Word: war
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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When he graduated he was awarded the Sheldon Prize Fellowship-$1,500 for a year's travel outside the U. S. He had looked forward to China: he had studied Chinese at Harvard, and he wanted to see what war is like. What he saw made him chuck traveling and go straight to work for the Chinese Government as a translator and writer in the Ministry of Information. Recently he realized the importance of Shansi Province in North China warfare, became impatient with meagre reports which were drifting out, and so decided to go and see for himself...
...there, reports Reporter White: the hard-riding cavalry of General Ma Chan-shan, "Giant Horse,"hero of Manchuria; the famous Communist 8th Route guerrillas; the cream of China's Government troops; and provincial troops, who are fighting for the soil on which they grew up. Early in the war, the Japanese chased the Chinese from the great alluvial plain around Peking into Shansi's mountains. Fighting has ranged, and still ranges, all over the province. Most coveted area is the Chin River Valley at the centre of the province-a tiny, complete world shut away by cupping mountains...
...sick of a war which is never won, eaten with worry for home and family. If they try to desert, Chinese fall on them and kill them. Missionaries in Shansi report that Japanese often steal inside mission compounds to cry, or come to the gates to whimper and beg for little comforts. Superstitions are epidemic. Nearly every dead Japanese soldier has on him a charm, worn in life to ward off death. Often a man draws about himself a magic circle (the round of his life is full; no escape) and puts a bullet in his head. Instead of cremating...
Progress. "The Chinese," White concluded, "have advanced during the war from a fourth rate Army to a second rate Army. This is progress. Before the war the Chinese Armies were notorious for the fact that they could run faster and retreat in worse disorder than any known national group of armed men. This was understandable because of the world in which they lived, and the causes for which they were asked to die. Cowardice was common-'kai pa' ('I'm afraid') was heard on every hand. But the present Chinese Army has spirit. It glows...
...Great Britain and France, which held that the planes and trucks rightfully belonged to them because Poland owes them for raw materials supplied before the war...