When did WWII start?

'The Small Woman' - the story of the missionary, Gladys Aylward is a book I can read again and again. It's so gripping and goes into the Japanese invasion of China in great detail.

It's all there....The danger of invasion, hardship, ancient customs, starvation, foot binding, abandoned children, determination, unrequited love.

It's no wonder Inn of the Sixth Happiness was my favourite film for many years.

The sad thing is though that many of the children GA walked across mountains to safety grew up only to perish under Mao's regime

It was known as the Sino-Japanese war and I think tensions had been simmering for a long time before that.

Because we didn’t take part. Our history was very Britain-centric with the empire taking pride of place. Remember those maps?

I would like to watch that film again, such a moving and true portrayal as merlogran describes it.

DF was on the China Station and they were withdrawn and sent to the Mediterranean as far as I know, because of the threat there. I didn't ask a lot and he didn't talk about it very much.

Certainly the British traded a lot with China and the Royal Navy had a presence there.

My great uncle was in the Shanghai police and was interned by the Japanese. Cruel bastards they were too. Not forgotten.

^ Our history was very Britain-centric with the empire taking pride of place^ I thought it started because the Japanese had for a number of years been operating imperialism and expansionism after their period of isolation?

merlot I too was captivated by the story of Gladys Aylward. It was on the back of Girl magazine, and my mother took me and a a few friends to see the film when it came out.

Russia and America took part, or at least aided China, so perhaps it could be termed as the start of WW2 although Hitler had already invaded Rhineland (1936) he had yet to invade Czechoslovakia (1938) and then Poland.

Oh dear, I mentioned Hitler.
It is not allowed.

It’s like the war didn’t start according to the USA until 1941.

If you are interested in this story try and find it on PBS America - WWII - China's Forgotton war. The Chinese had been fighting for 8 yrs by the time 1944! Japan eventually surrendered on September 2, 1945, to Allied forces following the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the Soviet invasion of Japanese-held Manchuria.

I wasn't taught about any 20C wars at school. Too close in time for comfort, I think.

I knew about the war the OP mentioned because a family member and his family were POW's of the Japanese. Not a pleasant experience. One of his daughters was born in a POW camp. Thankfully, they all survived both wars.

janeainsworth, The serial on the back page of the Girl magazine prompted me to get 'The Small Woman' out of the library but it was too old for me and as a ten year old I was only interested in the romantic bits so I gave up after scouring the pages for mentions of Colonel Lin Nan.

I read the book over and over again in my teens having seen the film. I do wish they'd show it again.

BTW. When I was in hospital having DD2 the woman in the next bed told me she was of the 'children'. Her mother was Chinese and her father Welsh and she'd been picked for her photogenic East Asian looks.

It was filmed in Wales where she grew up.

So why didn't they tell us about it in school? It seems it was airbrushed out. Never happened, although of course it did. Why the silence? The Chinese suffered just as much as the Jews did. The Chinese were our Allies! Millions of them were killed and yet they did not provoke the Japanese. The Japanese wanted to expand their Empire. If it was not for this young researcher this story might never have come to light. A lot of the people are now dead but he managed to find a few who were not.

Jane a relative of my OH was a Babtist minister who knew and worked with Gladys Aylward. She was killed in the ambush by the Chinese, bandits who attacked their transport (not the Japanese) as they were trying to escape. Her name was Beulah Gasby. All a long time ago.

I’m not sure it was airbrushed out yorkshiregel - like suedonim I wasn’t taught any 20thC history at all, though I didn’t take it to O Level.

And it was so recent - for those of us doing history in the 60’s it was only 20 years ago. I wonder if children today are taught about the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Balkan Wars of the 90’s. I somehow doubt it.

That’s interesting about your relative too. I found out not long ago that a cousin died after the D-Day landings and the knowledge of family involvement and loss of life in conflicts makes it so immediate, if you know what I mean.

That’s very interesting too metlot. What an experience filming with Ingrid Bergman!

I've just bought the kindle edition - looking forward to reading it.

I took history to A level, and it stopped at 1914 - as Jane A says, it was too recent for accurate recording.
I had read about the sufferings of the Chinese though, can't remember which books. ? Pearl S Buck?
I belong to WW Talk forum, which has been a further education for me, but still not so much on the China Japan subject.

Gladys Aylward gave a talk in a Chapel in Merthyr in the sixties, I was lucky to attend. She was not pleased with the film of her life, the name given her in the film was not true, Col.Linan was not part European and she was not romantically involved with him or any other man , the loves of her life were God and China and her adopted children. She had to leave china at the start of WW2, was not allowed back by the communist government ,

she settled in Taiwan and I think is buried there

Jalima!!

Anniebach. Any life story that is given the Hollywood treatment is going to be way off beam from the truth. Apparently, Gladys Aylward never saw it and was dismayed at the casting of Kurt Jurgans as Linnan - no surprise there.

She and Linnan may not have been romantically involved in the modern sense but there was definitely a close relationship which led to him asking her to marry him. They decided a mixed marriage in times of war would be impossible and they parted company.

A year before GA's death she met up again with Alan Burgess author of The Small Woman and confirmed amongst other things that Linnan was the only man she had loved.

The film was no worse a portrayal of events than any other war movie of the fifties and sixties. If nothing else it prompted people to read about that turbulant period of history

I'm quite surprised Andrew Lloyd Webber hasn't turned it into a musical.

When we were first married we lived a few doors away from Gladys Aylward's little terraced house in Edmonton, North London where she grew up. It had a blue plaque on it. She was very much the local hero and talked about fondly by my grandmother. The local school was named after her.