China in WW2

Peter Harmsen’s blog on the 1931-45 conflict and the birth of modern Asia

Re-enacting the Sino-Japanese War: History can be studied in many ways. One of the most direct routes to a visceral feel for what happened to earlier generations is to join the growing ranks of … Continue Reading →

The Chinese ‘Fritz’: One of the most conspicuous features of the elite units of the Chinese army that went to war with Japan in 1937 was their widespread use of German equipment, and, … Continue Reading →

A Chinese Woman in Ravensbrueck Concentration Camp: When emaciated female prisoners from the German concentration camp Ravensbrueck arrived in the Swedish harbor of Malmoe on April 28, 1945, just days before the German surrender, two of the … 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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

‘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 →

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 →

Left Behind: When Hiroo Onoda died at a Tokyo hospital at age 91 on Thursday, the world was once again reminded of the incredible story of a Japanese soldier who refused to … Continue Reading →

Hitler Youth in China: In the inter-war years, China and especially Shanghai had a large number of German expatriates. Anecdotal evidence suggests that more than a few were initially highly skeptical of Adolf Hitler, but in the end, … Continue Reading →

The First American Casualty of World War II: On August 14, 1937, Chinese planes dropped several bombs over the international parts of Shanghai, in a tragic error that cost the lives of hundreds. Among the victims was Robert … Continue Reading →

A Chinese in the German Wehrmacht: When the German Wehrmacht rolled into Austria in March 1938, one of its soldiers stood out. The 21-year-old sergeant-cadet in the 98th Jäger Regiment had jet-black hair, and his features … Continue Reading →

‘All Quiet on the Western Front’: All Quiet on the Western Front as an 80-year-old Chinese comic book! That’s one of the most recent acquisitions made by the Rauner Special Collections Library, part of Dartmouth College … Continue Reading →

A Bearded Army: When Japanese tank commander Fujita Sanehiko, pictured left, took part in the campaign in central China in late 1937, he was well-known back home. A gifted writer, he sent dispatches … Continue Reading →

Red Russian Star over China: By January 1938, Russian pilot F. P. Polynin had only been in the central Chinese city of Hankou for a few weeks, and the Japanese invaders had still not gotten … 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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

Battle On The Great Wall, In Scale 1/6: In 1933, Chinese and Japanese soldiers clashed in the area around the Great Wall. It was among the most vicious confrontations prior to the outbreak of full-scale war between the … Continue Reading →

For Whom the Gongs Toll: Hemingway and China. It’s not two words that are placed alongside each other very often, and for good reason. The iconic American writer had very little interest in the Middle … Continue Reading →

Japan’s Charmed Warship: The most visible Japanese presence in Shanghai during the three-month battle for the city in the fall of 1937 was the cruiser Izumo, anchored in the Huangpu River. It was … Continue Reading →

‘Ningbo Special’: In the early afternoon of August 16, 1937, six Curtis Hawk III aircraft from the 25th Squadron of the Chinese Air Force took off from their base in East China, heading for Shanghai. China’s largest … Continue Reading →

Khalkhin Gol, the Crucial Pre-WW2 Battle: The 1939 Battle of Khalkhin Gol, on the border between the USSR and Manchukuo, is little known in the West, but may have been one of the crucial engagements determining … Continue Reading →

Battle of Shanghai: A German Cameraman’s View: The German newsreel below shows highlights of the 1937 battle of Shanghai. It’s interesting for a number of reasons. First, it features several of the weapons that were used most … Continue Reading →

Japan’s ‘Knee Mortar’: The ‘knee mortar’ was among the most peculiar weapons that the Japanese Army brought with it to battlefields in China and elsewhere in the 1930s and 1940s. This detailed article … Continue Reading →

VIP visit to Singapore: Not long after the capitulation of Allied forces in the Dutch East Indies on March 5, 1942, a military delegation from countries allied to Japan visited the areas where the … Continue Reading →

Shanghai Battle in Scale 1/35: History in perhaps its broadest sense means finding what can be known about the past and presenting the facts in the form of a coherent narrative. That narrative doesn’t have … Continue Reading →

A Social and Visual History of the Dadao: China’s ‘Military Big-Saber’ (I): Author and scholar Ben Judkins describes the Dadao, or ‘big saber’, which, despite the pre-modern technology used, played an important role in the Second Sino-Japanese War, and in Chinese military … Continue Reading →

The Battle Erupts (I): Friday, August 13, 1937 marked the start of the epic, three-month battle of Shanghai, at least according to official Chinese historiography, where the date is so widely accepted that a … Continue Reading →

China’s Best Ambassador: Song Meiling, China’s First Lady during the war, was her country’s best ambassador by far. “China’s Joan of Arc,” she was called, and “the most powerful woman in the world.” … Continue Reading →

Taierzhuang!: Below are photos and excerpts from an article about the 1938 battle of Taierzhuang, based on a visit to the Chinese city. Written by G. Joekull Gislason, a Sinophile from … Continue Reading →

China’s Favorite Machine Gun (I): The Czech-designed ZB-26 was China’s favorite light machine gun during the war with Japan in the 1930s and 1940s. Below is the first of two articles on this legenday weapon, … Continue Reading →

China Favorite Machine Gun (II): The Czech-designed ZB-26 was China’s favorite light machine gun during the war with Japan in the 1930s and 1940s. Below is the second of two articles on this legenday weapon, … Continue Reading →

Knights of the Air (I): Jim Laurier, a native of New England, has created some of the most amazing aviation art in existence, and luckily for those with an interest in the war in China, … Continue Reading →

A Helmet for the Chinese (II): (The German ‘Fritz’ helmet was a characteristic part of the Chinese uniform in World War Two, especially in the early years of the conflict with Japan. This is the second … Continue Reading →

Soaring Dragon: For Roy Grinnell, one of the world’s leading aviation artists, the air war over China in the 1930s and 1940s has been a favorite subject for years. We’re proud to … Continue Reading →

Military Attache: Witness to Carnage: American Colonel William Mayer lived and worked in China from the 1920s to the mid-1940s, making him the archetypal old China hand. Luckily, one of the results of his quarter-century-long stay in … Continue Reading →

Shanghai’s Invisible Stain I: This is the first instalment in a two-part series about Shanghai’s dark legacy– buildings that housed brothels used by the Japanese Army during World War Two. This article, written by … Continue Reading →

Shanghai’s Invisible Stain II: This is the second instalment in a two-part series about Shanghai’s dark legacy — buildings that housed brothels used by the Japanese Army during World War Two. This article, written by … Continue Reading →

The Hidden Shift: Why Japan’s Wartime Generation Didn’t Look Exactly Like Today

If you picture the Japanese soldiers who fought in China and across the beaches of the Pacific, it is easy to imagine them as physically identical to modern Japanese people. … Continue Reading →

A Surgeon at War: Norman Bethune in China, 1938

The photograph is quiet, almost unremarkable at first glance: a small group of men standing in the dust, horses waiting behind them, the light harsh and unforgiving. But at the … Continue Reading →

New Year in Nanjing, 1937: Hope and Horror in the Safety Zone

By Peter Harmsen
31 December, 2025
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As 1937 slipped into 1938, Nanjing was a city living through catastrophe. Only weeks earlier, Japanese forces had captured the Chinese capital, unleashing what would become known as the Nanjing … Continue Reading →

Christmas in China, December 1942

By Peter Harmsen
25 December, 2025
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Three years ago I shared this excerpt from my book Darkest Christmas, about how the holiday was marked in wartime China in 1942. Many readers told me it was one … Continue Reading →

Shanghai Diary (Part 10)

In the fall and winter of 1937, the young American sailor Earl Jackson Clanton was in Shanghai on board the USS Augusta, which was keeping a vigil in the port while … Continue Reading →