The Unknown War, North China 1937-1945

Title: The Unknown War, North China 1937-1945

Photographer(s): Michael Lindsay

Writer(s): Michael Lindsay

Designer(s): Tamasin Cole & Theo Bergström

Publisher(s): Bergstrom & Boyle Books Limited, London, England

Year: 1975

Print run:

Language(s): English

Pages: 112

Size: 25,5 x 26 cm

Binding: Hardcover with dust jacket

Edition:

Print: Butler & Tanner Ltd. The Selwood Printing Works, Sommerset, England

Nation(s) and year(s) of Protest: China, 1937-1945

ISBN:

Lord Lindsay of Birker, now Professor Emeritus of Far Eastern Studies at the American University, Washington DC, spent the years 1938–45 in China. He went originally to teach at Yenching University. Then following the outbreak of the Pacific War in December 1941, he joined the Communists fighting the Japanese.Lindsay got to know the Communists during vacation trips from Yenching. Soon after reaching China, he had decided that the Japanese must be opposed. Since the Communists seemed to be more active in their opposition than the Kuomintang, it was natural for Lindsay to begin aiding the communist forces.

With the coming of war between Japan and the west in 1941, Lindsay and his wife, Li Hsiao-li, one of his former students with her own history of anti-Japanese activities, fled to the communist areas. They later learnt that they had made their escape 10 minutes ahead of the Japanese who had come to arrest them. For the next four years, the Lindsay family lived and worked with the Communists. Lindsay's considerable amateur knowledge of radio and telecommunications were put to good use in training CCP radio technicians.

It is certainly valuable to have both the text and the pictures of the present volume. The pictures in particular are good value. Lindsay purchased a Zeiss Ikon 3–5 camera soon after arriving in China and it served him well. In spite of the often difficult conditions in which the films were processed, the quality of those reproduced here is uniformly high.