The Sino-Japanese War

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Sino-Japanese War of 1937-45. After several years of rising tension, and the Japanese occupation of Manchuria, full-scale war between Japan and China broke out in the summer of 1937. The Japanese captured many major Chinese ports and cities, but met with fierce resistance, despite internal political divisions on the Chinese side. When the Americans entered the war following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the Japanese found themselves fighting on several fronts simultaneously, and finally capitulated in August 1945. This notoriously brutal conflict left millions dead and had far-reaching consequences for international relations in Asia.

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Guests

• Rana Mitter 8 episodes
  Professor of the History and Politics of Modern China at the University of Oxford
• Barak Kushner No other episodes
  Senior Lecturer in Japanese History at the University of Cambridge
• Tehyun Ma No other episodes
  Lecturer in Chinese History at the University of Exeter

Reading list

• Chinese Collaboration with Japan, 1932-1945: The Limits of Accommodation
  David P. Barrett, Larry N. Shyu (eds.) (Stanford University Press, 2001) Google Books →
• Collaboration: Japanese Agents and Local Elites in Wartime China
  Timothy Brook (Harvard University Press, 2007) Google Books →
• The Battle for China: Essays on the Military History of the Sino-Japanese War of 1937-1945
  Edward Drea, Mark Peattie, Hans van de Ven (eds.) (Stanford University Press, 2010) Google Books →
• Certain Victory: Images of World War II in the Japanese Media
  David Earhart (ME Sharpe, 2007) Google Books →
• The Nanjing Massacre in History and Historiography
  Joshua Fogel (ed.) (University of California Press, 2000) Google Books →
• The Origins of the Second World War in Asia and the Pacific
  Akira Iriye (Routledge, 1987) Google Books →
• The Thought War: Japanese Imperial Propaganda
  Barak Kushner (University of Hawaii Press, 2007) Google Books →
• China at War: Regions of China, 1937-45
  Stephen R. MacKinnon, Diana Lary, Ezra F. Vogel (eds.) (Stanford University Press, 2007) Google Books →
• China's War with Japan, 1937-1945: The Struggle for Survival
  Rana Mitter (Penguin, 2013) Google Books →
• The Wars for Asia, 1911-1949
  S. C. M. Paine (Cambridge University Press, 2012) Google Books →
• The Generalissimo: Chiang Kai-shek and the Struggle for Modern China
  Jay Taylor (Harvard University Press, 2011) Google Books →
• The Tokyo War Crimes Trial: The Pursuit of Justice in the Wake of World War II
  Yuma Totani (Harvard University Press, 2009) Google Books →
• Decisive Encounters: The Chinese Civil War, 1946-1950
  Odd Arne Westad (Stanford University Press, 2003) Google Books →

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Programme ID: b042ldyq

Episode page: bbc.co.uk/programmes/b042ldyq

Auto-category: 951 (China and adjacent areas)

Hello (First sentence from this episode)

Hello. Ten miles southwest of the Chinese capital Beijing, a handsome and venerable stone bridge crosses the Yongding River.