Cloak and Dagger in China, Part 1

This is the first in a series of articles on clandestine work carried out in China and the Far East by the British Special Operations Executive during World War Two. … Continue Reading →

The Mysterious Case of E.A.R. Fowles II

This is the second installment in a two-part series about a more than 75-year-old riddle involving a war-themed mahjong set. It belonged to a mysterious E. A. R. Fowles, who … Continue Reading →

The Mysterious Case of E.A.R. Fowles I

This is the first installment in a two-part series about a wartime riddle involving a unique mahjong set full of anti-Japanese symbolism. It belonged to an elusive E. A. R. Fowles … Continue Reading →

Stranded in Shanghai II

Thousands of foreigners were stranded in Shanghai during World War Two, among them a group of Swedish sailors unable to go home. This is the last of two instalments of … Continue Reading →

Stranded in Shanghai I

The Second World War uprooted lives across the globe, including in nations that were not directly involved in the conflict. One example was the sailor Sten Nilsson, who was born … Continue Reading →

Giving Up the Pen For the Sword II

Now in his 90s, Chinese veteran Yang Cenfeng experienced all eight years of the Second Sino-Japanese War from 1937 to 1945. Below is the second and last instalment of his remarkable … Continue Reading →

Giving Up the Pen For the Sword I

Yang Cenfeng was just a teenager when full-scale war broke out between China and Japan in 1937 and his life changed forever. Today he is one of the only remaining … 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 →

Political Prisoners in Shanghai in 1934

What kind of political prisoners were incarcerated in Shanghai in the 1930s? What nationalities were they? Why were they jailed? These are questions that Australian historian Anne Atkinson has started … Continue Reading →

A Scrap Of Silk Tells An Airman’s Story

Read how the discovery in a military file of a scrap of silk, a “blood chit” of the kind that saved  numerous lives in the China theatre, led to the … Continue Reading →