Japanese Broadcast Official: We Didn’t Commit War Crimes, the U.S. Just Made That Up

[pangaia]

26. I am not sure I understand how the Japanese 'bombed us' in 1937.

I am not deeply familiar with Chinese history in the 1st half of the 20th Century.
I have read "Soong Dynasty", "The Man Who Loved China," and am now reading "Shanghai 1937."

My wife, who is Chinese and was born during the Cultural Revolution, and I watched the 3-4 part documentary (was it produced by the BBC?) on Chinese history during the mid 20th Century. She felt it was quite accurate. Obviously she could fully understand the narration whereas I could understand only parts of it and had to mostly follow the English sub-titles.

In 1937 Nanjing was the Chinese capital and Jiang Jieshi had his headquarters there. After the Japanese 'finished' with Shanghai they moved on to Nanjing and... well we know what happened.

Obviously I am NO authority on 20th Century Chinese history, but how was what the Japanese did to Nanjing an attack on the US?

Ah, it is all so gloriously muddled. The Germans (rather right-wingers) were advising the Chinese against the Japanese and supporting Jiang..a right winger if ever there was one.. we were supporting him.. the Russians were 'sort of' supporting Mao Zedong..and on and on it goes.

Anyway. I am certainly open to learning more about the events of this period..