alex Baugh was originally posted on the excellent blog The Children’s War: A Guide to Books for Young Readers about World War II… and Other Interesting Bits. For more, … Continue Reading →

Japan’s Skull Squadron (II)

In the second of two articles about Japan’s Skull Squadron, first carried on the Warfare Historian Blog, we look at the uniforms and equipment of this elite unit, active for … Continue Reading →

Japan’s Skull Squadron (I)

One of the oddest but also most feared Japanese units on the Asian mainland in the years prior to full-scale war with China was the so-called Skull Squadron. Read on in … Continue Reading →

Wolf Boy: Japan’s Psy-Ops Against China

Japan’s psychological warfare program in World War II was remarkably diverse, and targeted not just the western Allies, but also the Chinese, as the examples below demonstrate. They are from … Continue Reading →