西安兵变情恨 （王月曦、薛家柱）

The Xi'an Incident (西安事变) is an important and controversial one in Chinese history. Briefly, on 12 Dec 1936, Zhang Xueliang (张学良), the Young Marshal, incarcerated Chiang Kai-shek (蒋介石) in Xi'an in order to force Chiang to agree to stop his war against the Communists and to instead work with them to fight the Japanese. Chiang was eventually freed, but Zhang would spend the rest of his life under house-arrest, even after Chiang died in 1975.

This book was written in collaboration with 汪日章 (Wang Rizhang), who was the secretary of Chiang. It is however important to remember that Wang remained in China and together with the fact that the book was originally published in China, it is no surprise that the slant is hugely anti-Chiang, or pro-Zhang. But that aside, this book covers a lot of ground, including the run-up to the incident and the aftermath, much of the facts are also fairly accurate. The style of the authors is engaging and so the reader is treated to a thriller-like narrative of an event that still has some reverberation today.

What I thought was missing was 杨虎城's (Yang Hucheng) role in the whole affair. It is well-known that he is the other party to the abduction of Chiang, and in fact, he and some of his family members were executed by Chiang because of that. But while the book gave much attention to how Zhang was slowly moved towards taking this drastic step, there was no mention of Yang's motivation. I am convinced that for one to take part in such a risky business, he must have gone through a process, which involves some soul-searching and doubts. Zhang would not be the only one to go through it, Yang would have as well. Instead the writers gave the impression that Yang suddenly appeared non-committal after Chiang was detained. This was not an accurate depiction of Yang. First of all, Yang never trusted Chiang, he had insisted on a signed undertaking by Chiang before he should be released, but Zhang did not push it in his negotiations with Soong Meiling. What was worse was the negotiation was done in English, which Yang did not speak (see 往事：杨虎城之子回忆 ). I would be angry in I were Yang.

The Xi'an Incident continues to be debated today, partly because of its significance, partly because Zhang himself appeared to give contradicting views and information on different occasions. All the parties involved are no longer around, but this is only the start of my exploration of this incident and this book has certainly helped in my quest.

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The Imperial Japanese Army (Bill Yenne)

I had originally thought that this book was a study of the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) but it tunred out to be a book on the different campaigns that the IJA fought from 8 Dec 1941. The subtitle: The Invincible Years 1941-1942 is an accurate one, for the IJA seemed unstoppable throughout 1942 as they beat the allied forces in every South-East Asian territory including Malaya, the Philippines, the Dutch East Indies, and even Burma. But in trying to show the invincibility of the IJA, the author covered too much and was thus only able to say very little about every campaign. It is good if the reader is just trying to get an overall sense of the IJA's exploits in South-East Asia, but it comes across rather unsatisfying.

Adding to the problem is the author's apparent indecision about what he should give attention to in this spread. Take for example Bali, which was but a bit player in the Japanese's drive towards South-East Asia, but the author dedicated a chapter talking about the history of Bali and how the IJA landed on it, without really having to fight, because it was almost undefended. That doesn't really accentuate the invincibility of the IJA.

I also found the author quoting too much from other books giving one the impression that his sources are mainly other books and there was nothing original in this work, except that it is a summary of what others have said. On a matter that has more to do with personal taste, I find the author's style annoying sometimes. A few examples may help to illustrate:

"...you might say that it was almost a rival army to the IJA itself, or you might even omit the use of the word "almost"." (pg 42)

"His transfer from China felt to Tsuji like an exile, and it was." (pg 20)

"The troops discovered that malaria was almost routine and maladies such as dysentery were actually routine." (pg 304)

Not knowing anything about what happened beyond the Malayan Campaign, I learned much about the campaigns in Borneo, Java and Sumatra fromt his book. But the parts where I have already known about, this book has added nothing. To be fair to the author he did not set out to write a detailed account about all the campaigns, he just wanted to show that the IJA was invincible in those years (at least that is my interpretation of his intentions from the title of the book). To that end, his results were mixed.

A more useful reflection for the reader would be to ask - why did the Japanese embark on the Southern expansion? The obvious answer would be for the resources, especially the oil in the Dutch Indies. But why? Did they do all these to sustain their war in China? If we keep probing along this path, we might trace the roots of their military adventures. And it might just turn out to be an enlightening exercise.

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往事:杨虎城之子回忆 (杨拯民 )

I bought this book in the belief that it was a book on 杨虎城 (the collaborator of 张学良 in the Xi'an Incident - 西安事变), more specifically, a recollection of what happened during the Incident. But I was disappointed, it turned out to have only a small chapter on the Incident, and perhaps only about half the book was on 杨虎城 himself. Much of the rest of the book was on the author himself, the son of 杨虎城 and too much of it was on his adulation of the personalities in the Chinese Communist Party and his relationship with different people whom played bit roles in the greater scheme of history but must be mentioned given the Chinese's culture of 'giving face' (给面子). It was until the end of the book that I realised that while the book was written by 杨拯民, it was arranged by his wife after his death and only at the goading of his friends.

However, one does get some rewards making it through the book. For one thing, writing from the perspective of a common man, the reader gets a sense of general attitudes of the people in China in that tumultuous period. For example, if they were indignant towards the Japanese's invasion of China, they continued to want to live their lives as usual. Even the Marco Polo Bridge Incident did not rouse them to want to fight (pg 155), hoping on one hand that this might be the point when the Japanese could be chased out of China, but wishing on the other hand that the Incident would not precipitate a bigger war. This dilemma puts paid to the notion that Chinese were all patriotic.

Brief mentions were given to the Cultural Revolution that happened much later. It is obvious that the author and his wife both suffered greatly during that time. While they were spared of their lives, many of their friends were not. But the author was unwilling to talk more about it, giving only brief mentions of what happened in drips throughout the book and even absolving Mao for what happened - 人非圣贤，孰能无过。 Indeed.

What is more interesting to me was the almost complete lack of mention throughout the book about his or the Communist Party's fight with the Japanese. Yes, this is the autobiography of a single person, he might have been lucky to have escaped having to fight the Japanese. But he spent many years in Yan An (延安), the Communist base and then was posted to various places, yet in none of this was he required to face the Japanese, nor did he talked about anyone who he met who had. It makes one wonder about the scale of the Communists' involvement in fighting the Japanese.

Overall a rather disappointing book, and if you are trying to understand more about the Xi'an Incident, this is not a book that you need to read. But if you are interested in the somewhat ethnographic take on Chinese life, then this provides one view.

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