by Rijuta Vallishayee Alternately revered and condemned across the world, Ho Chi Minh was one of the more enigmatic world leaders who emerged from the ashes of the Second World War. His early life and his rise to power remain shadowy, perhaps due to his usage of multiple aliases and general lack of reliable sources for his life before he came to power in 1945.
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by Zoe Lee-Divito Taiwan’s history with Japan predates the Second World War, 15 years before its annexation of Korea, with an account that many Taiwanese remember to this day. Before Taiwan was under Japanese colonial rule, it was under the administration of the Qing government, who colonized the island that was inhabited by the Taiwanese indigenous people, a collective term for the variety of groups that have lived on the island for thousands of years. As early as 1683, the island was shaped by the increased migration of a Chinese population. There were settlements, uprisings, and changing but often contentious relationships between the indigenous peoples and the Chinese population. After the First Sino-Japanese War between 1894-1895, Taiwan was ceded by the Qing government to Japan, becoming a new colonial administration under Meiji-era Japan. This history of the Japanese occupation of Taiwan highlights the mechanisms of colonization and imperialism that have a profound effect on the people of Taiwan to this day. by Grace Wong The East River Column was one of the various Communist-affiliated resistance groups that opposed the Japanese occupation during the 1930s–1940s. This group, in particular, was founded in Hong Kong by Zeng Sheng in 1939 to spread anti-Japanese propaganda, smuggle supplies, and resist the Japanese occupying the area of Guangdong. The East River Column was also known as the Guangdong People’s Anti-Japanese Team and was formally created after the merging of two smaller guerrilla teams, the Huiyang Bao’an People’s Anti-Japanese Guerrillas and the Dongguan Model Able-bodied Young Men Guerrilla Team. Guest Post by Tim Qiu, Instagram handle @asianhistoryaddict During the second world war, the Imperial Japanese military inflicted horror, grief, and mass destruction against its adversaries across the Pacific theatre. However, what is less well known are the atrocities it committed against its own people and other innocent civilians. by Shannon Graham Unit 731, located in Harbin, China, was a facility created by the Japanese during World War II in order to conduct unethical medical experiments on Chinese and POWs from other countries that were captured by Japanese soldiers. Guest post by Tim Qiu, Instagram @asianww2addict It is the fall of 1937, and the Battle of Shanghai rages on furiously. The city once known as “the Pearl of the Orient” (not to be confused with Manila, Philippines) was barely recognizable after more than three months of continuous fighting and siege. Historians often compare the intensity of this urban warfare to that of Stalingrad in 1942. “I cut him open from the chest to the stomach, and he screamed terribly, and his face was all twisted in agony. He made this unimaginable sound, he was screaming so horribly. But then finally he stopped. This was all in a day’s work for the surgeons, but it really left an impression on me because it was my first time.” These were the words of a former Unit 731 medical assistant in an interview published by the New York Times. He describes the process of deliberately infecting a Chinese prisoner with the plague and vivisecting him without anesthetics. Experiments like this were regular in Unit 731, one of Japan’s biological warfare research facilities. Guest post by Tim Qiu, Instagram handle @asianww2addict While the Rape of Nanking in China is slowly making its way into mainstream media and educational systems, the Manila massacre is still struggling to get recognition regardless of the inexplicable inhumanity involved, matching even that of Nanking. The Japanese occupation of the Philippines' capital started after five months of fierce fighting against US forces during the early days of the Pacific War. Manila was declared an "open city" (undefended and exempt from enemy aggression) on December 26, 1941, by American General Douglas MacArthur, who vowed to return one day. His chance finally came on January 9, 1945, when MacArthur's 6th Army came ashore upon the beaches of Lingayen Bay to liberate the Philippines. by Ray Matsumoto Commodore Matthew Perry's arrival in 1853 sparked the nearly century-long course of Japan's modernization and militarization. Back then, Japan was an isolationist nation, blocking all international relations except the Dutch and Chinese. But overwhelmed by American navy forces, Japan was pressured into signing the Kanagawa Treaty, ending their 220-year-old isolationist foreign policy. Coupled with the Chinese defeat to Great Britain in the Opium Wars, Japan realized the need for modernization. The aggressive expansionist policy before and during WW2 was fueled by such competition. The Japanese military, and eventually most civilians, saw the West as enemies and Japan as a savior. Japan had to liberate Asia from the Western dominion and establish itself as a world power. This form of nationalism resonated through many, especially after the Great Depression. Let us examine the key factors that caused such sentiments and the aggression of the imperial military. by Quin Cho The Battle of Pingxingguan was China’s first victory in its War of Resistance Against Japan. Therefore, it was a propaganda rallying point for both the Communists and the Nationalists alike. In the weeks before the battle, the Japanese had advanced rapidly through North China and routed the Chinese forces there in a humiliating fashion. Many Japanese began to think that China was nothing but a paper tiger and would fall in short order. However, the Battle of Pingxingguan showed that China was to be no pushover and intended to resist the Japanese until they were defeated. |