Shattering the Myth

On April 7, 1938, the city of Hankou in central China “turned into a bedlam as thousands of firecrackers were exploded and newsboys tore about the streets shouting at the … 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 →

Last Flight of the ‘Jaunty Jo’

On May 26, 1945, sixteen B-25J Mitchell bombers took off from their base in the Philippines, headed for Taiwan. They were from the 498th Bomb Squadron, part of the 5th … Continue Reading →

Radio Free China

This article on how a sleepy California beach town was at the center of a war across the Pacific is excerpted from Boom, a Journal of California. For the full … Continue Reading →

An Unlikely Encounter

Shanghai, 1945: Roy Matsumoto, a 32-year-old linguist in the US Army, is on a mission to interrogate Japanese prisoners of the war that has just ended. Defying the laws of … Continue Reading →

China’s Muslim General

With his kind smile, it would be easy to confuse Bai Chongxi with a Buddhist cleric, detached from the worries of this world. That was one of the first thoughts … Continue Reading →

The Camera as a Weapon

When the Japanese army marched into the Chinese capital Nanjing in December 1937, only a small number of foreign residents had stayed behind. One of them was John Gillespie Magee, an … Continue Reading →

Playing for Manchuria

It was the best of times, and it was the worst of times for Manchukuo’s national soccer team. In June 1940, while participating in a regional tournament in Osaka, it … Continue Reading →

Tank Cemetery: Armored Battle in Shanghai

In the early part of the three-month battle for Shanghai in 1937, China deployed its fledgling tank arm in an all-out attempt to wipe out the small and beleaguered Japanese … Continue Reading →

The Coca-Cola Ad

The photos on this page all have the same basic motif: Japanese soldiers engaged in battle in front of a giant Coca-Cola ad. They are from the same spot in … Continue Reading →