Nice to the Children

It is well-documented that Japan’s invasion of China in the 1930s was accompanied by horrendous atrocities against the civilian population. As was the case with the Nazi rule of terror … Continue Reading →

In Love and War: WW2-Themed Wedding Photos

Wedding photos are a huge business in China, and people from the middle class up are willing to pay serious amounts – sometimes thousands of dollars – for this special service. The … Continue Reading →

‘Horrors of War’

“Horrors of War” was the name of a series of bubble-gum cards issued in the United States in the late 1930s. The pictures, dealing with bloodshed in the two faraway … Continue Reading →

Past Brought Back to Life

This blog has previously introduced a small, but growing number of re-enactors that specialize in the Chinese side of the Second Sino-Japanese War. Their expanding numbers are testimony to the … Continue Reading →

Modern War by Medieval Means: The Chinese Sword

Westerners watching the early stages of the Second Sino-Japanese War often noticed that the Chinese troops moving into battle were carrying large swords, in addition to their more modern equipment. … 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 →

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 →

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 →