Disaster in Shanghai, Part 1

On August 23, 1937, ten days after Shanghai had become the scene of a merciless battle between Chinese and Japanese forces, tragedy struck right in the middle of the city. … Continue Reading →

A Photographer in Shanghai: The French, Part 3

The war between China and Japan that broke out in 1937 was a modern media war involving the international press as an actor in the game for public opinion. This … Continue Reading →

A Nanjing Martyr

Marking the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Nanjing and the Nanjing Massacre this December, the new English translation of “Yang Dapeng: Remembrance of a Martyr in Nanjing 1937” is … Continue Reading →

The Mystery Man

Shanghai in the 1930s and 1940s was a highly cosmopolitan place, and as war forced borders to seal up and travel to become dangerous or impossible, the city was the … Continue Reading →

The Heroism of ‘Wee Paddy’: New Documentary on Shanghai Battle

British soldier Patrick McGowan was just 25 when he was killed by Japanese bullets during the battle of Shanghai in the fall of 1937. McGowan, of the Royal Ulster Rifles, … Continue Reading →

The Missing Airmen

Daniel Jackson, author of Famine, Sword, and Fire: The Liberation of Southwest China in World War II, recently visited China in search of the remains of US air crews missing … Continue Reading →

Nanjing 1937: A Japanese Pilot Remembers

Kaname Harada, a Japanese fighter ace during the war in China and the Pacific, took part in the conquest of China’s capital Nanjing in late 1937, and shortly afterwards bore … Continue Reading →

A Chinese Agent in Burma

The article, featuring the extraordinary story of Chinese agent Li Jui, was written by Richard Duckett, a history and international relations scholar at Reading College. It was first published on … Continue Reading →

Childhood in Shadow of War

Margaret Blair was born in Shanghai in 1936 and spent the years from 1942 to 1945 in a Japanese internment camp. In her memoir Gudao, Lone Islet she paints a vivid … Continue Reading →

Flying ‘The Hump’

This article, about one of the many American pilots who risked their lives to keep China supplied across the ‘Hump’ air route, is written by seasoned journalist George Morris. It … Continue Reading →