Crisp Footage from Shanghai, 1937

The start of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937 resulted in some of the most dramatic footage of the 1930s. The belligerent parties, and especially the Japanese, took great care to document the … Continue Reading →

Weapons of Mass Destruction, 1930s Style

Nations always go to war expecting to fight the war of the previous generation. The Second Sino-Japanese War was no exception. When hostilities broke out between China and Japan in 1937, … Continue Reading →

The Sino-Japanese War as Traditional Opera

In China, the Second Sino-Japanese War has provided rich source material for works of fiction ever since 1945. The most obvious example of this is the plethora of soap operas … Continue Reading →

Three Million Japanese Go Home

Three million — that’s the number of Japanese who had to be repatriated from areas traditionally considered Chinese at the end of the war in 1945. They included 2.6 million … Continue Reading →

Chinese in the Spanish Civil War

In the late 1930s, while the heartland of China was being ravaged by war with Japan, a small number of Chinese were fighting a different battle 10,000 kilometers away. About … Continue Reading →

Wartime Panda Diplomacy

China is well-known across the world for its conduct of “panda diplomacy” – the practice of lending or renting out pandas to foreign zoos as a mean of establishing closer … Continue Reading →

Inside the Mind of a War Criminal

The Japanese commander of military operations in the Shanghai area in late 1937 was the 59-year-old General Matsui Iwane. Today he is mainly remembered as a war criminal, because he … Continue Reading →

Gaming the Sino-Japanese War (II)

History is pretty much set in stone (although it’s open to constant re-interpretation), but for those experiencing past events first-hand the future was still undetermined, and things could have turned … Continue Reading →

Gaming the Sino-Japanese War (I)

Since World War II ended in 1945, historians and laypeople alike have strived to make sense of the event, place it into a larger context and grasp its lasting significance. They … Continue Reading →

China: Japan Was Defeated ‘Not Just By Atomic Bombs’

What defeated Japan in World War II? What prevented a full-scale and in all likelihood incredibly bloody invasion of the Japanese home islands, or, in former President Herber Hoover’s memorable … Continue Reading →