In the bleak Nanking headquarters of the Japanese Imperial Army, thin, razor-keen General Shunroku Hata was brightly confident. He boasted: "As the rising sun melts thinly frozen ice, so the Japanese Army is overcoming Chinese troops." The year: 1939.
Episode at Changteh. Unmelting Chinese troops last week crept back through the blackened ruins of Changteh, harassing the bedraggled, bandy-legged Japanese in retreat toward their Yangtze River bases. The communiqués once again created an impression of another violent battle in a continuous, violent war. The impression was exaggerated: the battle of Changteh was violent...