Sino-Soviet Treaty
https://youtu.be/l6x7fzcx5oc Beginning in early 1950, the newly-established People's Republic of China (PRC) Chairman Mao Zedong and Premier Zhou En-lai met with Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin and Foreign Minister Andrei Vyshinsky in Moscow to discuss an alliance for...
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Understanding Post-WWII East Asia
East Asia ~ Wikimedia I am currently on a trip to Seoul, Vladivostok and Tokyo to research locations for my upcoming historical-fiction novel covering the years 1940-1950. My protagonists are: a young Korean physician, trained in the Imperial Japanese medical system...
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Taiwan
Brittanica.com By the end of 1949, most of mainland China was under Communist control. Official Communist figures counted some 1.5 million dead and wounded among the People’s Liberation Army. ~600,000 Nationalists troops were killed in combat, while roughly three...
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Mao and Stalin
Transcripts of the December 1949 and January 1950 sessions between Mao Tse-tung and Joseph Stalin were obtained from Soviet archives by the New York Times in 1995, Moscow December 1949: The first meeting between Mao Tse-tung and Joseph Stalin took place only months...
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Storm Clouds ~ U.S. & China
https://youtu.be/61dGhZPzSxs Australian Associated Press - January 15, 1950 Despite British recognition of the new regime, Communist seizure of U.S. consular property in Beijing prompted the United States to recall all consular officials from China in January 1950....
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People’s Republic of China
Song of the Chinese People's Volunteer Army (PVA) Forward! Forward! Forward!Our army faces towards the sun,Over the ground of our Motherland,Carrying the hope of our nation, We are an invincible power!We are the sons of peasantry,We are the arms of the people! Always...
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Yangtze Incident
In April 1949, the HMS Amethyst was en route on the Yangtze River from Shanghai to Nanking China to replace another ship guarding the British Embassy during the Civil War between the Nationalist and Communist Chinese. Early in he morning, the Amethyst received a...
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Pingjin Campaign
https://youtu.be/wdTPFW6RZPo Pingjing Campaign (Wikipedia) People's Liberation Army enters Peking January 1949 (Wikipedia) The Pingjin Campaign was part of the three major campaigns launched by the People's Liberation Army during the late stage of the Chinese Civil...
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20th Century Chinese Literature
The recorded history of Chinese literature begins with an era of great philosophical and cultural advances known as the Hundred Schools of Thought during the Eastern Zhou Dynasty (770–256 BC). Following the overthrow of the Qing dynasty in 1912 and the establishment...
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Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong (1893–1976) In 1893, Mao Zedong was born into a prosperous peasant family in Hunan Province, After an elementary school education, Mao began working the fields at age 13. At age 17, he enrolled in a secondary school in Changsha, the capital...
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Chinese Civil War Resumes
The civil war between Chinese Nationalists and Communists, begun in 1927, was put on hold during the fight against Imperial Japan in WWII. After the Japanese surrender in August 1945, the Chinese Communist Party and the Nationalists agreed to peace talks and a...
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Chinese Civil War Resumes
The Chinese Civil War fought between the Kuomintang (KMT)-led government of the Republic of China and the Communist Party of China (CPC) began in 1927. After a temporary truce to collaborate in the fight against Japanese aggression in China, the civil war resumed in...
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United Nations WWII
A lot of people seem surprised to hear that the term "United Nations," coined by FDR, was used during WWII. President Franklin Roosevelt first coined the term "United Nations" to describe the Allied countries in WWII. On New Year's Day 1942, FDR, Prime...
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Eternity
Eternity (万世流芳), a controversial collaborative film effort between Japanese and Chinese filmmakers, was made in Japanese-occupied Shanghai in 1943. Relating the story of Lin Zexu and the Anglo-Chinese First Opium War, the film was a Japanese attempt to produce...
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Changjiao Massacre
While the most infamous was the 1937 Rape of Nanking, the Japanese Army also committed many other atrocities throughout Asia during WWII. The Changjiao Massacre, a four day rampage carried out by the Japanese China Expeditionary Army in May 1943, involved the murder...
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INFERNO
I am currently reading this excellent book by Max Hastings. Not only is it detailed, balanced and well-referenced; it is superb writing. Before dawn next morning, "a warm, damp, rather hazy day," American and Japanese pilots breakfasted. The Yorktown's men favoured...
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WWII China
It is reasonable to say that WWII began, not with the 1939 Nazi invasion of Poland, but with a battle on the outskirts of Beijing in July 1937. After occupying Manchuria in 1931, Japan began a wider invasion of China in 1937. By the end of WWII in 1945, ~13-20 million...
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WWII Combatants
Population of Major Combatants in 1942 USA 134,859,553 Great Britain 48,400,000 Australia 7,137,000 Canada 11,825,500 China 527,456,000 Russia 112,000,000 ---------------------------------- Germany 72,620,000 Italy 45,387,000 Imperial...
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WWII Participants
Most countries in the world participated in WWII. The leading Axis powers were Nazi Germany, the Kingdom of Italy, and the Empire of Japan. The major Allied Powers were the United Kingdom and France and their colonies, China, the Soviet Union and the United States....
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Will Japan Abandon Pacifism?
At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland last week, Japan's prime minister Shinzo Abe compared recent tensions between China and Japan to the rivalry between the British and German empires at the start of the 20th century. A conservative nationalist, Abe has...
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Japanese Premier Visits Yasukuni Shrine
Today's headline elicits emotions reminiscent of an earlier time. 12/25/13 TOKYO — Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan visited a contentious Tokyo war shrine early on Thursday, provoking swift condemnation from China and South Korea, both victims of Japan’s wartime...
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Flying Tigers
During the summer of 1941, young American pilots under the command of Captain Claire L. Chennault ("retired" from the United States Army Air Corps) secretly trained in the jungles of Southeast Asia in preparation for an air war with Japan. On December 20, 1942, the...
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Hong Kong Falls
On Christmas Day 1941 ("Black Christmas") the Governor General of Hong Kong surrendered to the Japanese. In the 18-day battle, the British suffered 11,848 casualties and Japan suffered 2,754. Following the surrender, Imperial Japanese troops committed...
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Allied Powers
Allied Powers of WWII On January 1, 1942, 26 countries signed the Declaration by United Nations, which set forth the war aims of the Allied powers. Australia Belgium Canada China Costa Rica Cuba Czechoslovakia Dominican Republic Great Britain Greece...
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Japan Attacks Hong Kong
On December 8, 1941 the Japanese 21st, 23rd and the 38th Regiment, commanded by Lieutenant General Takashi Sakai, attacked heavily outnumbered British, Canadian, Indian and Volunteer Defense Forces in Hong Kong. After initial resistance, the defenders were...
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