Christmas in China, 1942

Eighty years ago, thousands of US servicemen had ended up in the interior of China as a result of the Sino-American alliance formed to defeat Japan, and by December 1942, … Continue Reading →

Eighty Years Ago: Asia Pacific, March 26 – April 1, 1942

March 26, 1942: Japanese carrier force leaves Dutch East Indies for the Indian Ocean March 27, 1942: In Burma, Japanese Army continues onslaught on Toungoo while amassing forces on Irrawaddy … Continue Reading →

The Nanjing Massacre: A Swedish Diplomat Reports (Part Two)

“The soldiers have murdered, burnt and looted while raping women without worrying about the presence of witnesses.” By early 1938, the Swedish envoy to China, Johan Beck-Friis, was in no … Continue Reading →

Death on the Marco Polo Bridge

On July 7, 1937, Chinese and Japanese forces clashed at the Marco Polo Bridge near Beijing, unwittingly setting off an eight-year-long war that only ended with the formal Japanese surrender … Continue Reading →

China’s Ban on ‘The Great Dictator’

Curious news was coming out of China’s wartime capital of Chongqing in the summer of 1941. Charlie Chaplin’s famous movie “The Great Dictator” had been banned in Chinese theaters, allegedly … Continue Reading →

White Russians in China, Part 2

When Japan occupied northeast China in 1931 and 1932 and turned the area into the puppet state of Manchukuo, it also took over a minority of several thousand ethnic Russians … Continue Reading →

Beijing’s Wartime Police Force

In the months after the Japanese Army occupied Beijing in the summer of 1937, the new administration attempted to introduce a semblance of normalcy. This involved employing local Chinese in … Continue Reading →

A Century of Chinese Uniforms

China has seen tremendous change over the past century, and along with the rest of Chinese society, the transformation of the nation’s military forces has been profound. At the start … Continue Reading →

Nanjing 1948: The Reckoning

A high-profile trial was taking place in Nanjing in early 1948. In the dock were two former Japanese officers, Mukai Toshiaki and Noda Tsuyoshi, identified as the duo who had … Continue Reading →

Mussolini’s Marines: Italians in China

One of the strangest military operations of World War Two featured Japanese opposing Italians on Chinese soil. In September 1943, when Italy signed an armistice with the Allies, abandoning its … Continue Reading →