Re-enacting the Sino-Japanese War

History can be studied in many ways. One of the most direct ways to get a visceral feel for what happened to earlier generations is to join the growing ranks … Continue Reading →

Woman Seeks Uncle’s Shanghai Burial Site

By Sunday, October 24, 1937, the battle for Shanghai had lasted for more than two months, and much of the city and the surrounding countryside had been marked by war. … Continue Reading →

Impressions of Shanghai, 1937 (III)

Best Overend (1909-1977) was one of thousands of foreigners living in Shanghai on the eve of battle in 1937. He left a memoir of great expressive powers, describing the atmosphere of one of … Continue Reading →

Impressions of Shanghai, 1937 (II)

Best Overend (1909-1977) visited Shanghai in 1937, just before the city descended into war and chaos. He encountered an alien, millennia-old Chinese world, but with elements of a much more familiar … Continue Reading →

Impressions of Shanghai, 1937 (I)

In the late 1930s, Shanghai was a magnet for adventurous young westerners. Among them was  Best Overend (1909-1977). At the age of twenty-seven, he was the Third Watch Officer on a steamer that left … Continue Reading →

Gung Ho!

The expression gung ho – meaning “extremely or overly zealous or enthusiastic” – is as American as apple pie, but just as apple pie was originally a British dish going back to medieval times, this particular idiom … Continue Reading →

An Echo From the Past

Japan this week unveiled its biggest naval vessel since the end of World War II, the 20,000-ton helicopter-carrying destroyer Izumo. The event did not go unnoticed by Japan’s neighbors, especially … Continue Reading →

Japan’s War In 102 Volumes

Every nation feels a need to record its wars. It’s considered a moral obligation to those who suffered and died. But at a practical level, it also shows a concern about … Continue Reading →

The Forgotten Battle

When China and Japan clashed over Shanghai in the fall of 1937, their destinies were set on paths that would stretch decades into the future. From then on a state … Continue Reading →

War Poems

To express the essence of the 1937 Nanjing Massacre in 104 poems—that is the mission which Honolulu businessman and writer Wing Tek Lum embarks upon in a new collection of poetry. He succeeds marvellously. … Continue Reading →