64 Seconds in Hell

What was it like to be a Chinese or Japanese soldier fighting for one’s life in and around Shanghai in the fall of 1937? No one who wasn’t actually there … Continue Reading →

The Japanese Girl

Zhou Fukang was 23 years old when he met the love of his life. It was a brief encounter, and he never saw her again. At the age of 92, … Continue Reading →

China’s Best Ambassador

Song Meiling, China’s First Lady during the war, was her country’s best ambassador by far. “China’s Joan of Arc,” she was called, and “the most powerful woman in the world.” … Continue Reading →

The Battle Erupts (II)

“Launch the assault.” This was in essence the message sent from supreme Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek to his frontline commanders near Shanghai during the night between August 13 and 14. … Continue Reading →

The Battle Erupts (I)

Friday, August 13, 1937 marked the start of the epic, three-month battle of Shanghai, at least according to official Chinese historiography, where the date is so widely accepted that a … Continue Reading →

Fall of Beijing, 1937

On July 29, 1937, China’s old imperial capital Beijing fell to Japanese forces. The image above shows the emperor’s troops marching through Qianmen gate into the city, officially called Beiping … Continue Reading →

More Than A Thousand Characters

With their immediate impact and their appeal to the emotions, images have been used in war propaganda since ancient times. Therefore, it’s no surprise that they were employed in China … Continue Reading →

‘Evergreen’

China and Germany were involved in close military cooperation in the 1920s and 1930s, manifested for example in the dispatch of a small but influential corps of German advisors to … Continue Reading →

Deadly Clash at Marco Polo Bridge

Seventy-seven years ago, on July 7, 1937, Chinese and Japanese soldiers clashed at Marco Polo Bridge outside Beijing. Although no one could know it at the time, it was the … Continue Reading →

Chinese War Graves in India

After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and western positions in East Asia in December 1941, China became a full-blown member of the Allied war effort against the axis. This … Continue Reading →