Huang Meng-hou, now 84 years old and a resident of Taiwan, served as a child soldier in the army of the collaborationist government headed by Wang Jingwei (or Wang Ching-wei). In his fascinating recollections, recorded by Samuel Hui (劍虹許), he explains how the war was characterized by many shades of gray. Although nominally fighting for Wang Jingwei, the soldiers saw themselves…
History buffs have been spending a large part of the time since 1945 gaming World War Two. It started out as board games, often made fiendishly complex in order to capture all the intricacies of modern war. Later the arrival of computerized games made the activity more accessible to a larger number of people, without sacrificing the attention…
The Nankou Campaign, sometimes known as “Operation Chahar,” broke out on August 8, 1937, and is largely forgotten today. This article, written by Eric Wu, focuses on the meaning of this campaign based on the study of a range of primary sources. Wu argues that the Chinese Army did not suffer an absolute defeat based on the comparison between the casualties…
The Nankou Campaign, sometimes known as “Operation Chahar,” broke out on August 8, 1937, that was 5 days earlier than the outbreak of the famous Shanghai Campaign. For decades, the Nankou Campaign has been concealed in oblivion. This article, written by Eric Wu, provides a summary of the chronology and focuses on the meaning of this campaign based…
This website previously carried an article on Nadine Hwang (above in post-war photo from Venezuela, second from right), the mysterious Chinese prisoner of Nazi Germany’s Ravensbrück concentration camp. Much remains unknown about Hwang’s life story, but now interesting new information about her postwar fate has emerged and been published on the website Every Face Has…
Chinese military items from WW2 have become more popular among collectors in recent years as China’s role in the war has become better known. However, collecting Chinese militaria involves unique challenges. We have talked to Hsin Chiang about his passion, and also asked him to share photos with samples from his collection: What got you started…
This article is part of a large online project — End of Empire — launched by the Nordic Institute of Asian Studies (NIAS). The idea is simple: To describe day by day the 100 days immediately after Hiroshima. This article, written by David Marr, is reproduced with the kind permission of NIAS. Check out End…
The first months of war between China and Japan in the fall of 1937 took place mostly on land and in the air. But the two nations’ navies also clashed in a fierce battle over the strategic city of Jiangyin on the Yangtze River. This is the second in a two-part series about this crucial, but…
The first months of war between China and Japan in the fall of 1937 took place mostly on land and in the air. But the two nations’ navies also clashed in a fierce battle over the strategic city of Jiangyin on the Yangtze River. This is the first in a two-part series about this crucial,…
Mme Sun Yat Sen, or Soong Chingling, was one of the most prominent figures of the Second Sino-Japanese War. On the photo above she is pictured with Chinese soldiers in the wartime capital of Chongqing. This article is written by Karla Weber Simon, a law professor and leading expert on civil society in China today and in…
