US author's manuscript on Japan's invasion

This year marks the 75th anniversary of the victory in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1931-45), which falls on Thursday. A manuscript, collected by a translator from Shandong province, uncovers facts buried in the fierce war.

Now being carefully restored by the translator and writer Wang Jinling, the manuscript by US novelist Irving Wallace, reveals the Japanese army's atrocities and Chinese people's struggle in the most desperate condition.

"Wallace and his family always care about China's condition and development," says Wang, who recently received an email from Wallace's son, sending regards and expressing his concern about China's COVID-19 situation.

The manuscript dates back to 1940, when Wallace was a journalist assigned to the Far East by a US magazine to report the war between China and Japan, part of the world's anti-fascist war.

At that time, Wallace managed to collect information from both sides. He interviewed several core figures behind Japan's expansionist policy, including Hideki Tojo, as well as common people from the two countries.

He made scrupulous records about several major events in Japan's invasion of China. Besides writing articles for the magazine, he decided to write a book to expose Japan's ambitions and the crimes it committed in China to the rest of the world.

However, his plan to publish the book was postponed due to the Pearl Harbor bombing, after which the United States declared war on Japan and other fascist countries. Since then, the manuscript remained dust-laden for decades. Its special value was discovered by Wang after he was granted the translation right of Wallace's work by the family.

"No matter how long it was sealed, the truth of history will finally emerge and be known by people," Wang says.

The manuscript was translated into Chinese and published in China in 2005, titled Japan's Mein Kampf. In the book, Wallace wrote about the Nanjing Massacre that "there were more men, handcuffed back to back, stood up against walls being used as living dummies for real bayonet practice".

Wallace died of cancer in 1990, but his articles are valuable records of that part of history and have made more people aware of China's role in the antifascist war.

Xinhua