WWII started in Shanghai and Aussies were there to bear witness

Among the foreigners living large in the Chinese city was a young woman whose sympathies flew counter to her country’s world view.

Nick Hordern

Oct 12, 2023 – 6.27am

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The traditional view is that World War II began in September 1939, but for China the conflict began with the outbreak of war with Japan in July 1937, and increasingly historians – like Peter Harmsen and Rana Mitter – have adopted this Chinese perspective.

Given that the result of this Sino-Japanese War was the ascendancy of the Chinese Communist Party, the proposition that the most consequential conflict of the 20th century actually started in Asia is hard to ignore.