The U.S. Response After Pearl Harbor: The Doolittle Raid

The surprise World War 2 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, caused many Americans to shift their focus from wondering and worrying about the well-being of other countries’ residents to fear that another attack on the United States might be forthcoming.

To quell those fears, the United States government allowed Japanese-Americans and Japanese aliens living in the United States to be sent to internment camps. The U.S. also assisted European allies in their battles against Germany and planned and carried out the Doolittle Raid against mainland Japan.

Janel Miller explains.

One of the U.S. planes after landing in Vladivostok, USSR following the Doolittle Raid in April 1942.

Multiple Raid Scenarios Considered

The idea of the Doolittle Raid – the first-ever raid on Japan – was hatched within weeks of Pearl Harbor. High-ranking members of the United States military spent several months fine-tuning an aerial attack on the Asian country’s industrial centers of Tokyo, Tokyo Bay, Yokohama, the Yokosuka Navy Yard, Nagoya, Ōsaka and Kōbe.

Air Force member James Harold Doolittle, who had previously set several aviation records and also had become one of the first men in the United States to earn a Doctor of Science degree in aeronautics, volunteered to lead the attack and was chosen to do so.

The hope was that the Doolittle Raid on Japan would cause anxiety among the country’s residents, damage many of its resources, slow its production and military advances abroad, enhance the United States’ relationships with its allies, and receive the support of the American public.

Several types of planes were considered for use in the raid. However, various characteristics of some of the aircraft were deemed unsuitable for the mission. Specifically, the Martin B-26 Marauder had “unsuitable handling characteristics” and the Douglas B-23 Dragon’s wingspan was “too great … to be comfortably operated from a carrier deck” that would carry the planes to a location off the Japanese coast). Ultimately, the North American B-25 Mitchell (hereafter referred to as B-25s) was chosen for the raid.

Different times of conducting the raid were also considered. One proposal called for the B-25s taking off from a carrier (ultimately, the Hornet was chosen for the mission) several hours before daybreak. This offered the pros of hitting the Japanese targets as daylight approached, providing the maximum amount of surprise and good visibility but the cons and dangers of the B-25s taking off at night and illuminating the Hornet while out at sea. Another proposal involved the raid occurring while there was a significant amount of daylight while flying over Japan. However, to do so would have eliminated the surprise element of the raid.

Doolittle recalled in a 1983 interview that several different ways of escaping should the Japanese catch up to the B-25s in the air before the raid could begin were also considered.

“The plan was that if we were within range of Japan, we would go ahead and bomb our targets, fly out to sea and hope, rather futilely, to be picked up by one of the two submarines that were in the area,” he said. “If we were within range of the Hawaiian Islands — say, Midway — we would immediately clear their decks and proceed to Midway so they could utilize the [fleet of ships supporting the raid] properly.”

“If, on the other hand, we weren't within range of anyplace we could go, we would push our aircraft overboard so that the Hornet's deck would be cleared, and they could protect themselves,” Doolittle added.

Details Of Raid Described

The final Doolittle Raid plan called for the Hornet to take the B-25s approximately 600 miles east of Tokyo. Then, on April 18, 1942, the B-25s would disperse and their crews drop bombs on their respective Japanese target, flying at treetop level on the approach to the target, climbing to 1,500 feet while dropping the bombs, returning to treetop level and flying to the Chinese city of Chuchow.

Those who would be in the B-25s were all volunteers who were thoroughly trained in cross-country flying, night flying and navigation, as well as “low altitude approaches to bombing targets, rapid bombing and evasive action,” according to the U.S. Navy. Doolittle told a 1983 interviewer that the bond between those flying the planes and those controlling the carrier was not immediate.

“We felt a little out of place on a carrier, and they felt a little out of place having us there,” he said. “But when we went under the San Francisco Bridge, over the radio said, ‘Hear ye, hear ye.’ Everybody aboard was told not exactly where we were going, not exactly what we were going to do, but that this was a mission against Japan. From then on, there was complete rapport,” Doolittle added.

Richard Cole, who occupied one of the B-25s on April 18, recalled in 1957 that “everyone prayed but did so in an inward way. If anyone was scared, it didn’t show.”

Each B-25 carried four 500-pound bombs, two .50-caliber machine guns, a .30-caliber machine gun, spare fuel tanks and two dummy wooden machine gun barrels. Although the B-25 planes from the United States took off from the U.S.S. Hornet earlier than planned, they still managed to drop about 14 tons of explosives on their Japanese targets.

Japan had been monitoring the United States Navy’s radio in the days leading up to the Doolittle Raid. Although it did not have the specific date of the raid ahead of time, it felt an attack was imminent. The Asian country received word from a fishing boat on the day of the attack of the U.S. raid that was coming. Despite these warnings, Japan’s success in fighting back was limited. The country also sent bombers and carrier fighters in a fruitless attempt to search for the fleet of U.S. ships supporting the raid. A member of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administration stated roughly six months after the raid that the U.S. participants in the raid was carried out on military targets "with remarkable accuracy."

A lack of fuel kept the B-25s from landing at Chuchow. Fifteen of the B-25s crash-landed in Japanese-occupied territory or abandoned their aircraft in the waters near Japan and China. Another B-25 landed in the Soviet Union. Not all of those in the B-25s returned to American soil alive. Three were killed in the crash landings or while parachuting, three were executed after being captured by the Japanese and another died of disease and starvation while in captivity.

Mission Largely Accomplished

The Doolittle Raid “was important to morale both here and in Japan,” its namesake said at a 1983 event.

About one month after the attack, United States Senator and member of the Senate Naval Affairs Committee Millard E. Tydings (D-Md.), reported that the raid was causing Japan to develop a new plan for winning the war.

"This lesson will not be lost on the Japanese, and their present apparently altered strategy is an indication that there is no greater fear in Japan right now than the fear of repeated bombings such as was inaugurated by General Doolittle," he continued. Thus, another Japanese attack on United States’ soil seemed highly unlikely, and the raid also saved the Soviet Union from a Japanese attack, Tydings said.

In Context

The concept of retaliating, rather than sitting passively by and doing nothing, is all too common, especially in wartime.

For example, in 1773, colonists protested British taxes by famously dumping tea – one of the most popular beverages of the time – into Boston Harbor prior to the American Revolution. During the Civil War more than 90 years later, General William T. Sherman and his troops blazed a deadly path across Georgia in response to the South seceding from the Union several years earlier. Much more recently, in 2003, the United States declared that the major battles the U.S. had engaged in while in Iraq in response to the tragedies of September 11, 2001, were over.

In the years since the Doolittle Raids, the United States’ relationship with Japan has improved beyond recognition. Perhaps, just perhaps, one legacy of the Doolittle Raids may be that with time, bitter arch-rivals can become friendly non-competitors.

What do you think of impact of the Doolittle Raids? Let us know below.

References

Loproto, Mark. “How America Changed After Pearl Harbor.” https://pearlharbor.org/america-changed-pearl-harbor/. Published February 1, 2017. Accessed January 11, 2023.

Pippert, Wesley G. “The National Was Gripped by Hysteria and Fear When …” https://www.upi.com/Archives/1981/07/14/The-nation-was-gripped-by-hysteria-and-fear-when/2681363931200/. United Press International. Published July 14, 1981. Accessed January 11, 2023.

Loproto, Mark. “America’s Response to Pearl Harbor – An Unexpected First Target.” https://pearlharbor.org/americas-response-pearl-harbor-unexpected-first-target/. Published January 8, 2018. Accessed January 11, 2023.

Krebs A. The New York Times. “James Doolittle, 96, Pioneer Aviator Who Led First Raid on Japan, Dies.”https://www.nytimes.com/1993/09/29/us/james-doolittle-96-pioneer-aviator-who-led-first-raid-on-japan-dies.html. Published September 29, 1993. Accessed January 11, 2023.

Naval History and Heritage Command. “Doolittle Raid.” https://www.history.navy.mil/browse-by-topic/wars-conflicts-and-operations/world-war-ii/1942/halsey-doolittle-raid.html.  Published May 10, 2019. Accessed January 11, 2023.

Encyclopedia Britannica Editors. Encyclopedia Britannica. “Doolittle Raid.” https://www.britannica.com/event/Doolittle-Raid. Accessed January 11, 2023.

Interview with United States Air Force General James Harold (Jimmy) Doolittle (Ret.). https://www.usni.org/press/oral-histories/doolittle-james.  Recorded February 1983. Accessed January 17, 2023.

Encyclopedia Britannica Editors. Encyclopedia Britannica. “Doolittle Raid.” https://www.britannica.com/event/Doolittle-Raid. . Accessed January 11, 2023.

Naval History and Heritage Command. “Doolittle Raid.” https://www.history.navy.mil/browse-by-topic/wars-conflicts-and-operations/world-war-ii/1942/halsey-doolittle-raid.html. . Published May 10, 2019. Accessed January 11, 2023.

Interview with United States Air Force General James Harold (Jimmy) Doolittle (Ret.). https://www.usni.org/press/oral-histories/doolittle-james. Recorded February 1983. Accessed January 17, 2023.

Goldstein, Richard. “Richard Cole, 103, Last Survivor of Doolittle Raid on Japan, Dies.” The New York Times.  https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/09/obituaries/richard-cole-dead.html. . Published April 19, 2019. Accessed January 11, 2023.

Fish, B. Additional Historic Information [on] The Doolittle Raid (Hornet). https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=0CAQQw7AJahcKEwiQ-tvOvcr8AhUAAAAAHQAAAAAQAg&url=https%3A%2F%2Fuss-hornet.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2017%2F11%2FWebsite-Extended-Info-Doolittle-Raid.pdf&psig=AOvVaw2s2f85P-1fNrjzIr2XnAmm&ust=1673902936487101. . Accessed January 15, 2023.

Naval History and Heritage Command. “Doolittle Raid.” https://www.history.navy.mil/browse-by-topic/wars-conflicts-and-operations/world-war-ii/1942/halsey-doolittle-raid.html.  Published May 10, 2019. Accessed January 11, 2023.

"Losses During April Are Admitted Today." Spokane Daily Chronicle, page 1. Published October 22, 1942. Accessed January 15, 2023. https://www.newspapers.com/image/564334859. .

Goldstein, Richard. “Richard Cole, 103, Last Survivor of Doolittle Raid on Japan, Dies.” The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/09/obituaries/richard-cole-dead.html.  Published April 19, 2019. The New York Times.

Krebs A. The New York Times. “James Doolittle, 96, Pioneer Aviator Who Led First Raid on Japan, Dies.”https://www.nytimes.com/1993/09/29/us/james-doolittle-96-pioneer-aviator-who-led-first-raid-on-japan-dies.html. Published September 29, 1993. Accessed January 11, 2023.

Reynolds, HK. "Nippon Is Out To Capture Chinese Bases." The El Paso Times, page 3. https://www.newspapers.com/image/429555500.. Published May 25, 1942. Accessed January 15, 2023.

History.com Editors. History.com. “Boston Tea Party.” https://www.history.com/topics/american-revolution/boston-tea-party. Published October 27, 2009. Accessed January 15, 2023.

History.com Editors. History.com. “Sherman’s March to the Sea.” https://www.history.com/topics/american-civil-war/shermans-march. . Published February 22, 2010. Accessed January 15, 2023.

White House Archives. “President Bush Announces Major Combat Operations in Iraq Have Ended.” https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2003/05/20030501-15.html. Published May 1, 2003. Accessed January 15, 2023.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan. “Japan-United States of America Relations.” https://www.mofa.go.jp/na/na1/us/page23e_000329.html. . Published September 14, 2022. Accessed January 15, 2023.

The History of the Bikini - And How it was Inspired by a Nuclear Test

It was the summer of 1946, the place: the vast wastes of the Pacific. A mighty armada of military personnel and scientists gathered around a cluster of tiny islands and coral reefs. They were about to unleash something terrifying: the first planned atomic test, named Operation Crossroads. The location chosen, as far away from human beings as possible, was a small island group called the Bikini Atoll, a part of the Marshall Islands. These pin-prick islands thrusting their head just above the western Pacific could have been on the far side of the moon as far as most people were concerned. But they would soon become a household word. One reason was the atomic test, the other, although notably less violent, would send even greater tremors throughout the world than the 23-kiloton bomb exploded on July 1, 1946. In one of the more enjoyable examples of the Law of Unexpected Consequences, the result of this test was the increased popularity of a very skimpy type of clothing called the Bikini. How did a cutting-edge weapon of mass destruction become linked with popular beach wear? The story begins in that first post-war summer.

Victor Gamma explains.

Micheline Bernardini wearing a bikini in 1946. Source: Hulton Archive, here.

Ever since Hiroshima, atomic energy had intrigued the general public and produced far-reaching cultural effects as well. In the United States, the Atomic Cafe opened in Los Angeles that year. Not long afterward, Lyle Griffin would found “Atomic Records” as a label.  France would have its own unique reaction: a daring new line of swimwear. With this design the redoubtable French recaptured the lead in the post-war fashion industry while barely missing a beat. The product they unleashed on the world would have a more far-reaching impact than a cafe in California.

The bikini was the latest result of the ultimate product of historical processes reaching back generations. The twentieth century could be called the Age of the Plummeting hem line. From the turn-of-the century, when bathing gowns and bathing machines dominated the scene without a leg showing, to the 1940’s two-piece, Inch by inch the women’s beachwear shrunk until by the 1940s two piece outfits that exposed the midriff were well established. The hips, back and breast were still well-covered and it was still unacceptable for women to expose their belly button in public. World War II sped up the trend towards greater skimpiness. War-time shortages of fabrics led to rationing. On March 8, 1942 the United States War Production Board issued Regulation L-85 which ordered the swimwear industry to reduce by 10% the amount of fabric for women. The swimwear industry responded with a number of changes. Basically they became less frilly, more functional and in the process, exposed more skin, including two-piece suits with bare midriffs. In the United States, geographically the war was a distant event Americans only read or heard about. Thus, unlike in war-torn Europe, Americans were free to indulge their favorite habits, such as enjoying a day at the beach. American fashion designers had done their patriotic best to meet war-time shortages by removing some superfluous material.  But those worn in the US were quite modest compared to the bombshell French designers were about to drop.  

In 1946, after years of shortages and air raid sirens, Europeans looked forward to the first peace-time summer in 6 years. That and the reality of conditions in France led many to seek distractions. The economy was in shambles, citizens felt the bite of food shortages and much of decaying buildings in Paris showed the results of years of neglect. More than anything, the war-weary French yearned to enjoy sunny days at the traditional vacation spots. For many this meant packing up the family and heading to the beach. These had been closed for much of the war. In the spirit of healthy patriotic capitalism, some saw a way to help out and make money at the same time. Said one fashion designer, “In 1946 France had just come out of the war and people needed to live again - I felt I had to design something that would make people understand that life can start over and be beautiful.” Men like this were busy at their design desks focusing on ideas that would match the liberated mood of the season.  Among these were a former auto engineer named Louis Réard and clothing designer Jacques Heim.

An Unlikely Connection 

The fashion industry thrives on novelty and the changing of seasons. Knowing this, Réard and Heim both raced to create a new swimwear for the fast approaching summer. Partly influenced by on-going shortages of material caused by the recent World War, both were intent on pushing the limits on size. Both also shared the current obsession with atomic energy. Heim, who owned a beach-supply shop on the French Riviera, introduced a two-piece swimwear in May, 1946. This was actually a re-launching of an earlier design influenced by Tahitian dancers. He called his creation “The Atom” after the smallest known particle of matter. It featured a bottom that covered the navel, even if barely. Heim hired skywriters to fly over the most popular beaches declaring the “Atom:the world’s smallest bathing suit.”

Unfortunately for Heim, his ambition and talent was shared by Réard. He followed Heim’s progress with the attention of a shark and decided to use his product and marketing as a launch pad for his own creation. Despite his engineering background, he found himself running his mother’s lingerie shop by the 1940s. A natural competitor, Heim’s creation pushed him to do something even more attention-getting. The observant engineer noticed women at the beach at St. Tropez rolling up the edges of their swimwear to get more tan. In what would be a fortuitous turn of events, his mother’s shop also served as the shoe shop for the famous cabaret Les Folies bergère. Here he most likely saw costumes very similar to his own creation. Some dancers wore outfits using as little as 30 inches of fabric consisting of a bra and two inverted triangles. All of this inspired the intrepid engineer to surpass Heim. Why couldn’t he take what was basically a cabaret outfit and merchandise it for use in a mainstream setting? He rushed to his design desk and trimmed material off the bottom design. The result was a daring combination of halter top connected by a neck and back strap. The lower piece was simply two inverted triangles connected by a gstring. It was indeed smaller than Heim’s, using a mere 30 inches of fabric. The main difference between Réard and Heim’s design was that Réard challenged convention by exposing the navel and much of the buttocks. He promoted his creation as a direct challenge to Heim “smaller than the smallest bathing suit in the world.”  Réard chose a newspaper pattern for his new swimwear confident that it would be newsworthy. It was also a shameless ploy to win the favor of the journalist community. 

Next came the task of choosing an appropriate name. What would resonate with the public? The news-savvy engineer knew that the attention of all France was riveted on the atomic tests taking place that summer. Réard could thank Operation Crossroads for choosing the location they did. They could have easily selected a nearby island such as Allinglaplap. As it was, the site chosen contained just the perfect combination of syllables. As the engineer-turned-fashion icon later explained “At that time everybody spoke of the island of Bikini in the pacific, enchanted, tiny, fine sand, a paradise. The idea came to me to make a swimsuit tiny like that island.” More likely, Réard simply wanted to beat Heim in the competition. Réard’s creative genius made the connection between two seemingly unrelated things: his daring swimwear and the current atomic tests. With the natural instincts of a Madison Avenue advertising talent, he put the two together: The new atomic age and a revolutionary new line of swimwear. Next, he chose a very attention-getting slogan - 'The Bikini will be explosive.’ Two weeks after the Able atomic bomb test, Réard registered the name Bikini for his latest swimwear creations. What the wily Frenchman was in effect saying was that his design was as momentous an occasion as the Atomic Bomb. In his words, “Like the bomb, the bikini is small but devastating.” 

Search for a Model    

Of course, the full effect could not be appreciated without someone to wear it for the public. He especially needed models who specialized in swimwear. Since the design would be considered scandalous, this took some doing. His string two-piece left very little to the imagination. Essentially, the model would be appearing semi-naked in public. None of the usual models were willing to wear his ‘bikini’ let alone waltz around in public in a skimpy two-piece. Réard, in fact, was forced to find a strip-tease dancer. Fortunately for Réard there were dancers of the other type: someone not shy about exposure in public. In a fortuitous circumstance, Réard’s shop was located not too distant from the Casino de Paris. This was a well-established music hall that attracted patrons from all over the world for generations. Famed for the lavish costumes, the Casino dancers wore a wild diversity of costumes including some resembling Réard’s later bikini. The Casino de Paris also sometimes featured topless and nude dancing. Among the dancers in 1946 was an 18-year old strip-dancer named Micheline Bernardini.  When Réard offered to hire her to model his new two-piece, she readily agreed. She donned the string two-piece bathing attire and stepped into history. 

Public Exposure

Next Réard arranged a press conference to take place as an outdoor fashion show at the Piscine Molitor, a popular public swimming pool in Paris. The date was July 5, 1946, five days after the Atomic detonation at Bikini Atoll. At the event she posed for a number of photographs. Reard arranged a press conference. Bernardini posed and held a matchbox, indicating that the entire outfit could fit in the tiny container. Never one to miss a beat, Réard kept repeating his advertising slogan; "Bikini--smaller than the smallest bathing suit in the world." 

That summer’s fashion wars waxed hot the following weeks as Heim and Réard vied with each other to capture the market. Réard hired his own skywriters to specifically counter Heim’s claim, beachgoers looked up to see "smaller than the smallest swimming suit in the world.” The merciless engineer continued his campaign to overshadow Heim by proclaiming that he had “split the atom.” Sadly for Heim, his competitor was a natural showman and, although he was first and initially sold more, it was Réard’s name bikini that stuck.

Reaction

The reaction was indeed explosive. Like it or hate it - it could not be ignored. “Four triangles of nothing,” asserted one newspaper. Heim and Réard’s instincts proved correct. France, buoyed by recent liberation and excited to enjoy life again (a French specialty), fixed its attention on the latest fashion breakthrough. Some in the press remarked that the bikini design must have been inspired by the atomic tests because the wearer looked like a survivor from a nuclear blast, whose clothes were reduced to tatters. Others speculated that the primitive islanders living near the blast influenced the simplicity of the design. Whatever the press commentary, much of the public loved the daring new outfit. The delighted Réard was deluged by fan mail to the tune of 50,000 within a short-time of the event at Piscine Molitor. The obscure Miss Bernardini also became something of a celebrity, receiving at least 500,000 fan letters. Réard would continue hammering his message with an advertising campaign that included the slogan “It’s not a genuine bikini unless it could be pulled through a wedding ring.” The witty engineer followed up with such descriptions of this design that it "reveals everything about a girl except for her mother's maiden name." Another gem from the quotable designer was that the bikini had "just enough to protect the property without spoiling the view." 

Despite the sensationalism generated by the press, as well the pronouncements of cultural spokespersons such as Diana Vreeland: “The bikini is the most important thing since the atom bomb,” mainstream life at the beach continued to reflect more conservative dress until the 1960s. Except for the jet-set that adopted the latest Paris fashions and took them to their favorite hot place, international sales were disappointing. Other than a core of enthusiastic supporters and women of the more daring type, the insubstantial design was too revealing for most people. Although by the 1930s women’s swimwear displayed the entire leg, midriff and had a plunging neckline, Réard’s design pushed well beyond those limits. "I can't think of any situation in the thousand years before the 1960s when it was acceptable to show the navel, " said Kevin Jones, a curator and fashion historian at the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising in Los Angeles. “It was avant-garde; it was ahead of its time,” said Miss Rayer, co-author of a book on the bikini’s history. “In that epoch, we were still puritan.”

Legacy

When the bikini began to appear on the beaches, it was banned almost everywhere. Citations were given in Italy for wearing a bikini as late as 1957. In more progressive nations, the bikini began to gain traction, so promoters attempted to endorse it. But time was on the side of the bikini. They, of course, dominate most beaches today. By the 2000s the bikini industry generated over $800 million yearly. By the time Réard died in 1984, bikinis would amount to as much as 20% of the swimwear market. But more than introducing a popular product, Réard’s creation reflected changing standards. What Réard essentially did was to mainstream a mode of dress that had up to that point been relegated to places of ill-repute. In 2007 Le Figaro trumpeted “For women, wearing a bikini signaled a kind of second liberation…It was … a celebration of freedom and a return to the joys of life.” Since Réard’s time the bikini and swimwear have continued to evolve, as have cultural attitudes about issues related to femininity and modesty. In the future, innovation, creativity and the continuous quest to push the boundaries of acceptability are sure to provide new expressions. 

What do you think of the history of the bikini? Let us know below.

Now read Victor’s series on how the US misjudged Fidel Castro here.

Bibliography

Rubin, Alissa J. “From Bikinis to Burkinis, Regulating What women Wear.” The New York Times, August 27, 2016.

From Bikinis to Burkinis, Regulating What Women Wear - The New York Times 

Hendrix, Steve. “You have this French man to thank - or chastise - for creating the modern bikini.” The Lily News, July 10, 2018.

You have this French man to thank — or chastise — for creating the modern bikini

“Man Who Invented the Bikini Bares his Thoughts.” The Dispatch, Nov. 5, 1974. 

The Dispatch - Google News Archive Search 

Stanton, Audrey. “The Scandalous History Of The Bikini.” The Good Trade, August 2, 2019.

 The Scandalous History Of The Bikini — The Good Trade

Image fair use rationale: Educational. This photograph plays a fundamental part in the history of the bikini. It is essential to explain the history of the bikini in the post-war period.

Nazi Involvement in the Spanish Civil War: The Nazis Longest Lasting Political and Military Victory

Nazi Germany was actively involved in the Spanish Civil War on the side of General Franco’s Nationalists. The Nazis helped the Nationalists in various ways. Here, Daniel Boustead looks at how the Nazis supported them militarily.

The aftermath of the bombing of Guernica, Spain. Source: Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-H25224 / Unknown author / CC-BY-SA 3.0, available here.

Nazi Germany’s involvement in the Spanish Civil War has been well documented by historians. The origins of Nazis support for the Spanish Nationalists was between 1931 and 1936. Nazi military support for Francisco Franco’s Nationalist forces was entirely motivated by political and financial reasons. The Nazi support helped the Nationalists achieve important military and strategic victories during the conflict. In the Spanish Civil War the Nazis got to test out new military weapons and tactics which would be later used effectively in World War II. In fact the Nazis were probably the decisive factor in bringing Francisco Franco to power in Spain.

In 1931 the monarchy fell in Spain, and it became a republic (1). Spain was thrown into further disarray and chaos after the results of the February 16, 1936, elections. These elections resulted in the left-wing “People’s Front” achieving a majority 473 seats to the other parties 256 seats in the Spanish Parliament. Fearing Spain would drift into a left-wing Communist government, on July 17, 1936, General Mola led, directed and organized a successful uprising in Melilla, Spanish Morocco(2). General Francisco Franco y Bahamonde, was in exile on the Canary Islands and upon hearing the news of the Nationalist uprising in Melilla, he was thrilled.

The government had placed General Francisco Franco as military commander of the Canary Islands as a form of banishment because of his opposition to the government. Franco had previously served as Chief of the General Staff of the Spanish Army of the Second Republic in 1935(4). He had long hated the Spanish government. In short order Franco and General Orgaz assumed the military command of the Canary Islands group. On July 18, 1936, Franco departed for Tetuan, Spanish Morocco aboard a British aircraft, where he arrived on July 19, after an en route stop at Casablanca (3). On that day, having already been informed of the objectives of the revolt by officers allied to Franco, the entire garrison of the city of Tetuan declared itself for the Nationalist side.

The Republican government  had no concern about Franco’s forces in Spanish Morocco. The Republican Naval fleets were carefully watching the Straits of Gibraltar, making transport of any Nationalist units by sea all but impossible. Later, on October 1, 1936, General Franco’s investiture as the New Chief of State of the Spanish State was proclaimed to the Nationalist forces and a ceremony took place (11).

A request to the Nazis

On July 23, 1936, a dispatch arrived at the German Foreign Affairs Office from Tetuan via the German Military Attache in Paris(5). In the dispatch, General Franco and Oberstleutnant Beigbeder, (former Spanish Military Attaché in Berlin), requested the delivery of ten military transport aircraft to Spanish Morocco. The recommendation of the Foreign Affairs Office to the Reich War Ministry, was absolutely neutral and tended to be rather negatively inclined towards Franco’s request. On July 24, 1936, a further telegram reached the German Foreign Affairs Office. It contained an announcement from the Tetuan Consulate that the requestioned and later charted DLH Ju 52 was to fly to Berlin. This flight would bring the Germans Johannes Bernhardt and Adolf Langenheim and a Spanish Air Force Officer Captain Arranz to present a handwritten note from General Franco to the Nazis. Adolf Langenheim was a member of the Nazi Party’s foreign branch in Tetuan and had numerous business dealings with General Franco and was thus well connected with him. Langenheim’s primary motives for supporting and seeking aid to General Franco were more business than idealistic aims. On July 24, 1936, Adolf Langenheim, Johannes Bernhardt, and Spanish Air Force Captain Arrantz arrived at Berlin-Gatow and were sent to see Adolf Hitler who was enjoying the Richard Wagner Festival at Bayreuth. On July 25, 1936, Johannes Bernhardt, Adolf Langenheim, and Captain Arranz, met with Adolf Hitler, Generalfeldmarchall Goring, War Minister Von Blomberg, and a representative of Vizadmiral Raeder, Kapitan zur See Coupette of the German Navy. The meetings between these two parties from July 25-26, 1936, succeeded in giving Nazi support to General Franco’s forces.

Reasons for support

The primary reasons the Nazis wanted to support General Franco was to make Spain a bulwark against Communism, to seek improvement in Germany’s foreign exchange situation, the future of Germany’s trade agreement with Spain, and to improve the interests of the 10,000 ethnic Germans living in Spain. The Initial discussions on the organization and extent of the aid for Spain then moved to the RLM. On July 26, 1936, the Reich RLM’s General der Fleiger Milch gave Generalleutnant Helmut Wilberg the job of creating Sondertab W, a central office for supplying the material and personnel needs of the German volunteers in Spain(6).

On July 26, the mixed delegation’s request for 10 Ju 52 transport aircrafts was increased to 20 Ju 52 transport aircrafts, which were to be delivered to Sevilla and Tetuan by DLH pilots via the shortest possible route that was approved by both sides. Also, in July the organization of HISMA Ltda was formed to act as a cover organization for the agreed upon transport of troops from Spanish Morocco to the mainland, as well as the delivery of German aircraft and materiel. The registered owners of HISMA Ltda was the Spanish Admiral Ramon Carrazanna and Johannes Bernhardt. Until the start of the Legion Condor, HISMA was responsible for supplying, accommodating and paying the German volunteers; in addition, it was the administrative office for all German aid deliveries and the liaison center between the Spanish headquarters and “Sonderstab Wilberg”. On August 6, 1936, the first German equipment, troops and personnel arrived at Cadiz (7). On October 2, 1936, the purely German partner company of HISMA was created in Berlin and was known as ROWAK GmbH, an indication of the Third Reich’s increasing economic interest in events in Spain.

The initial German troops and equipment that landed on Cadiz on August 6, 1936, were quickly transported by rail cars to Sevilla on August 7. In the meantime, ten Ju 52 transports had been ferried to Tablada airfield near Sevilla by Lufthansa captains, so that Bubb Moreau and his forty-two man group were able to begin transport flights from Tetuan to Sevilla at once. The Germans had originally been forbidden to fly operational sorties, except to provide escort to the transport aircraft in these operations(8). The sole task of the volunteer pilots was to train Spanish crews to fly and use the Ju 52 and He 51.

The Nazi supply chain was a success. Indeed, by the time German aerial supply flights ended in mid- October 1936, a total of 13,500 Nationalist men and 269 tons of war material had been flown to Spain(9).

On November 7, the Legion Condor was created under the command of Hugo Sperrle (10). The Legion Condor arrived at the Port of Cadiz and Sevilla on November 29, 1936, helping expand the Nazi’s military role. This unit consisted of an air force unit, anti-aircraft unit, a ground forces unit, and other miscellaneous units (12). On April 26, 1937, the Nazi Condor Legion in conjunction with the Italian Air Force bombed the Basque town of Guernica (13). The bombing of Guernica resulted in blocking the avenue of retreat for the Spanish Republican forces. The bombed out and collapsed structures in Guernica hindered this retreat. According to recent studies, the bombing of Guernica resulted in some 126 tragic deaths (14).

By the end of Spanish Civil War, the Condor Legion had shot down 277 Republican aircraft in air-to-air combat, and 58 by anti-aircraft fire (guns supplied and manned by Germans). This is a grand total of 335 Republican aircraft destroyed by the Legion Condor(18).

The BF 109 Fighter got its combat debut in Spain the from 1937 to 1939 (15). On May 11, 1937, Spanish Gun batteries equipped with 88 mm guns opened fire on two Soviet T-26 B tanks in the grounds of “La Buena Vista”, south of Toledo (16). The German 88 millimeter gun would later become a much-feared anti-tank weapon during World War II.  It was also in the Spanish Civil War where Luftwaffe began to operate as teams as opposed to operating alone in World War I like the Red Baron did  (17). On March 12, 1938, the Legion Condor’s F/88s 88/56 mm anti-aircraft guns were used in conjunction with tanks and ground planes to help the 5th Navarra Division’s advance of 36 kilometers between Belchite and Escatron (19). The unit F/88’s coordination in this attack with tanks and ground attack planes, and the need to change the positions of the anti-aircraft guns three times was a success. This would later be used during the “Blitzkrieg” tactics of World War II .

The Nazi support for Franco helped him get into power and provided the Nazis with their longest lasting military and political victory. Francisco Franco remained in power from 1939 to 1975.

Now, read our book on the Spanish Civil War here.

Now, you can read World War II history from Daniel: “Did World War Two Japanese Kamikaze Attacks have more Impact than Nazi V-2 Rockets?” here, “Japanese attacks on the USA in World War II” here, and “Was the Italian Military in World War 2 Really that Bad?” here.

References

1 Ries, Karl and Ring, Hans.  The Legion Condor: A History of the Luftwaffe in the Spanish Civil War-1936-1939. Atglen: Pennsylvania. Schiffer Publishing Ltd. 1992. 9.

2 Ries, Karl and Ring, Hans. The Legion Condor: A History of the Luftwaffe in the Spanish Civil War-1936-1939. Atglen: Pennsylvania.  Schiffer Publishing Ltd. 1992. 10.

3 Ries, Karl and Ring, Hans. The Legion Condor: A History of the Luftwaffe in the Spanish Civil War-1936-1939. Atglen: Pennsylvania.  Schiffer Publishing Ltd. 1992. 10 to 11.

4 Preston, Paul. FRANCO: A Biography. New York: New York. Basic Books. 1994. 109.

5 Ries, Karl and Ring, Hans. The Legion Condor: A History of the Luftwaffe in the Spanish Civil War 1936-1939. Atglen: Pennsylvania.  Schiffer Publishing Ltd. 1992 12.

6 Ries, Karl and Ring, Hans. The Legion Condor: A History of the Luftwaffe in the Spanish Civil War 1936-1939. Atglen: Pennsylvania. Schiffer Publishing Ltd.1992. 12 to 13.

7 Ries, Karl and Ring, Hans. The Legion Condor: A History of the Luftwaffe in the Spanish Civil War 1936-1939. Atglen: Pennsylvania.  Schiffer Publishing Ltd. 1992. 14.

8 Ries, Karl and Ring, Hans. The Legion Condor: A History of the Luftwaffe in the Spanish Civil War 1936-1939. Atglen: Pennsylvania. Schiffer Publishing Ltd. 1992. 15.

9 Ries, Karl and Ring, Hans. The Legion Condor; A History of the Luftwaffe in the Spanish Civil War 1936-1939.  Atglen: Pennsylvania. Schiffer Publishing Ltd. 1992. 17.

10 Ries, Karl and Ring, Hans. The Legion Condor: A History of the Luftwaffe in the Spanish Civil War 1936-1939. Atglen: Pennsylvania. Schiffer Publishing Ltd. 1992. 37 to 38.

11 Preston, Paul. FRANCO: A Biography. New York: New York. Basic Books. 1994. 184 to 185.

12 Arias, Raul, Molina, Lucas, and Permuy, Rafel. LEGION CONDOR: HISTORY. ORGANIZATION.UNIFORMS.AWARDS. MEMROBILA 1936-1939. Atglen: Pennsylvania. Schiffer Publishing Ltd. 2013. 40 to 41.

13 Ries, Karl and Ring, Hans. The Legion Condor: A History of the Luftwaffe in the Spanish Civil War 1936-1939. Atglen: Pennsylvania. Schiffer Publishing Ltd. 1992 62 to 64.

14 Arias, Raul, Molina, Lucas, and Permuy, Rafael. LEGION CONDOR: HISTORY. ORGANIZATION. UNIFORMS. AWARDS. MEMROBILA. 1936-1939.  Atglen: Pennsylvania. Schiffer Publishing Ltd. 2013. 62 to 63.

15 Ries, Karl and Ring, Hans. The Legion Condor: A History of the Luftwaffe in the Spanish Civil War 1936-1939. Atglen: Pennsylvania. Schiffer Publishing Ltd. 1992. 261 to 262.

16 Garcia, Jose Ma Manrique and Molina, Lucas. Flak Artillery of the LEGION CONDOR: FLAK Abteilung(mot.) F/88 in the Spanish Civil War . 1936-1939. Atglen: Pennsylvania. Schiffer Publishing. Ltd. 2009. 46.

17 Pavelec, S. Mike. World War II DATA BOOK: The Luftwaffe 1933-1945: The Essential Facts and Figures for Goring’s Air Force. London: United Kingdom. Amber Books Ltd. 2010. 14.

18 Pavelec, S. Mike. World War II DATA BOOK: The Luftwaffe 1933-1945: The Essential Facts and Figures for Goring’s Air Force. London: United Kingdom. Amber Books Ltd. 2010. 15.

19 Garcia, Jose Ma Manrique and Molina. Lucas. Flak Artillery of the LEGION CONDOR: FLAK Abteilung (mot.) F/88 in the Spanish Civil War. 1936-1939. Atglen: Pennsylvania.  Schiffer Publishing Ltd. 2009. 61.

The Evolution of War-time Counter-Intelligence From World War II to Today

During World War II, psychological warfare was an incredibly important, yet under-appreciated aspect of strategic combat that played an essential role in the Allied Powers’ victory. Whether it was used to misinform enemies with propaganda, or incite fear with inflatable vehicles and dummies, psychological warfare was used by both the Allied Powers and the Axis Alliance during World War II. In the modern day, psychological warfare is still used to intimidate; however overtime, methods and applications have evolved.

Christopher Cho explains.

An inflatable dummy tank based on the M4 Sherman tank.

One of the smartest tactics used by the allied forces were inflatable tanks and paradummies. Developed by a special task force known as, “The Ghost Army,” made up of the most intelligent soldiers and best artists, the Allied Powers utilized a variety of mediums to trick the Nazis, including, “inflatable tanks and vehicles, fake radio traffic, sound effects, even phony generals.” (Ghost Army) Because they were inflatable, these tanks were light enough to be carried by four men across a battlefield and gave the illusion of a much larger military presence. Paradummies, also known as Operation Titanic, were dolls used in place of real paratroopers in order to distract enemies and would often combust upon landing.

Planned by Ralph Ingersoll and Billy Harris and led by Colonel Harry L. Leeder, the Ghost Army and their devices gave the Allied Powers huge advantages during the war and would play a pivotal role in sowing key information for the D-Day invasion. To deceive Germany about the whereabouts of the invasion that would ultimately happen at Normandy, the Ghost Army placed inflatable tanks and military jeeps, where the battles were supposed to take place. Paradummies were dropped along with rifle simulators and SAS (Special Air Service) men to further deceive German soldiers.

The Allied forces had a lot of smart ways of using psychological warfare against their enemy. However, the Nazis and the Axis Powers also had their own forms of psychological warfare. The Axis Alliance were also quite successful when it came to their strategy in psychological warfare, but unlike the allies, they used propaganda as psychological warfare to further their ideological objectives, instead of trying to trick the enemy with fake soldiers and vehicles in order to win military battles. While the Allies tried weakening the Axis, the Axis convinced their soldiers to believe that the systematic extermination of many groups would restore order, using propaganda. Using the radio and other media outlets, Hitler had made the German population believe the Allies (mostly Great Britain and the United States of America) were under the control of Jewish people, creating nationwide antisemitism and justifying the murder of millions solely based on their identity.

Modern day

Though many psychological warfare strategies used during World War II were very successful, most of these strategies have become obsolete in modern day because of advancements in technology. For example, if a country tried to use inflatable tanks or paradummies, modern surveillance technology would easily detect a ruse. Modern day examples can be seen in the Russo-Ukraine war, during Russian protests. Whereas the radio allowed Nazi Germany to disseminate its propaganda in ways never imagined, social media allows the dissemination of propaganda and brings psychological warfare individualized directly to particular tastes. Social media propaganda could be used to make people believe whatever its creator wanted them to believe. Competing interests have simultaneously made citizens of Russia go against Putin and his need for war, but also have been used to further Russian objectives. Many citizens of Russia have started protests, which “... have emerged as the core of Russia’s antiwar movement. This effort includes hundreds of online communities and projects that have sprung up overnight to resist specific war-related government initiatives,” (Olimpieva) Consequently, there are reports of many Russian soldiers who didn't want to fight but were drafted and forced to. This is only one of many examples of psychological warfare being used in modern day, as Russian propaganda has had to work overtime to explain unexpected military losses and to stifle dissent at home.

D-Day was necessary for victory in World War II and the psychological tricks used were essential to the success of the mission. In contrast, the Nazis used their psychological warfare to further their ideological objectives and were also successful in doing this. As Russia continues to employ its psychological warfare to bolster propaganda for their war, the cost of that choice just might be paid in retreat, casualties and more propaganda to explain the failures of the Ukraine invasion to an increasingly sceptical Russian public.

What do you think of wartime counter-intelligence and psychological warfare? Let us know below.

Works Cited

https://www.history.com/news/ghost-army-world-war-ii

https://www.forces-war-records.co.uk/blog/2013/10/04/old-wwii-d-day-paradummy-found-residing-in-garden-shed#:~:text=Paradummies%20were%20used%20as%20a,movie%20'The%20Longest%20Day'

Collapse of the Qing Dynasty: Was the Sino-Japanese War of 1894 an Immediate Reason?

From being a minority to building one of the biggest empires in the world, the Qings have left behind an impressive mark on not only the history of China but of the world. Although not all of it is glorious, the tale of how the Manchus came to be the Qings, the consolidation of power, and their humiliating final years after the Sino-Japanese War of 1894 - surely is a spectacle.

If you missed it, you can read Disha’s article on the First Sino-Japanese War here.

A portrayal of the last Qing Emperor, Puyi. He became emperor at 2 years’ old.

China under Qing Rule

The Manchus were skilled warriors and had already been a formidable force during the Ming dynasty. After uprooting the rule of the Mings, they laid the foundation of an empire that boasted of being the fourth largest in the world at the time. The clan was born in 1636 but it was in the year 1644 that they came to be the ruling dynasty of China.

The seventeenth century was the golden age of Qing imperial rule. Under the Kangxi, Yongzheng, and Qianlong emperors, China prospered and the period is referred to as the High Qing or shengshi. The empire expanded to an unparalleled size. The rule of the Qianlong Emperor was praised in Europe (1). Art and literature proliferated with special attention towards poetry. The Peking Opera also developed during this era.

After the Qianlong Emperor, the dynasty began its descent into infamy.

The population had increased dramatically towards the end of the eighteenth century. This led to the drainage of revenues (2). Migrations occurred in huge numbers as the landless population shifted towards less crowded areas. These added to the government's predicament in effectively administering the people (3).

Groups like Hans, Manchus, Tibetans, Mongols, and Uyghurs formed a multi-ethnic population. But they did not exist in harmony. At times, the non-Hans suffered intolerance from both the people and the administration leading to conflicts (4). This diverted the focus on repressing the conflicts rather than working towards integrating their cultural differences. The rulers, who were Manchus, were still viewed as "outsiders". Throughout their reign, the Qings faced numerous rebellions and uprisings that sought to overthrow them.

The administration during the later Qing era was riddled with corruption. The government did little to encourage trade and modernization. Whatever efforts were done in that field were done by private investors who did not have much power (5). The ritual practices of the period also acted as an impediment to the process of modernization. The ceremonies were ostentatious and the state was reluctant to stop them for changes made in matters of tradition could prove to be disastrous (6).

The bureaucratic system granted excessive power to non-Han officials. Higher-up positions were reserved for Manchus so that they could keep their Han subordinates in check.

Moreover, there had been no attempts to centralize the military out of the fear of giving too much power in the hands of the Han officials (7) and repeating history. The Manchus had seized power from the then-reigning Mings (if the short-lived Shun dynasty is to be excluded). The Ming dynasty was the last dynasty of China to be ruled by Hans. This paranoia could have been a factor in the difficulties in effective management.

Some of the societal facets which existed before the coming of the Qings continued during their reign, somewhat emboldened even. For example, the tradition of the civil service examination that had commenced back in the sixth century by the hands of the Sui dynasty was used to fill positions in the administration. Voltaire applauded this system stating no government could be better than the one in China (8). While it served the noble purpose of hiring qualified people in the government, it also widened the gap between the elite and the commoners. The society was marked with strict demarcations dividing the "respectable" and the lower classes. Those considered inferior were not allowed to give the civil service exam. Many endeavors were made to assimilate the different sections of society but one thing still withstood these changes. The disparity between the high society and the common man prevailed.

At the advent of the 1860s, the world had begun witnessing important events like the American Civil War, the unification of Germany and Italy, etc. This period overlapped with China's failed attempt at restoring the dynasty's declining domination, known as the Tongzhi Restoration, engineered by the Empress Dowager Cixi (9).

The Unequal Treaties

Treaties have been a crucial part of international law. Whether they are signed to end wars or form an alliance, the important fact that's solidified with a treaty is that the states have entered into an agreement. Throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, several western powers made Asian and African states sign treaties that were unjust as they were advantageous for only one of the parties involved. It, however, has been argued that only the first three treaties were "unequal" and the later ones were more considerate toward China (10).

The Treaty of Nanjing, the first of the unequal treaties, gave extraterritorial rights to Britain by granting them Hong Kong. The Qing officials were ignorant of the meaning of these treaties. Apparently, they had no problem with the unfair clauses of the treaty and giving up their territories to a foreign country but were outraged that the name of their emperor was listed along with the monarch of the ‘barbarians' (11).

A major blow to the dynasty came with the Taiping Rebellion in 1850. Already undermined by their defeat in the First Opium War, the state of the Qing empire kept on deteriorating. During this period of political unrest, several rebellions ensued that weakened the integrity of the Qing rule even further. The emperor had to ask for help from regional leaders. These leaders had their own armies (12) and depended on the emperor for nothing, which questioned the superiority of the monarch.

For many years, imperial China had remained isolated. The people were not knowledgeable about the ways of other states, say of the West, that were busy colonizing. Russian officials saw an advantage in the tumultuous state China was in and used this vulnerability to acquire no small area of land along the Russo-Chinese border. The land they amassed was more than the size of Japan (13). Given all these circumstances, it was clear that the age of the High Qing was nearing its end.

After the First Sino-Japanese War

Anti-Manchu sentiments had started brewing since the end of the First Opium War but the defeat in the war of 1894 fanned it to an alarming extent (14). The dynasty had lost its glory earned during the High Qing era. The loss incurred by the empire by the Treaty of Shimonoseki was immense. Having to let go of the Liaodong peninsula in southern Manchuria, the homeland of the Qings, added insult to injury (15).

The political crises occurring in China distressed a scholar named Kang Youwei. Having lived in Hong Kong in his youth, he was impressed by the Westernization there. Taking the example of the modernization in Japan and Hong Kong he, along with Liang Qichao and some similar-minded people, advised the emperor to carry out similar reforms. In 1898, they started the Hundred Days' Reform but their suggestions were not to the liking of Empress Dowager Cixi. She declared herself regent and put the emperor under house arrest (16), thus putting a stop to the development of the movement.

A famine struck China in 1908 that took the lives of about 25 million people and was recorded as one of the worst in human history. This increased the people's dissatisfaction with the imperial rule. What followed was a series of revolts that would be called the Xinhai Revolution of 1911. Eventually, the Qing dynasty saw its last emperor abdicate in 1912 - putting an end to a reign that extended for about three centuries. While the war with Japan might have spurred the process of decline of the Qings but the fall of the dynasty was the culmination of years of resentment towards their rule.

What do you think of the impact of the War of 1894? Let us know below.

Now read Disha’s article on the Hitler Youth here.

Bibliography

Detter, Ingrid. “The Problem of Unequal Treaties.” The International and Comparative Law Quarterly 15, no. 4 (1966): 1069–89. http://www.jstor.org/stable/757143.

Fairbank, John K. “Introduction: the Old Order.” Chapter. In The Cambridge History of China, edited by John K. Fairbank, 10:1–34. The Cambridge History of China. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1978.

Hsu, Immanuel C. Y. “Late Ch'ing Foreign Relations, 1866–1905.” Chapter. In The Cambridge History of China, edited by John K. Fairbank and Kwang-Ching Liu, 11:70–141. The Cambridge History of China. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1980.

Paine, S.C.M. The Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895: Perceptions, Power, and Primacy. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003.

Rowe, William T. China's Last Empire: The Great Qing. Cambridge, MA; London: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2009.

Smith, Richard J. The Qing Dynasty and Traditional Chinese Culture. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2015.

Wang, Dong. “The Discourse of Unequal Treaties in Modern China.” Pacific Affairs 76, no. 3 (2003): 399–425. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40023820.

References

1 S.C.M. Paine, The Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895: Perceptions, Power, and Primacy, 'The Decline of the Old Order in China and Korea', 23-24

2 Ibid.

3 John Fairbank, “Introduction: the Old Order.”, The Cambridge History of China Vol. 10, 16

4 Richard J. Smith, The Qing Dynasty and Traditional Chinese Culture, 'The Qing Political Order', 89

5 Ibid., 'The Late Qing and Beyond, 1860-2014', 390

6 Ibid., 391

7 Paine, The Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895: Perceptions, Power, and Primacy, 'The Decline of the Old Order in China and Korea', 32

8 Ibid., 'The Reversal in the Far Eastern Balance of Power', 13-14

9 Immanuel C. Y. Hsu, “Late Ch'ing Foreign Relations, 1866–1905”, The Cambridge History of China Vol. 11, 85

10 Ingrid Detter, “The Problem of Unequal Treaties”, http://www.jstor.org/stable/757143

11 Dong Wang, “The Discourse of Unequal Treaties in Modern China”, http://www.jstor.org/stable/40023820

12 Paine, The Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895: Perceptions, Power, and Primacy, 'The Decline of the Old Order in China and Korea', 26

13 Ibid., 32

14 William T. Rowe, China's Last Empire: The Great Qing, 'Chinese Responses to Imperialism, 1895-1900', 236

15 Ibid., 'Imperialism in Fin de Siècle China', 234

16 Ibid., 'Chinese Responses to Imperialism, 1895-1900', 242

The 1919-20 Palmer Raids in the US - And Who they Targeted

The Bolsheviks’ toppling of the Russian government during the Russian Revolution of 1917 led to 30,000 Russians coming to the United States. Then, in the late 1910s, a series of bombings that some called the ‘Red Scare’ ensued. The U.S. Attorney General retaliated with several actions, including what has come to be known as the Palmer Raids.

Janel Miller explains.

Men arrested in during the Palmer Raids are shown here on Ellis Island, New York awaiting deportation hearings in January 1920.

Bombs Sent to Politicians

To start with, in the days leading up to May Day (May 1), 1919, bombs were sent to at least 23 United States addresses. Some of the recipients were politicians. One of these attacks injured the housekeeper of a Georgia lawmaker.

Another round of bomb attacks on United States judges, politicians and law enforcement officials occurred about a month later. One of the attacks occurred on June 2 in front of the home of 1920 presidential hopeful and the U.S. Attorney General during part of Woodrow Wilson’s administration, A. Mitchell Palmer. The nation’s top lawyer immediately called for an investigation to determine who was responsible.

This investigation suggested that individuals often called radicals in the press were responsible. Subsequently, Palmer used that information, along with the 1918 Sedition Act (which limited free speech), to seek and persecute these individuals.

1919 Raids Targeted Radicals

The Kansas City Times reported that on November 7, with the intent of abating a nationwide plan "to defy governmental authority”, the federal government conducted raids and searches in roughly two dozen municipalities.

One of the raids that day took place in New York, where 200 people that federal authorities called radicals were arrested and another 50 alleged radicals were scheduled for deportation. Other raids, most of them with fewer arrests, took place around the same time in Chicago, St. Louis, Detroit, and Philadelphia. At least some of these searches yielded printed materials discussing the nationwide plan, making bombs and/or producing counterfeit documents. In Johnstown, Pennsylvania, no arrests were made, but a group of business leaders banished two people said to be labor organizers from the city. These actions coincided with the second anniversary of the birth of the Bolshevik government that so many Russian immigrants had tried to flee.

Not convinced the threat posed by those he called radicals was over, Palmer called for a law that, among other things, would allow radicals to be arrested even if they acted alone (at the time of Palmer’s request, only radicals working in groups of two or more could be arrested). He also claimed some of the 222 United States newspapers published in foreign languages encouraged violent overthrows of the U.S. government.

Palmer also asked for enhanced Justice Department facilities and the creation of a parole board that would relieve some of the Justice Department’s work burden and he also oversaw the deportation of 249 radicals via the U.S.S. Buford on December 21.

Raids Also Occurred in 1920

On January 2, 1920, another round of raids occurred in large United States municipalities such as Philadelphia and Chicago, as well as smaller ones such as Cortland, New York; Nashua, New Hampshire; Olneyville, Rhode Island; and Lynn and Brockton, Massachusetts. These January raids resulted in 10,000 individuals arrested who federal authorities said were members of the Communist and Communist Labor parties.

The following month, in an essay Palmer authored titled “The Case Against the Reds,” he stated his actions would prevent the “horror and terrorism of bolshevik tyranny” that was underway in Russia from occurring in the United States. Soon after the essay’s publication, Palmer claimed that radical-led attacks would occur on May Day, 1920, just as they had the year before.

Palmer Had His Detractors

Support for Palmer’s actions was not universal. For example, Francis Fisher Kane, the U.S. Attorney for Eastern Pennsylvania, resigned rather than follow Palmer’s directives. Also, an essay published by future United States Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter and Harvard Law School Dean Roscoe Pound discussed what the authors felt were the many legal problems with Palmer’s raids and other actions.

In addition, there were a few immigration inspectors who refused to follow instructions that Palmer authorized or approved. The Lewiston Daily Sun openly sought lawmakers willing to "expose the hollowness of the Palmer holler." The newly formed American Civil Liberties Union claimed Palmer’s actions were based on opinions, not laws.

The Des Moines News stated that the Attorney General was "intimating that the labor department was letting off the reds and failing to deport them.” The newspaper reported that in contrast, members of the Labor Department accused Palmer of "deliberately framing up cases upon perfectly innocent foreigners and endeavoring to make a record by wholesale arrests on the flimsiest kind of evidence and in many cases without proper warrants.”

The attacks of May Day, 1920 that Palmer predicted failed to come to fruition, further damaging his credibility. The one-time 1920 presidential hopeful received 267 nominating votes for president that year, but Republican Warren G. Harding was ultimately elected president and Palmer left office rather than serve with his administration. Although Palmer would remain active in Democratic causes for the rest of his life, his hopes of becoming United States president were never realized.

In Context

Parallels can be drawn between this chapter in United States history and several events that preceded and followed it. For example, four-year-old Dorothy Good faced accusations of being a witch during the hysteria known as the Salem Witch Trials of the 1690s because her mother was accused of witchcraft. In 2015, after the killing of a Californian woman by a man in the United States illegally, then-presidential candidate Donald J. Trump said that Mexico was sending the U.S. people with “lots of problems,” according to the Los Angeles Times.

What do you think of the Palmer Raids? Let us know below.

References

“Russian Beginnings.” https://www.loc.gov/classroom-materials/immigration/polish-russian/russian-beginnings. Library of Congress. Accessed October 22, 2022.

Palmer Raids. https://www.fbi.gov/history/famous-cases/palmer-raids. FBI. Accessed October 11, 2022.

Blumberg, Jess. “A Brief History of the Salem Witch Trials.” https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/a-brief-history-of-the-salem-witch-trials-175162489/. Published Oct. 23, 2007. Accessed October 24, 2022.

Hennessey, Kathleen. “Trump Takes On Mexican Government In Comments On Immigrants.” https://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-trump-mexican-immigrants-20150706-story.html. Published July 6, 2015. Accessed Oct. 23, 2022.

“Nation Wide Hunt for May Day Bombs.” https://www.newspapers.com/image/837246919. Holyoke Daily Transcript, page 1. Published May 1, 1919. Accessed October 23, 2022.

Palmer Raids. https://www.fbi.gov/history/famous-cases/palmer-raids. FBI. Accessed October 11, 2022.

Attorney General: Alexander Mitchell Palmer. https://www.justice.gov/ag/bio/palmer-alexander-mitchell. U.S. Department of Justice. Accessed October 11, 2022.

Palmer Raids. https://www.fbi.gov/history/famous-cases/palmer-raids. FBI. Accessed October 11, 2022.

Boyd, Christina L. “Sedition Act of 1918.” https://mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/1239/sedition-act-of-1918. The First Amendment Encyclopedia. Accessed October 11, 2022.

“’Reds’ In Raid Net.” https://www.newspapers.com/image/654292552. The Kansas City Times,  page 1. Published November. 8, 1919, Accessed October 22, 2022.

“Raid Radicals In 18 Cities.” https://www.newspapers.com/image/614412771. The York Dispatch, page 1. Published November 8, 1919. Accessed October 22, 2022.

“Must Have Laws to Curb Radicals Palmer Declares.” https://www.newspapers.com/image/825798158. The Macon Daily Telegraph, page 1. Published November. 16, 1919. Accessed September 28, 2022.

“Palmer’s Report on the Reds and Their Work.” https://www.newspapers.com/image/552827864. The Gazette and Daily, page 8. Published Dec. 9, 1919. Accessed September 28, 2022.

“Second Ark to Leave.” https://newspaperarchive.com/ogden-standard-dec-22-1919p-1/. The Ogden Standard, page 1. Published December 22, 1919. Accessed October 23, 2022.

Williams, David. “The Bureau of Investigation and Its Critics, 1919-1921: The Origins of Federal Political Surveillance.” The Journal of American History. (68): 560-579. Accessed October 15, 2022.

“100 More ‘Reds’ Taken In New England Raids.”. New York Tribune, page 2. Published January 4, 1920. Accessed Oct. 23, 2022.

“130 Raid Prisoners in Philadelphia District to Be Held For Hearing.” https://www.newspapers.com/image/78218686. New York Tribune, page 2. Published January 4, 1920. Accessed October 23, 2022.

“’Perfect Cases’ Against 2,616 Taken In Raids Is Claim of Federal Agents.” https://www.newspapers.com/image/542621138. The Muscatine Journal and News-Tribune, page 1.  Published January 3, 1920. Accessed October 23, 2022.

Palmer, Mitchell A. “The Case Against the ‘Reds.’” Forum 63 (1920): 173–185. http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/4993/. Accessed October 23, 2022.

“Department of Justice Agents Chosen for Assassination.” https://newspaperarchive.com/biloxi-daily-herald-apr-30-1920-p-1/. The Daily Herald, page 1. Published April 30, 1920. Accessed October 23, 2022.

“Kane Quit Because of Palmer’s Raids to Catch Radicals.” https://www.newspapers.com/image/162305073. Evening Public Ledger, page 1. Published January 23, 1920. Accessed September 28, 2022.

NCC Staff. “On This Day, Massive Raids During the Red Scare.” https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/on-this-day-massive-raids-during-the-red-scare. The Constitution Center. Published January 2, 2022. Accessed October. 11, 2022.

Williams, D. “The Bureau of Investigation and Its Critics, 1919-1921: The Origins of Federal Political Surveillance.” The Journal of American History. (68): 560-579. Accessed October 15, 2022.

“Editorial.” https://www.newspapers.com/image/828299251. The Lewiston Daily Sun, page 4. Published January. 24, 1920. Accessed September 28, 2022.

ACLU History. https://www.aclu.org/about/aclu-history. American Civil Liberties Union. Accessed October. 11, 2022.

“Impeachment.”. https://newspaperarchive.com/des-moines-news-apr-23-1920-p-6/. The Des Moines News, page 6. Published April 23, 1920. Accessed October 23, 2022.

“On This Day, Massive Raids During the Red Scare.” https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/on-this-day-massive-raids-during-the-. The Constitution Center. Published January 2, 2022. Accessed October. 11, 2022.

Attorney General: Alexander Mitchell Palmer. https://www.justice.gov/ag/bio/palmer-alexander-mitchell. U.S. Department of Justice. Accessed October 11, 2022.

Warren G. Harding. https://www.whitehouse.gov/about-the-white-house/presidents/warren-g. whitehouse.gov. Accessed October 23, 2022.

“A. Mitchell Palmer.” https://www.mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/1273/a-mitchell-palmer. The First Amendment Encyclopedia. Accessed October 26, 2022.

The Anti-Suffrage Movement in the UK

In the study of the suffrage movement, historiographical focus has remained on individuals such as Emmeline Pankhurst and Millicent Fawcett. This focus on notable individuals and the dramatic actions of the suffragettes means that one aspect of this history has been largely under-researched: the anti-suffrage movement. The anti-suffrage movement was prominent throughout the first two decades of the twentieth century and was supported by high-profile individuals including the Viceroy of India, Lord Curzon, and Octavia Hill, the co-founder of the National Trust. Contesting women’s right to vote and gaining both opposition and support, the anti-suffrage movement is an important historical event.

Isabel King explains.

An anti-suffrage postcard. Source: LSE Library, available here.

Why did the anti-suffrage movement develop?

The fight for women’s right to vote, otherwise known as the suffrage movement, began in the 1870s, and was a popular and well-supported movement by the early 1900s. Millicent Fawcett’s National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS) and Emmeline Pankhurst’s Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) had both garnered great support and attracted a lot of attention to the cause. However, lack of media publicity and the slow-paced nature of the suffrage fight led the suffragettes to adopt the motto ‘deeds not words’ and they began a more militant approach to campaigning. The emergence of the anti-suffrage movement coincided with this increased militancy, as more and more people started to fight back against the idea of women voting.

Why did people oppose women’s suffrage?

Much of the negative sentiment towards women’s right to vote was focused on issues of ‘gender reversal’. In the early 20th century, there were strict gender roles – men went out to work and were responsible for financial and political decisions, while women stayed at home and took on domestic duties and childcare. Many people involved in the anti-suffrage movement were concerned that allowing women to participate in politics would result in a breakdown of these gender roles as women would spend too much time focusing on their political opinions and neglect their families. The concern over women entering the ‘masculine’ sphere of politics was intensified by the suffragettes’ ‘masculine’ militant campaigning. As well as worries surrounding the conflation of domestic and political spheres, some opponents simply thought women were not capable of making political decisions.

Anti-suffrage postcards

One of the main ways that supporters of the anti-suffrage movement spread their message was through postcards – a very popular method of dissemination in the early twentieth century. There were several features of anti-suffrage propaganda that appeared consistently. The postcards often focused on the subversion of gender roles, the physical and mental ridicule of women, the incitement of violence towards women, and fearmongering an imagined future. Postcards would warn people about how women would neglect their duties as mothers, how women were too stupid and weak to be politicians because of their maternal, feminine instincts, and would often threaten women who wanted the vote.

Did these postcards have much of an impact on the anti-suffrage movement? It’s difficult to tell, because though they were widespread and popular, so was suffrage propaganda. In fact, satirical postcards created by supporters of women’s suffrage often used anti-suffrage tactics in reverse to ridicule their opponents and gain support. Where anti-suffrage propaganda may show women who were interested in politics as embittered spinsters, postcards created by suffragettes showed women in as independent, but in ‘feminine’ contexts such as being a good wife and mother, but also involved in political activity. These tactics were used to emphasise that being feminine and a feminist were not mutually exclusive. These postcards and other anti-suffrage propaganda give us a lot of insight into the deep-rooted issues that women involved in the suffrage movement, and their supporters, faced during the struggles for women’s voting rights.

Why is the anti-suffrage movement not as well-known?

Many people won’t have even heard of the anti-suffrage movement, let alone been taught about it. Why? This is most likely because, put simply, the anti-suffrage movement (at least in the UK) just didn’t last. World War One had a large role to play in this – when the men went to war, and the women took over their jobs while they were away, women showed how capable they were of doing ‘masculine’ tasks. Following the war, the majority of women were expected to leave the roles they had filled during the war years as men returned, but socially, nobody could (successfully) deny women’s worth anymore. The war had shown that what anti-suffragists had been saying was wrong. Women had been doing men’s jobs, during a war no less, and still maintaining their family units and domestic duties. So, with women’s capabilities highlighted, and the ever-growing support for the suffrage movement across the country – from both men and women – the anti-suffrage movement began to suffer greatly. While groups such as the National League for Opposing Women’s Suffrage continued to fight against the enfranchisement of women, once the Representation of the People Act 1918 had been passed – granting propertied women over the age of 30 the vote – it was clear that the anti-suffrage movement was a lost cause. A lot more change was to come for women, but the first step been taken.

Although it isn’t studied as much, or as well-known, the anti-suffrage movement was hugely significant. Looking at it allows us to see why people were concerned about women getting the vote and the obstacles that suffragists and suffragettes encountered along the way. Analysing opposition to the suffrage movement and the way in which those fighting for the vote rose above it highlights the great success of women (and their supporters) in the years leading up to 1918, without whom, millions would not be able to vote today.

What do you think of the importance of the anti-suffrage movement? Let us know below.

References

Linda Fleming, ‘Understanding the Opposition: The Anti-Suffrage Movement in Scotland’ https://womenssuffragescotland.wordpress.com/main-sections/understanding-the-opposition-the-anti-suffrage-movement-in-scotland/

Julia Bush, ‘The anti-suffrage movement’ (2018) https://www.bl.uk/votes-for-women/articles/the-anti-suffrage-movement

https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/kedleston-hall/features/no-votes-thank-you---lord-curzon-of-kedleston-and-the-anti-suffrage-movement

https://historyoffeminism.com/anti-suffragette-postcards-posters-cartoons/

Lauren Alex O’Hagan, ‘Contesting Women’s Right to Vote: Anti-Suffrage Postcards in Edwardian Britain’, Visual Culture in Britain, 21:3 (2020) https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14714787.2020.1827971

A Brief History of Policy Towards Minorities in China

Minority groups in China have frequently found their way into the news cycle in the last several decades and especially in the last few years.  These issues are not new and have their roots in the major changes in the way China organized itself over a century ago.  Despite the massive Han majority, China is not an ethnically homogeneous country and has had to continually address issues of cultural and ethnic diversity.  Integration of ethnic minorities into China has ranged from open embrace to violent resistance for much of the 20th century.  What follows is a quick history of minority policy in China that has led to some of the contemporary issues that make their way into the news cycle.

Jonathan Moody explains.

A Uyghur prince. Source: Tilivay, available here.

The Qing Dynasty

To find the roots of contemporary minority policy, we must travel back to the end of the Qing dynasty.  The Qing stormed their way into power in the 17th century and succeeded in both conquering the Ming Empire and expanding the borders and influence of their empire to encompass the vast majority of East Asia and large sections of Central Asia.  On a map, the Qing Empire is a giant but drawing geographical borders around historic political entities with contemporary map standards can be deceiving and is often more of a reflection of modern ideas of the way states look. The Qing, like their predecessors and many contemporary political institutions of the time, was an empire and not the modern version of a state that much of the world lives under today. ‘Modern states’, while obviously not all the same, have embraced a high degree of political uniformity (i.e. passports, laws, national militaries , etc.) within set boundaries that often border other politically autonomous states.  Unlike a modern state, territories under Qing control could vary vastly in how they were governed or exactly how much control Beijing was able to wield and the line between Qing territory and non-Qing territory was not always clear.  For example, most eastern parts of the empire were full provinces with viceroys and the full application of the Qing law while in the peripheries (Tibet, Mongolia, Xinjiang, etc.), Beijing would give titles to local leaders and rely on these leaders to keep the peace.  Beijing’s involvement was not uniform in many of these areas but, in general, Qing law and influence was limited to almost non-existent depending on the place.  Also, unlike many states today, uniformity of political control was not a main priority.  Attempts to make periphery areas into full provinces only happened at the tail end of the dynasty from fears of outside influence and most of the periphery was highly, if not completely, autonomous.  This loose or lumpy system was by no means utopian but for most of the life of the empire, it worked to both bolster the dynasty’s political power in the center and co-opt potential threats in the periphery to become nominal allies.

Modern China

When the Qing fell, the Republic of China claimed these disparate territories and pursued bringing them into the fold of a new modern state that had stronger centralized control over its territory.  Part of state creation for the early republic was determining who was a member of a Chinese nation-state and what their position was in that state.  For many outside of China, words like Chinese people and Chinese language can be deceptively oversimplifying in the diversity they cover.  The majority ethnic Han population is classified as a single ethnicity but many Han dialects are mutually unintelligible and there is plenty of cultural diversity across the Han regions.  The non-Han ethnic groups speak a variety of languages (Tibetan, Mongolian, Uyghur, etc.) and have their own cultural diversity as well.  One of the problems faced by the early Republic of China was how to incorporate the politically and ethnically diverse empire of the Qing into a state that did not want to continue the loose relationships of the past, especially when regions like Tibet and Mongolia rejected any political connection with the Republic and pursued a more independent path. The Republic, under the Kuomintang (KMT), eventually embraced a policy that there was only one ethnicity in China, the zhonghua minzu. The zhonghua minzu were compared to a tree where the Han were the trunk and other ethnicities were merely branches that grew from the Han tree.  The KMT dominated Republic of China avoided questions of diversity with this program and embarked on Sinicization programs to teach the branches how to embrace their true national identity.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) on the other hand, took the exact opposite approach, especially early in the life of the party.  With a combination of Marxists/Leninist/Stalinist ideologies and later time spent among non-Han communities, the CCP rejected notions that Tibetans or Mongolians were nascent Hans and promised recognition of various ethnic groups and specialized policies for these ethnicities.  The party even embraced the idea of self-determination for these regions early on but backtracked by the time they took power in 1949. Self-determination gave way to fostering patriotic minority identities that allowed for a non-Han identity loyal to the state.  

CCP

After 1949, the CCP adopted an approach to minority populations that had strong Soviet influences (i.e. titular or recognized nationalities/ethnicities) and was aimed at incorporating these people into a modern socialist state while allowing varying degrees of autonomy in specified national minority areas.  Much of the second half of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty first century can be seen as a mixture, and at times conflict, between hardline and accommodationist approaches.  Accommodationists have advocated a slow and welcoming approach to minorities by offering special benefits, at times with the opposition from some of the Han population, to convince hesitant minority populations that inclusion in the PRC is more beneficial than independence.  These policies have included exemptions from the one-child policy and preferential placements in the competitive university process.  Hardliners have been less sympathetic toward differences and have advocated an approach that has little space for dissent and exemptions. Many of the issues we see today have been as a result of hard liners pushing policies that take a more forceful approach to minority incorporation.

Most countries today have consider ethnic diversity and how to include different populations in one political entity. China is no exception and has been dealing with this issue with varying levels of success. The issue of minorities in China very much stems from a change in the way the state was organized and how different groups fit into this modern vision of a state. This change in state organization and vision renegotiated looser affiliations and has led to many of the issues that make their way into the news today.

What do you think of minority policy in China? Let us know below.

Further reading

Goldstein, Melvyn C., and Gelek Rimpoche. A History of Modern Tibet, 1913-1951: The Demise of the Lamaist State Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers, 2007.

Khan, Sulmaan Wasif: Muslim, Trader, Nomad, Spy. China's Cold War and the People of the Tibetan Borderlands. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2015.

Westad, Odd Arne. Restless Empire: China and the World Since 1750. Basic Books, 2015.

The Second Sino-Japanese War and its Legacy: A National Trauma and a Family Tragedy

I was 12 when I went to my great-grandfather's grave in Anhui province, China. Buried under thick undergrowth, the stone coffin bespoke of age with discolouration and cracks. My mother told me that he was a hero, and I didn't know that until I saw the exhibition at a nearby pavilion, detailing his deeds.

Here Jiaxin Liu explains his family’s story amid the Second Sino-Japanese War.

Japanese troops in the ruins of Shanghai in 1937.

Born to a well-to-do family in 1919, my great-grandfather came of age when the Japanese invaded China during World War 2. The Chinese theater was brutal — the Japanese broke through Chinese defense with their technological prowess and committed some of the most unspeakable atrocities. The Yangtze region — where Anhui was situated — was quickly subjugated, and my great-grandfather became a personification of resistance as he led his forces in guerilla battles throughout the countryside. He threatened Japanese control, and a bounty of 8,000 yuan was administered for his capture, dead or alive. In 1942, my great-grandfather was betrayed, resulting in a protracted torture session that resulted in death. Refusing to surrender, my great-grandfather was strapped to the tiger chair, repeatedly whipped, and had his shoulder pierced by screws. It was a storybook sacrifice, and he was memorialized as a local martyr whose valor should be emulated by future generations.

Invasion

Tense relations characterized the war's prelude as a result of Japanese imperialist policy and weakening Chinese authority from civil strife. After controlling Manchuria, the Japanese launched a full scale invasion of China in 1937 after a skirmish at the Marco Polo Bridge. Beijing and Tianjin soon fell, and Chiang Kai-Shek—then leader of the Republic of China (ROC)—declared a full-on resistance movement. The Japanese responded by sieging Shanghai, where they encountered heavy air, sea, and naval opposition as the best Chinese troops were stationed there. Failing to achieve air dominance, the battle dragged on for 3 months until overwhelming Japanese firepower overtook the Chinese, who were often poorly equipped with small arms. Nanjing was next, where a brutal massacre of civilians revealed the utmost depravity of mankind. Yet, advances stalled as the Japanese had insufficient manpower to take over key inland cities such as Chongqing, and the mountainous terrain of Western China provided the natural setting for guerilla warfare as the Chinese decided to "trade space for time", engaging in a war of attrition. This was not easy—concurrently, the ROC were battling the Communists, and the temporary alliance of the Second United Front to fight against the Japanese was tenuous at best. My great-grandfather was under the Communist's wing, and there was little cooperation as he conducted raids on an independent scale. It was a messy period in China's history, one that was characterized by internal and external strife. However, like our nonchalance towards ongoing wars in Yemen and Ethiopia in comparison to the Russo-Ukrainian war, most modern audiences in the West are unfamiliar with this immense conflict. Behind Russia, China accrued the greatest number of war casualties, yet people only hear of Bulge and Dunkirk, not of Nanjing or Shanghai.

Animosities towards the Japanese ran deep after the "Asian holocaust" the Japanese committed in China, most notably expressed in the Rape of Nanking, where the Imperial Japanese Army massacred more than 200,000 civilians. Looting, rape, and mass burials were characteristic behaviours of the "Kill All, Burn All, Loot All" policy of Emperor Hirohito. My great-grandfather's death was a personal anecdote that revealed the ultra-aggressive militarism and coercion which dominated Japanese rule. Such hatred is entrenched—to this day, my grandmother is unable to shake off an innate disaffection towards the Japanese. The Second Sino-Japanese War has embedded deeply into the Chinese psyche. Being the last major foreign invasion to take place in contemporaneity, older generations can personally recount this "darkest age" of Modern Chinese history. In a wider context, it was a climatic coda to the Century of Humiliation — a period of foreign interference in Chinese affairs — that tore down a 5,000 year tradition of imperial dynasties. In a sense, the Second Sino-Japanese war ushered in the conscience of Modern China. China had to become a modern nation subscribed to the Western-centric international order, not a civilization that believed in its unequaled superiority of being the "middle kingdom of the universe". The brutal Japanese invasion was the latest in a string of wake-up calls that made the Chinese question their fall from grace. It was an unforgettable lesson.

Turning

By 1939, the tides had turned with Chinese victories at Changsha and Zaoyi. The aftermath of the victory left China's economy in shambles and civil war between the Nationalists and Communists continued. The Communists, who won the heart of the populace with their indefatigable tenacity of grassroots mobilisations, drove the Nationalists to Taiwan, and the conflict remains till today. Their dominance could not have been possible without the Sino-Japanese war, and the invocation of this pivotal event remains etched in state propaganda and TV shows.

The Chinese victory has recently passed its 77th anniversary on September 3rd. The newer generation worries more about housing prices and job opportunities rather than death by gunfire. To many of my younger cousins in China, Japan is viewed positively with its huge cultural influence of anime and manga. Times change, and so do perceptions. Yet, the horrors of war—while distant—materializes itself in those late-night conversations I had with grandparents. In their trembling tone, they narrated a life much different from ours: instead of seeking to thrive, they merely wished to survive. My paternal grandfather remembered peeking from behind a bush at a Japanese execution of the village elders. My maternal grandfather told me of air raids that seemed like armageddon. The war left an indelible mark on Chinese history, and even people like me, more than half a century after the war, can obtain a first-hand account. Its subtle influence should be preserved, and it is now my generation’s duty to remind posterity that peace is not an a priori condition we take for granted, but an outcome we should work towards.

What do you think of the impact of the Second Sino-Japanese War? Let us know below.

Biography

My name is Jiaxin, and I am currently residing in Singapore. I am passionate about history, especially cultural history, as well as interactions between civilizations. In my free time, I enjoy playing strategy games such as Europa Universalis IV, as well as playing sports and going to the gym.

The Industrial Revolution: Shaping American History

The Industrial Revolution was a time of great change in America, and it had many important and lasting impacts. Here, Andrew Kim considers some of the most important themes: inequality, the power of big companies, and gender issues.

A Ford Model-T assembly line in the early 20th century.

After the Civil War came the Industrial Revolution, which changed the way that America functioned in many ways. Before this time period, the majority of Americans lived more localized lives, producing much of their own food and goods. However, with the rise of industrialization, people began moving away from farms and into cities. Along with the rise of industrialization came the rise of big corporations and businesses, which took advantage of people working these new factory jobs. People were paid little and had very poor working conditions. Because pay was so low, many women and children also worked in these factories. This led to the emergence of reform movements to improve the quality of American life. By 1920, these movements achieved better working conditions for the working class, supervision of business typhoons, and monumental strides in women’s rights.

Inequality

With the rise of industrialization came the growing gap between the rich and poor. While the rich indulged in elaborate and excessive riches, the working class suffered some of the worst living and working conditions. The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair, detailed these awful working and living conditions through the experiences of a man named Jurgis, who worked in a meat packing factory. Almost everyone in Jurgis’s family was forced to work, often from early morning to late at night in hazardous conditions without any breaks. Clara Lemlich, also an author and women’s rights activist, brought attention to this issue in an article she wrote about the conditions of a shirtwaist factory, stating that the young girls that worked there would work a total of 13 hours with only a half an hour break. Under these working conditions, it is no surprise that many people died in factories. And not only were these working conditions terrible, but after work, many people would come home to poor living conditions as well, furthering mortality rates. Jacob Rilis, a Danish-American journalist and social activist, documented these poor living conditions in a photograph he took of two newsboys sleeping fully clothed on the ground of the pressroom where they worked. In the end, these people and countless other reformers and activists would bring enough attention to the issue to bring about reform laws for workers, including minimum wage, industrial accident insurance, child labor restrictions, and improved factory regulation.

Industrialization also made big companies extremely influential and powerful, and they were often able to avoid regulation by the government, often by making deals with corrupt government officials. Andrew Carnegie, a mogul of the steel industry, negotiated a deal with the railroad companies in order to lessen transportation costs, which angered farmers. Many people saw how corporations could influence the government and were motivated to do something about it. People began advocating that railroads and banks be operated by the government instead of private corporations, because they were services of the people, and not big businesses. Reformers used many different methods to limit the power that corporations had over the government including referendums, primary elections, and recalls. Eventually in 1913, the 17th amendment was passed, stating that each state would have 2 senate votes, and each senator could hold office for six years. Because of the efforts of the reformers and activists, people were able to regain their voice in government and prevent corporations from taking over.

Gender

In the late 1800s, there was a big inequality gap between men and women; women lacked the human rights that men had, and were treated as lower than men. Women were not allowed a voice in almost every aspect of life, from government, to home life, to religion, to education. Elizabeth Stanton, a women’s rights reformer, advocated for women's rights by detailing the limitations women faced in the Declaration of Sentiments in 1846, which was largely ridiculed after its release. However, by the 1900s, the purposes and plans of the National Women’s Association were represented by 26 states, and in places like Alabama, more and more women sought an education, as written in the Southern Workman, monthly journal published by the Hampton Institute Press. In the 1920s, women celebrated a huge victory with the signing of the 19th Amendment, which legalized women’s suffrage.

The Industrial Revolution was a time of great change in America. With the tremendous growth of large corporations and subsequent government corruption came the necessity for regulation and reform for the protection of the rights of the American people, which perhaps brought to light the question of women’s rights. These movements certainly shaped the trajectory of American society for years to come, and also made way for future revolutions and reform, including the Civil Rights Movement.

What do you think of the American Industrial Revolution? Let us know below.