This is the second installment in a two-part series about a more than 75-year-old riddle involving a war-themed mahjong set. It belonged to a mysterious E. A. R. Fowles, who took it on a voyage from Asia to Europe on the brink of war. What exactly happened is the subject of this investigative piece written…
This is the first installment in a two-part series about a wartime riddle involving a unique mahjong set full of anti-Japanese symbolism. It belonged to an elusive E. A. R. Fowles and was transported on board a ship that ended up on the bottom of the ocean. Read on in this fascinating investigative piece by Woody…
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 Sue Anne Tay, describes a visit to a large villa that served as a military brothel for years. It first appeared on her website shanghaistreetstories.com, a great resource…
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 Sue Anne Tay, first appeared on her website shanghaistreetstories.com, a great resource for those who want to explore the rich history of China’s most cosmopolitan city….
Thousands of foreigners were stranded in Shanghai during World War Two, among them a group of Swedish sailors unable to go home. This is the last of two instalments of an article on their fate. It starts off with their arrival in early 1942 in Shanghai on board a Japanese ship that has transported them…
The Second World War uprooted lives across the globe, including in nations that were not directly involved in the conflict. One example was the sailor Sten Nilsson, who was born in a small town in southern Sweden in 1920 and had entered the merchant marine to see the world but ended up being cut off…
Now in his 90s, Chinese veteran Yang Cenfeng experienced all eight years of the Second Sino-Japanese War from 1937 to 1945. Below is the second and last instalment of his remarkable story. It begins in 1941, the peak of the Japanese war for many Chinese, with Academy students becoming replaces for soldiers who lost their lives…
Yang Cenfeng was just a teenager when full-scale war broke out between China and Japan in 1937 and his life changed forever. Today he is one of the only remaining veterans in the northern Chinese municipality of Tianjin, and despite his advanced age, he remembers his dramatic wartime past with great clarity. His remarkable story has…
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 China is a series of photo albums, offering unique insights into life in China in the first half of the 20th century. A small selection is reproduced further down on this page, all…
This article by Marine Cabos was first carried on the great Photography of China website. It is reproduced here with their kind permission. Sha Fei (1912-1950) – literaly “sand flying” and aka Situ Chuan – was one of the most cherished photographers in China during the wartime years of 1937-1949, when China and Japan entered…
