China World War Ii

For decades, a major piece of World War II history has gone virtually unwritten. The war began in China two full years before Hitler invaded Poland, and China eventually became the fourth great ally, partner to the United States, the Soviet Union, and Great Britain. Yet its drama of invasion, resistance, slaughter, and political intrigue remains little known in the West.

In 1908, at the age of two, Henry Pu Yi ascended to become the last emperor of the centuries-old Manchu dynasty. After revolutionaries forced Pu Yi to abdicate in 1911, the young emperor lived for 13 years in Peking’s Forbidden City, but with none of the power his birth afforded him. The remainder of Pu Yi’s life was lived out in a topsy-turvy fashion: fleeing from a Chinese warlord, becoming head of a Japanese puppet state, being confined to a Russian prison in Siberia, and enduring taxing labor.

For most of its history, the People’s Republic of China limited public discussion of the war against Japan. It was an experience of victimization - and one that saw Mao Zedong and Chiang Kai-shek fighting for the same goals. But now, as China grows more powerful, the meaning of the war is changing. Rana Mitter argues that China’s reassessment of the World War II years is central to its newfound confidence abroad and to mounting nationalism at home.

Standard English-language histories of World War Two have their own Mercator distortion: they make the Anglo-American experience loom enormous and shrink almost everything else. This book is the Robinson projection of WWII—it allocates narrative to each combatant nation in strict proportion to population. The result: China commands 27% of every chapter. India, at 378 million people, becomes the second-largest presence. The Soviet Union’s catastrophe dominates Europe. Small nations—Poland, Yugoslavia, Greece—receive sustained monthly attention. The familiar Anglo-...

The stories of 15 combat veterans featured in this audiobook tell of the experiences of average Americans who fought US enemies on Pacific islands, in China, and in Burma during World War II. They relate much previously unavailable information about the military in which they served and the battles they fought. The possibility of death and permanent physical and mental injury was a common experience. This audiobook is a "must listen" for those who think they have learned all there is to know about World War II.

A powerful, unsparing new history of World War II, recasting the conflict as a brutal struggle for survival among declining and ascendant imperial powers In popular memory, the Second World War was an unalloyed victory for freedom over totalitarianism, marking the demise of the age of empires...

A major new history of Asia’s Second World War Blood Dawn offers a momentous new history of World War II in Asia. Drawing on deep archival research across continents, historian Hans van de Ven tells the dramatic story of how Asia’s people mobilized to defeat both Japanese aggression and...

Picking up where his previous memoir leaves off, Sledge, a young marine in the First Division, traces his company's movements and charts his own difficult passage to peace following his horrific experiences in the Pacific. He reflects on his duty in the ancient city of Peiping (now Beijing) and recounts the difficulty of returning to his hometown of Mobile, Alabama, and resuming civilian life haunted by the shadows of close combat.

In December 1937, in the capital of China, one of the most brutal massacres in the long annals of wartime barbarity occurred. The Japanese army swept into the ancient city of Nanking and within weeks not only looted and burned the defenseless city but systematically raped, tortured and murdered more than 300,000 Chinese civilians. Amazingly, the story of this atrocity- one of the worst in world history- continues to be denied by the Japanese government.

Some of the cruelest deeds of Japan's war in Asia did not occur on the battlefield, but in quiet, antiseptic medical wards in obscure parts of China. Far from front lines and prying eyes, Japanese doctors and their assistants subjected human guinea pigs to gruesome medical experiments in the name of science and Japan's wartime chemical and biological warfare research. Author Hal Gold draws upon a wealth of sources to construct a portrait of the Imperial Japanese Army's most notorious medical unit, giving an overview of its history and detailing its most shocking activities.

In February 1944, in one of the most astonishing battles of World War II, a ragtag collection of British clerks, drivers, doctors, muleteers, and other base troops, stiffened by a few dogged Yorkshiremen and a handful of tank crews, managed to defeat a much larger and sophisticated contingent of some of the finest infantry in the Japanese army on their march toward India.

The Japanese invasion and occupation of Manchuria is sometimes described as the true beginning of World War II. The Second Sino-Japanese War: The History and Legacy of the Deadly Conflict That Lasted Through the End of World War II examines the notorious fighting, as well as the crucial aftermath. You will learn about the Second Sino-Japanese War like never before.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “An impressive, bitter, and sweet debut that explores the age-old conflicts between father and son, the beauty and sadness of what happened to Japanese Americans in the Seattle era during World War II, and the depths and longing of deep-heart love.”—Lisa See...

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “A gifted writer . . . explores the bonds of sisterhood while powerfully evoking the often nightmarish American immigrant experience.”—USA Today In 1937, Shanghai is the Paris of Asia, a city of great wealth and glamour, the home of millionaires and beggars...

A groundbreaking, haunting, and profoundly moving history of modernity's greatest tragedy: concentration camps. For over 100 years, at least one concentration camp has existed somewhere on Earth. First used as battlefield strategy, camps have evolved with each passing decade, in the scope of...

Years before the CIA was formed there was something called the Office of Strategic Services. Georgetown Township resident Al Johnson was a charter member of this clandestine group during World War II, joining forces with the French Underground and then fighting the Japanese occupation of China. The OSS conducted secret missions hundreds of miles behind enemy lines. Al Johnson who is 98 years old said one of the toughest part might have been "keeping a lid on" everywhere he was and everything he did. "It was such a hush-hush group. We couldn't talk about it when we got home on furloughs. We ...

The Battle of Wuhan: China's Resilience Amid the Shadows of War delves into the second Sino-Japanese War's most extensive and pivotal campaign, fought from June to October 1938. Against the backdrop of China's "century of humiliation" and the rise of Japanese imperialism, this book chronicles the fierce resistance and resilience of China's National Revolutionary Army (NRA) during a brutal struggle for control of Wuhan, a key industrial and transportation hub. The book explores the multi-faceted dimensions of the battle, from detailed military maneuvers and innovative guerrilla tactics to ...

The “gripping and meticulously researched” (The Times, London) true story of the determined museum curators who saved the priceless treasures of China’s Forbidden City in the years leading up to World War II and beyond. Spring 1933: The silent courtyards and palaces of Peking’s Forbidden...

This is a true story you were never meant to read. Memories of events recounted here were expected to die with those who lived them, to fade with time. But the tale survived -- and now it is told on the record for the first time. Escape from Shanghai reveals the conspiracy Jane Sun discovered at the highest levels of Chinese government during World War II, and tells the story of the courageous things that she did to combat the corruption. A biography that reads like a spy thriller, it follows Jane's behind-the-scenes struggles to bring down a corrupt governor, and it recounts the brutality ...

Shanghai, China. 1945. What if you are ordered to solve a complicated crime, under almost impossible conditions, and will face unthinkable repercussions if you fail to promptly deliver the solution? That is what happens to Shanghai-based private investigator Sun-jin when the exiled president of China orders him to find out who tried to assassinate his wife when she was on a secret diplomatic mission for him in Japanese-occupied Shanghai. With the clock ticking, Sun-jin quickly learns that solving a crime in an enemy-occupied city — even a city you know like the back of your hand — is ...