Sino - Japanese Conflict (Manchuria)

Studying the development, expansion, and eventual collapse of Japanese imperialism from the Sino-Japanese war of 1894-1895 through 1945, Beasley here discusses the dynamic relationship between a successful industrial economy and the building of an empire.

Examination of the devastating impact on China's emerging modern business community of Japan's invasion and occupation of the lower Yangzi.

Wartime Shanghai is a lively account of the political and social situation between 1937 and 1946. It explores the deep political rivalries between Nationalist groups, the intrigue of international espionage and how Shanghai society -- from European administrators to Chinese film makers -- collaborated with, or resisted, the Japanese occupation.

This book is based on four visits to China between 1971 and 1989 by Honda Katsuichi, an investigative journalist for Asahi Shimbun. His aim is to show in pitiless detail the horrors of the Japanese Army's march to and seizure and capture of Nanjing in December 1937. Unvarnished accounts of the testimony -- of Chinese victims and Japanese perpetrators -- to the rape and slaughter are juxtaposed with public relations announcements of the Japanese Army as printed in various Japanese newspapers of the time. The bland announcements of triumphant victories stand in bitter contrast to the atrocities that actually took place on the scene.

The story unfolds with horrible detail as we watch the progress of the Japanese army whose troops were bent on rape and killing in the so-called "heat of battle." Yet by recalling the testimony of Japanese soldiers and reporters who were on the scene, as well as reproducing dispatches by Japanese Army authorities at the time, Honda makes it clear that the atrocities were part of,a studied effort directed by the Japanese high command to impress the Chinese people with the power of its army and the folly of resistance. The estimate of at least 100,000 killed in these "military operations" is no exaggeration. The Chinese side of the story is based on the author's interviews with dozens of survivors.

Honda, along with other Japanese journalists and scholars, aims to reveal the truth of the Nanjing massacre, provoked by the efforts of right-wing Japanese, including, sadly, many government officials, to whitewash the whole incident, even to the point of contending that a "massacre" never happened. This gripping account of the atrocities and cover-up joins otherrecent exposes in keeping alive the memory of this shameful event.