 The National Broadcasting Company and its affiliated stations present the Pacific story. This is the story of the Pacific, the drama of the millions of people who live around this greatest sea, where the United States is now committed to a long-term policy of keeping the peace. This, as another public service of the National Broadcasting Company, is the background story of the events in the Pacific, and their meaning to us and to the generations to come. Man King, symbol of victory. I could hardly believe it. At last we were coming back to Nanking, thoughts of how we had left on foot, battered and beaten, and of all that had happened in the eight years since, surged up a knee and blended with the roar of the engine. We will be landing in a few minutes now, Chaoyong-T. Yes. Look at the city below us. Nanking lay like a great intricate pattern below us, on the right bank of the Yangtzee, 200 miles up the river from Shanghai. Look at all the highways and roads running into the city, and the great walling closing. Yes. We were coming back, not on foot this time, fleeing in the night, but flying back to accept the surrender of those who had chased us out eight years ago. It was Nanking. It's beautiful. Bloody Nanking. Nanking which was 600 years old at the time of Christ. This was the scene of some of China's greatest struggles, Chinese against Chinese and Chinese against the foreign negresses. This was the last resting place of Sun Yat-sen. We went to his white marble martholeum on the slopes of Purple Mountain. I stood there in the quiet. Nothing had changed around the martholeum, except that the trees had grown to some height. We waited for the key to unlock the inner temple. Here rested the man who, more than any other, had inspired us toward freedom and a better life. After the Manchus had been overthrown in 1911, he became the first president of the republic in China. In the interest of national unity, I shall be glad to withdraw in favor of Yuan Shikai. Will Yuan Shikai then come here to Nanking, Dr. Sun? Nanking is the capital of the republic. But Yuan Shikai has established himself in Peking. Peking has for centuries been the capital of the Manchus. The capital of the republic should be here in Nanking. Here we have drawn up our provisional constitution. And here we have established the government of the people. But can we persuade Yuan Shikai now that you have turned over the presidency to him to move here to Nanking? They could not. Yuan Shikai stayed in Peking. But Dr. Sun Yat-sen never gave up the thought of having the government of the republic in Nanking. Trouble came, and Dr. Sun and Yuan Shikai fell out. Dr. Sun saw that there must be an expedition to overcome the northern militarists and bring all of China under one government. This was his dream until he died in 1925. And the next year, the northern expedition was lost. Chiang Kai-shek has stormed and captured Chiang Chao. In Nanking, all was tensed as we waited. Chiang Kai-shek has taken Manchang in Peking. We wondered how it would be when he reached Nanking. Chiang Kai-shek has taken Han Chao and is moving on Nanking. Nanking vibrated with excitement the day the city fell. Look at them. Those are the forces that will unify China. They will succeed if the party itself does not split. Because Chiang expelled the rebels from the party? Yes. The northern expedition cannot succeed if there is serious dissension within the expedition itself. The day after Nanking was occupied, the trouble came. Chaos has broken loose in Nanking. Mobs are sweeping through the city, attacking foreign property, raiding consulates, looting and murdering. So far in the wild confusion, no one has been able to fix flame for the outbreak. Under whose orders the troops are operating is still not known. The entire city... By the time the outrage had subsided, the foreign press was furious. Chiang Kai-shek should be held responsible. If the government of China is not able to maintain order, then it's time that outsiders stepped in. The Nanking affair is a disgrace. And those responsible should be held to strict accountability. Which factions were responsible for the incident did not at once come out. But we knew that it was a plot to discredit Chiang Kai-shek. Chiang took full personal responsibility for the affair. And here at Nanking, where he had faced one of his greatest trials, he established the seat of the government and invited the support of all who were opposed to communism. So Nanking was a capital again, but a shaking. I have the key now for the inner temple. Oh, yes. If you will follow me please. We walk to the door of the inner temple. We entered the tomb of our Sun Yat-sen around the casket. It was as if Sun Yat-sen had been waiting here for our return all this time, all these eight years. The tomb was hallowed with all the Dr. Sun means to us, with all that he means to China. Not until the state burial of Dr. Sun here had Nanking been accepted as the capital of China. With his death, Dr. Sun had at last congregated this city of Nanking. And now we had come back after all that had happened to re-establish the capital here. We bowed three times and then we filed quietly off. The Japanese soldiers bowed stiffly as we drove by. Their day was done. Their occupation had ended as the other occupations had ended. In the sixth century Nanking was utterly destroyed. I could hear my teacher telling me that when I was a boy. The conquering hoards came and they leveled to the ground every building. And they plowed up the lands inside the city walls so that no trace of its beauty should remain. I looked at the ancient walls, gracefully followed up the hills and down over the rolling country. How long have those walls stood there? Many, many centuries. I thought of the many gates, and all the others. Once Nanking had been even the biggest city that it is today, the biggest wall city in the world. This archway that stands here on the land I tell once marked the way to a bridge. A farmer had told me that when as a boy I had stood in the field studying the archway. But the bridge is long since gone. Only the ancient archways stood there, the furrows of the till land running through it on the long side. Yes, the bridges were gone as the porcelain pagoda was gone. It stood up there on the hill, a tower of beauty. It had glazed tiles of a hundred colors. Its graceful overhanging eaves were sparkling green and from its delicate cornices hung 150 bells. I could hear my teacher saying that. Then the typing rebels came. They swept through the country, killing and pillaging and burning as they went. They blew up the porcelain pagoda and they left Nanking little more than a waste of smoldering ruins. Slowly the city rose again. But very slowly. I played along the river when I was a boy and when I was big enough to go to Shanghai for the first time, I realized that Nanking was a Chinese city, as Shanghai was a cosmopolitan city. In Nanking there were no foreign concessions. Some foreigners there were in Nanking, but not traders. Mostly they were scholars and missionaries and diplomats. We will see a Chumshan gate in a few minutes. Chumshan gate, yes. I am eager to see it. I remember Chumshan gate somewhere. You see, John, they're cutting this road straight through from the waterfront on the Yangtzee here to the Chumshan gate. An American missionary explained it all to me. It will be a modern highway. It will be called Chumshan Road. But Mr. Townsend, how can they do the road through all of those houses? The houses will have to come down. But that is the way of progress. Progress? It was the first time I understood its real meaning. The road will go through the old city wall near Drum Tower and on through the banking circle in the business section. I watched the thousands of coolies working with modern machinery. Look, Chow. Look at the people gathered to greet us ahead there at Chumshan gate. Yes. They're waving flags and shouting with joy. Let's all stop for a moment, shall we? By only. Yes. How's the General Itomo? General Itomo is fine. He is fine. I think he ain't waiting these years. General Itomo is an excellent help. When will General Itomo come? He will come here when all is ready for him. He will be here. You're Chow Yangtzee? Yes. Yes, and Chow Yangtzee? I am Yu Feng. You remember me? Yu Feng? Yes. Remember you used to give me rights? Yu Feng was a boy. I was only ten years old then. That was just before the Japanese came. Yes. Yes. I am eighteen now. Eighteen. You have been here in Nanjing. All this time? Yes. All this time. We drove down Chumshan road. A thousand impressions humbled through my mind. The old familiar landmarks, people, words, the side streets, the everlasting hills. This city had been built by the younger generation. The progressive, the enterprise. They had cut this road through the city. They had put up these magnificent buildings, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Metropolitan Hotel, these. But now their magnificence was marred, scarred by the ruthless hands of the Japanese. We were digging in the ruins trying to clean up some of the wreckage that September day in 1937. The Japanese had bombed the city sixteen times in the last week. And then, Adler, Kyushu, Asigawa's announcement came. Nanjing is condemned. This is a warning to all foreigners to leave at once before the final phase of the bombing. They are going to bomb us more than we've had this last week. Asigawa says that it will wipe Nanjing from the face of the earth. What good is it then to clean up this wreckage? Let us see if there are any more injured or dead before we stop. Ah, yes. Oh, all of you, hurry now with the search. There is little time. In 1937, the world knew little of the bombing of cities. We waited for the dreadful hour. We even dared to hope. But this we gave up after word came of the aptitude of the Japanese newspaper. Adler, Asigawa is to be honored for his shibare in giving advance warning to foreigners to save themselves by leaving the city. By his warning, Adler, Asigawa has shown himself a true samurai in applying the Bushil call to Nanjing. The foreigners have been warned. Let them and the enemy Chinese act with equal honor. The Adler should be given... We must do all we can to prepare Air-Age of his job. Dr. Townsend, the missionaries, work along with the rest of them. If there is only enough time. Everyone is working, Dr. Townsend. We must not stop until there's shelter for all. While we dug, others put up arrows pointing to the shelter. Is that the Air-Age, Dr. Townsend? Yes. Yes, it is. Everyone down in the shelters. Everyone down in the shelters. Hey! Hey! Down into the shelters! Hey! Hey! Hey! The bombs are coming! Everyone down in the shelters. There were 40 Japanese bombers in that person. The earth trembled as the bombs fended down. The second grade came only 30 minutes after the first. Exploded, then incendiaries dropped for hours. The flames licked high up into the sky. When night came, the darkness was pierced with the gleam of the rolling fire. The bombers kept coming back. They're coming! I saw them! I saw them! A Japanese patrol at the Sanyaksen Memorial. They're closing in. Already at Purple Mountain? Yes. Yes, I saw them looking down across the city. You could not dream of what was before. The bombing had been merciless. The city was shattered. The magnificent buildings were mangled. Junshan Road and Taipei Road were lanes of wreckage. The Japanese surged into the city like a tidal wave. And the people about a thousand swarmed the shores of the Yangtzee and scrambled to get onto rafts and into boats to try to get across to the North Bank. Japanese planes! Japanese planes! They are diving to paper! Get down! Then the looting started. The stores and houses and skin-standing were stripped of all their stock and furnishings, loaded onto stolen wagons and motor cars and hauled away. Will you leave nothing for us at all? Get out of the way! Those who died this way were lucky. Some were bayoneted. Some were tied together in tight bundles of 40 and 50. Gasoline was poured over them until they were saturated. Then they were satisfied. They were marched out in large groups and mowed down. God give us courage. Dr. Townsend prays. Grant everlasting peace. And the walls were dying. And the walls were about to die. Grant strength to face this ordeal as thou face it on Calvary. And to these world presses, though they torture us and kill us, forgive them. For they know not what they do. Forgive them. We ask it all in Jesus' name. Planes! Planes! The planes are coming back! They are not dropping bombs! No, no! They are dropping leaflets! Look, thousands of leaflets! The leaflets fluttered down like leaves in an autumn wind. When the planes were gone, some of the leaflets were brought into the compound. Look at the picture on them. It was a colored picture of a Japanese soldier with a Chinese child, like the Christ child in his arms. A Chinese mother was bowing at his feet, thanking him for the rice he has given him. What does it say there? It says, all good Chinese who return to their homes will be fed and clothed. Japan wishes to be a good neighbor to those Chinese not fooled by monsters who are Jantai-shek soldiers. Japanese soldiers, they're coming this way. Dr. Townsend! Dr. Townsend! Yeah? They're setting fire to this whole section! We must stay here. We must help the suffering. We looked at each other. Dr. Townsend's come. The Japanese went from place to place along King Shan Road and Taipei Road and put the torch to the buildings after they had looted them. They plundered the American Embassy, the British Embassy, on the German Embassy. On Christmas Eve, all Taipei Road was inflamed. On New Year's Day, a Japanese merchant ship arrived. We made our way down to the angst to see it tied up at the dock. Look, it is filled with Japanese sightseers. Yeah. Sightseers in the city still burning. Yeah. I hope what they see, they will never forget. These visitors were conducted on a tour through the streets that had been cleared of wreckage. Some of them gave sweets to the bewildered Chinese children and patted their frightened heads. These are the ones, Chow, who would try to make banking a Japanese city. A few days later, the Japanese papers from Shanghai reached Nen King. We read what the Japanese said about Nen King. Nen King is quiet. The refugees who fled for their lives from the midst of death have met with the gentle soothing of the Japanese army. Many thousands of refugees cast off their former absurd attitudes of opposing Japan and clasped their hands in congratulations for receiving assurances of rights. Men and women, old and young, bend down to kneel in salutation to the Imperial Army. On New Year's Eve, I slipped out of Nen King. Nen King was lost. Again, Nen King was ravaged. As I went away from it, all I could think of was its ruin. And yet I knew that Nen King was more than a city. It was a symbol. How changed it all is, Chow? Yes. The streets are clear. The important buildings are repaired. Many of the old buildings are gone. Yes, but look at all the Japanese shops in their place. Yes. And all the Japanese. There were never so many Japanese civilians in Nen King. They came here when the heavy bombing of Japan started last summer. After the fall of Nazi Germany. How ironic. They came here to Nen King to escape bombing. Yes. Oh, there is the beautiful Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Yes. Wang Qingwei must have been mortified. The general me show you that as the headquarters of the Japanese Army of Occupation and put him the head of the puppet state in that old building. Wang Qingwei had been Prime Minister of the Nationalist Government in Nen King. He had gone along with Zhang Kaixue to Nen King to carry on the fight against the Japanese. He had said... The Japanese are like thieves in a house. They must be put out. And then after he had left Nen King and gone over to the Japanese, his attitude changed. I urged the general to stop hostilities with Japan. He rebuked me and let me out of the party and called me a traitor. I knew it was hopeless to stay longer in Nen King. Oh, Chow. Yes. The examination ministry where Wang Qingwei was inaugurated as the head of the Japanese puppet government. Yes. It was in March...1940. After three postponements, Wang Qingwei today promulgated what he and his Japanese overlords called the National Government at Nen King. While the rain drizzled down outside, Wang stood in a circle of his puppets and made the announcement. Not one foreign nation except Japan was represented at the inauguration. After the ceremony, Wang signaled and those standing around him bowed deeply. This was the start of Japanese-dominated puppet government of China. The Japanese tried to bolster Wang's prestige by sending General Snowbie Yuki Abbey to Nen King as special envoy and ambassador. But no amount of bolstering could make Wang Qingwei or the Nen King government more than puppet. I remember the secret reports that reached us in Truth Room. Fighting has broken out in Nen King between Wang Qingwei's troops and the Japanese. Wang Qingwei has again tried to give up his regime as president of the Nen King government and go to Hong Kong. But again, he has not been able to do it. We got reports of his failing help, and at the same time of the growing strength of the Japanese in Nen King, they have made the Ministry of Foreign Affairs the inner strength of the Japanese military in China. We kept close tabs on all that was happening in Nen King. The Japanese are realizing that they made a bad deal when they set up the Wang Qingwei regime. But now that they have recognized it and supported it, they cannot abolish it without losing faith. Wang could neither rule nor escape. Wang Qingwei died today after receiving treatment for eight months in the hospital. Chen Kungpo has been named to succeed him. Chen Kungpo? The Japanese news agency Dome has reported that Chen Kungpo has killed himself. Yes, that is what they have said. All this had happened here. All this ensues very much more. Every building, every street corner, every gate, and archway, and park called up more of the deep meaning of Nen King. Here China had raised its highest hopes. Here it had suffered one of its greatest tragedies. Here the anguish of the people had turned to bitterness. But now all that was passed. The puppet government was gone. The Japanese were defeated. And we were back to accept their surrender. The auditorium of the Central Military Academy was decked with the flags of the United Nations. This is China's hour child. Yes. It hardly seems rare after so long. So long. Eight years of heartbreaking warfare since the Marco Polo Bridge incident. Fourteen years since the movement incident. Fourteen years of bloodshed. Death to millions. Suffering from any many millions. On a ravaged, death-related country. And now this. Here at Nen King. Look at the representatives of the other nations there. The United States, Britain, the Netherlands, Canada, Russia, France, Australia. The representatives of the United Nations were expressionists. I looked at the Japanese commander, Lieutenant General Okamura. Has any nations' humiliation ever been so great, Charles? I almost pity the Japanese. Look at General Hogen Chin. The commander-in-chief of the Chinese forces was Surin. General Okamura took off his glasses. He looked grimly over the surrender pit. The Emperor of Japan, the Japanese government, and the Japanese Imperial General Headquarters, having recognized the complete military defeat of the Japanese military forces by the Allied forces, hereby surrender unconditionally to the supreme commander of the Allied forces. All ground, sea, air, and auxiliary forces were in China. Okamura's mouth tightened as he read. The eyes of all the Chinese, of all the representatives of the other seven nations were on him. The eyes of the world were on him. He put his signature to the document. He has surrendered a million Japanese troops in China and all the forces north of the 16th latitude, excepting those in Manchuria. Yes, and he has surrendered here in Nen King. Nen King was again the captain. Okamura had won its greatest triumph, not only victory over the Japanese, but over this unity. This was a promise that China could have unity, that China indeed had one status as a nation. This was the freedom that had been envisioned by the man in the mausoleum on purple mountain. I'm listening to the Pacific Story, presented by the national broadcasting company and its affiliated independent stations as a public service to clarify events in the Pacific and to make understandable the crosscurrents of life in the Pacific Basin. For a reprint of this Pacific Story program, send 10 cents in stamps or coin to University of California Press, Berkeley, California. May I repeat? For a reprint of this Pacific Story program, send 10 cents in stamps or coin to University of California Press, Berkeley, California. Story is written and directed by Arnold Marquess. The original musical score was composed and conducted by Thomas Palusto. The principal voice was that of Howard McNeer. Programs in this series, of particular interest to servicemen and women, are broadcast overseas through the worldwide facilities of the Armed Forces Radio Service. This program came to you from Hollywood. This is the national broadcasting company. Thank you.