English-Language
Sources on China at War, 1931-1945
Overview of Archival and Manuscript Collections
This list includes the major archives or libraries containing
English-language materials related to Sino-Japanese War of 1937-1945.
Also listed are a few guides to these resources and secondary
works that outline the scope of various collections.
Please send any additions or comments to Steve Phillips at
sphillip@towson.edu.
For further information on archival research, see the Research
Forum section of this website.
Australia
Australia-Japan Research Project
The Australia-Japan Research Project is an important resource
for those interested in Australian-Japanese relations. The website
contains information on Australian documents and captured Japanese
documents, many of which relate to the Sino-Japanese war. The
website also contains useful essays on Australian archives related
to the Pacific War. The AJRP is a joint enterprise between the
Australian War Memorial and the Japanese Embassy in Canberra.
http://www.awm.gov.au:8000/ajrp/ajrp2.nsf/
National Archives of Australia
Offices in Canberra and other locations
Australia's repository of government records. Of particular
value are the Files of the Australian Legation in China, Correspondence
Files, located in file series A4144 at the Australian National
Archives, and the Correspondence Files of the Department of
External Affairs, Alphabetical Series, 1925-1942, located in
file series A981.
For an overview of the sources available, see R. G. Neale,
ed., Documents on Australian Foreign Policy, 1937-1949, Volume
I: 1937-1938 (Canberra: Department of Foreign Affairs, Australian
Government Publishing Service, 1975).
Manuscript Section
National Library of Australia
Canberra, ACT 2600
The Australian National Library is the largest single repository
of private papers in Australia. Some finding aids are available,
such as Sir Frederic W. Eggleston: A Guide to His Papers
in the National Library of Australia (Canberra, National
Library of Australia, 1972).
Canada
National Archives of Canada
395 Wellington Street
Ottawa, Canada K1A 0N3
Central repository for official government materials. See Record
Group 25, External Affairs, and Record Group 24, National Defense
for information on China. For information on collections of
papers or manuscripts held elsewhere in Canada, see Robert S.
Gordon, ed., Union List of Manuscripts in Canadian Repositories
(Ottawa: Queen's Printer, 1968). This Union List
has been updated several times since 1968.
The Canadian Council of Archives has developed a directory
of the major archives and libraries in Canada, as well as summaries
of their principle holdings: www.cdncouncilarchives.ca/dir.html
National Library of Canada (NLC)
395 Wellington Street
Ottawa
Canada K1A 0N4
http://www.nlc-bnc.ca/ehome.htm
Holds some volumes from the 1931-1945 period related to Sino-Japanese
conflict. The NLC website contains links to special collections
throughout Canada.
Presbyterian Church in Canada
Archives and Records Office
50 Wynford Drive
Toronto, Ontario
M3C 1J7
Contains some missionary materials.
University of Toronto
Robarts Library
130 St. George Street
Toronto, Ontario
M5S 1A2
Contains a small but unique group of English-language publications
from China, 1931-1945.
University of Victoria
University of Victoria Archives and Special Collections
University of Victoria Libraries
P.O. Box 1800 Stn. CSC
Victoria, British Columbia
Canada V8W 3H5
http://gateway3.uvic.ca/archives/archives.html
The library also holds several collections of private papers
from individuals in China during the 1931 to 1945 era. For example,
Peggy Abkhazi’s paper describe life in Shanghai during
and after the Japanese invasion, as well as the experience of
being interned by the Japanese.
United Church of Canada
Victoria University in the University of Toronto
73 Queen’s Park Crescent
Toronto, Ontario
Canada M5S 1K7
vicu.utoronto.ca/archives/academic.html
Includes records of the Methodist Church (Canada) Missionary
Society; the United Church of Canada Board of Overseas Missions
(includes records from Shanghai, Henan, and elsewhere in China),
Board of World Missions (including a collection of pamplets
and other documents), Woman’s Missionary Society (sections
on Henan, South China, West China, and Taiwan/Hong Kong); the
papers of individuals missionaries in China during the 1931
to 1945 period; and church periodical and manuscripts.
Great Britain
The British Library
96 Euston Road
London
NW1 2DB
British Library Public Catalogue provides on-line access to
over 10 million items. Besides books, the Library has an extensive
collection of newspapers and archival holdings (such as that
of the India Office).
Churchill Archives Centre
Churchill College
Cambridge CB3 0DS
www.chu.cam.ac.uk/archives/home.htm
The Centre is the equivalent to the Roosevelt Presidential
Library. Houses over 2,200 boxes of Sir Winston Churchill's
papers as well as the papers of some 400 other individuals,
including the papers of the British Ambassador to China from
1942 to 1946, Sir Horace James Seymour. The files also include
many messages and reports to Churchill from British officials
in China.
Public Record Office (PRO)
Ruskin Avenue
Kew
Surrey
TW9 4DU
The central repository for official government documents. Includes
materials from the Foreign Office (FO) and War Office (WO).
The PRO also has the Operational Correspondence and Papers of
Prime Minister Winton Churchill (Class PREM 3), which hold materials
related to Churchill's activities as Minister of Defense, as
well as the papers of the Cabinet (CAB). Of particular interest
is class FO 371, which contains information on political affairs.
Includes original documents used in documentary collections
such as Woodward, Sir Ernest Llewellyn. British Foreign Policy
in the Second World War, volume IV. London: Her Majesty’s
Stationery Office, 1975. See also Index to the Correspondence
of the Foreign Office, annual volumes listing documents
and their locations. Two important guides are Louise Atherton,
'Never Complain, Never Explain': Records of the Foreign Office
and State Paper Office, 1500-c. 1960 (London: Public Record
Office, 1994) and The Second World War: A Guide to Documents
in the Public Record Office, Public Record Office Handbook
No. 15 (London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1972).
Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Wartime Records
Includes Japanese title deeds and memorials, house registration
books, house mortgage records and miscellaneous records relating
to the organization and administration of the House Registration
Office. Also holds lists of British and foreign casualties,
prisoners of war and internees compiled in the month following
the surrender of British Forces to the Japanese, medical records
of the internment camp in Stanley, various unpublished war diaries,
and intelligence summaries issued by the British Army Aid Group
which was based at Guilin (Kweilin) during the occupation period.
Private Papers
Various locations
The best introduction to sources on the British and Australian
side are the bibliographies of unpublished material, private
papers, published official documents, and memoirs in Christopher
Thorne’s landmark works on wartime diplomacy, Allies
of a Kind: The United States, Britain, and the War Against Japan,
1941-1945 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1978) and The
Issue of War: States, Societies, and the Far Eastern Conflict
of 1941-1945 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985).
The National Register of Archives (NRA) collects and disseminates
information about manuscript sources for British history outside
the PRO. The NRA consists of more than 43,000 unpublished lists
and catalogues of major manuscript collections, and approximately
150,000 further lists of miscellaneous and minor collections.
It is available at www.hmc.gov.uk/nra/nra.htm.
See Noel Matthews and M. Doreen Wainwright, compilers, A
Guide to Manuscripts and Documents in the British Isles Relating
to the Far East (New York: Oxford University Press, 1977).
School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS)
University of London
The Library
Thornhaugh Street
Russell Square
London WC1H 0XG
http://www.soas.ac.uk/Archives/guides/mss.html
SOAS holds some important collections of individuals, businesses,
and religious institutions. See Rosemary Seton, compiler, Guide
to Archives and Manuscript Collections (London : SOAS, University
of London, 1994). The papers and reports of Sir Frederick Maze
provides a great deal of information on China from the 1920s
to the early 1940s through the eyes of the Chinese Maritime
Customs Service. Collections from individuals include Gladys
Ayalward, missionary in China, and Patrick Devereux Coates,
who was with the consular service in China.
Religious institutions include the China Inland Mission, the
Council for World Mission, the Methodist Missionary Society,
the Conference of British Missionary Societies and Christian
Aid. See Seton, Rosemary, and Emily Naish, A Preliminary
Guide to the Archives of British Missionary Societies (London:
SOAS, 1992); and Bickers, Robert A., and Rosemary Seton, Missionary
Encounters: Sources and Issues (Richmond, Surrey: Curzon
Press, 1996). Another useful guide is Reverend C. Stuart Craig,
The Archives of the Council for World Mission (Incorporating
the London Missionary Society): An Outline Guide (London:
School of Oriental and African Studies, 1973).
United States
Bancroft Library
University of California Berkeley
Berkeley, CA 94720-6000
See also the Online Archive of California (sunsite2.berkeley.edu/oac/),
which contains detailed lists of collections available at most
of the major universities in the state, including the Hoover
Institution and the University of California system.
Holds the private papers of individuals such as George Atcheson,
an American who witnessed the Japanese bombing of the USS Panay
in 1937 and later served as chargé d'affaires in Chongqing,
and Walter Lowdermilk, who advised the Nationalist government
on environmental issues during the war. The Bancroft Library
also has many microfilm and bound copies of oral histories from
the Claremont Graduate School and other locations. The library
alsoholds 110 oral history transcripts of interviews of Foreign
Service Officers during the Truman Administration (1945-1952).
These transcripts include information on the pre-1945 careers
of the Officers.
Baylor University Institute for Oral History
Institute for Oral History
Baylor University
PO Box 97271
Waco, Texas, USA 76798-7271
http://www.baylor.edu/~Oral_History/
The Institute holds a few oral histories from Christian missionaries
in China during the war era.
Catholic Foreign Missionary Society
Maryknoll Mission Archives
P.O. Box 305
Maryknoll, N.Y. 10545-0305
www.maryknoll.org/ABOUTUS/ARCHIV/arc_info.htm
The holdings include the diaries of Maryknoll missionaries
around the world. See Murray Rubinstein, "China in Maryknoll:
The Sinologically-Related Holdings of the Catholic Foreign Missionary
Society of America," Jindai Zhongguo shi yanjiu tongxu (Newsletter
of Modern Chinese History) 13 (1992): 179-190; and Jean-Paul
Wiest, Maryknoll in China: A History, 1918-1955 (Maryknoll:
Orbis Books, 1997).
China Missionaries Oral History Collection
Claremont Graduate School
Honnold/Mudd Library
Special Collections
Claremont, CA 91717
voxlibris.claremont.edu/se/aboutus.html
These forty-five oral histories were funded by a grant from
the Henry Luce Foundation in 1969. The goal of the project was
to study the impact of the missionary movement in the Far East.
Although none of these transcripts focus exclusively on Sino-Japanese
conflict, many discuss the impact of the war at the local level.
China Records Project
Yale Divinity Library and
Manuscripts and Archives
Yale University Library
406 Prospect Street
New Haven, CT 06520
The China Records Project includes the personal records of
missionaries to China. The Divinity Library holds about 950
linear feet of manuscript materials from over 300 missionaries.
The Library also has materials related to Christian colleges
and universities in China in the Archives of the United Board
for Christian Higher Education in Asia. The Library has an extensive
collection of microfilms with the archives of missionaries organizations,
such as the Methodist Missionary Society (British) (1851-1946)
and the Presbyterian Church of England Board of Foreign Missions
(1863-1950), as well as periodicals including the Anking
Newsletter (1920-1943) and the Bulletin/Newsletter of
the Diocesan Association for Western China (1934-1959).
The Manuscripts and Archives section of Yale’s Library
has the records of the Yale-China Association. See Reuben Andrus
Holden, Yale in China: The Mainland, 1909-1951 (New Haven:
Yale in China Association, 1964).
Columbia University
Rare Book and Manuscript Library
Butler Library
535 West 114th Street
New York, NY 10027
www.columbia.edu/cu/libraries/indiv/rare
Holdings related to Sino-Japanese conflict:
1. Chinese Oral History Collection of oral histories and memoirs
from prominent politicians, bureaucrats, scholars, and generals
in the Nationalist Government or the "Third Force" movement
in China. Many oral histories or memoirs are accompanied by
private papers.
2. Flying Tiger Project, a series of oral histories related
to the American Volunteer Group in China. These materials were
gathered during a 1962 Flying Tigers reunion.
3. American Bureau for Medical Aid to China records, 1937-1979.
ABMAC was founded in 1937 to give aid to Chinese medical and
public health services by working through existing Chinese medical
agencies.
4. Indusco, Inc., 1938-1985. Organization involved with promoting
cooperatives in order to boost Chinese industrial production
during the war against Japan.
5. Institute of Pacific Relations, office files, 1927-1962.
Additional related collections are held by Princeton University,
the University of Hawaii, University of British Columbia, and
Marquette University.
Department of State
Ralph Bunche Library
Washington, DC 20500
library.state.gov/
Holds a small collection of English-language materials related
to Sino-Japanese conflict. Many of these items were given to
Americans in order to gain support for Jiang Jieshi, Wang Jingwei,
or the Japanese. For example, the Library has a series of publications
from Wang Jingwei, justifying his break with Jiang and the establishment
of a new government in Nanjing.
The Department of State’s Office of the Historian http://www.state.gov/www/about_state/history/ publishes the Foreign Relations of the United States
series, which contains many documents related to Sino-Japanese
conflict.
The Ecumenical Library
The Interchurch Center
475 Riverside Drive
New York, NY 10115
Holds materials from the United Presbyterian Missions Library,
Methodist Board of Missions Library, and the National Council
of Churches Library. See the General Commission on Archives
and History of the United Methodist Church, housed at Drew University
in New Jersey, for more detailed documentation.
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
321 Bonnie Lane
Elk Grove Village, IL 60007
www.elca.org/oa/achives/location.html
Holds records of the Lutheran Theological Seminary (LTS, originally
called the Central China Union Lutheran Theological Seminary),
which was founded in China in 1913, and files of the United
Lutheran Church in America (ULCA), which took over the work
of the Berlin Missionary Society (or Society for the Furtherance
of Evangelical Missions Among the Heathen in Berlin), centered
in Shantung, China. These files include minutes, correspondence
and reports. The Augustana Synod Mission (1908-1948) and Lutheran
Augustana Mission (1948-1956) were the names given to the work
of the Augustana Evangelical Lutheran Church in China and neighboring
Chinese countries.
Foreign Affairs Oral History Project
Lauinger Library
Georgetown University
Washington, DC 20057
www.library.georgetown.edu/dept/speccoll/diplo.htm
This collection contains over 650 interviews with United State
Foreign Service Officers, and has an on-line index that provides
a brief biography of each subject. The Project includes the
reminiscences of American diplomats in China during the war.
The complete set of oral histories is now available on CD-ROM.
Contact Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training, 4000
Arlington Blvd., Arlington, VA 22204, USA.
General Commission on Archives and History
The United Methodist Church
Drew University
Madison, NJ 07940
The General Commission has an extensive collection of documentation
on the activities of Methodist missionaries around the world.
This includes the files of individual missionaries and annual
summaries of their efforts in China and other countries. Scholars
could begin with the published journals of the annual meetings
of the Board of Foreign Missions of the Methodist Episcopal
Church. These volumes often have short summaries of materials
in the missionary files, and can highlight individuals whose
files are worth pursuing further. Most important are the Missionary
Files, materials arranged first by continent, then by nation,
and finally by the names of individual missionaries or Chinese
pastors or employees. These documents include letters among
missionaries, newsletters, and reports from the field.
The Billy Graham Center
Wheaton College
500 College Avenue
3rd floor
Wheaton, IL 60187-5593
www.wheaton.edu/bgc/archives/archhp1.html
The Center has its own extensive collection of oral histories
as well as private papers and microfilm collections taken from
other collections related to American, Canadian, and British
missionary efforts in China. Some of the oral histories are
available online. This is one of the largest repositories of
missionary-related material in the United States.
Hoover Institution
Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305
This website accesses the "Online Archive of California," which
includes Stanford University's Hoover Institution, the Claremount
Graduate School libraries, and the libraries at the University
of California at Berkeley.
The Hoover Institution has a wide variety of personal papers
from Americans in China, including General Joseph Stilwell,
General Albert Wedemeyer, Frank Dorn, Claire Lee Chennault,
participants in the Dixie Missions to Yenan, those working for
the departments of State or War, the Office of Strategic Services,
or the Sino-American Cooperative Organization. Also includes
the papers of T. V. Soong and Arthur N. Young, financial adviser
to the government of China and the Central Bank of China.
The bibliography of Maochun Yu's monograph, OSS in China:
Prelude to Cold War (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996),
contains a useful list of personal papers and official materials
at the Hoover Institution. See also Michael Schaller, The
U.S. Crusade in China, 1938-1945 (New York: Columbia University
Press 1979) and Barbara W. Tuchman, Stilwell and the American
Experience in China, 1911-1945 (New York: Macmillan, 1972).
There also exist a few published guides to the papers of individuals,
such as Dale Reed, compiler, Robert Hessen, ed., General
Claire Lee Chennault: A Guide to His Papers in the Hoover Institution
Archives (Stanford: Hoover Institution Press, 1983).
Library of Congress
Manuscript Division
101 Independence Avenue, SE
Washington, DC 20540
Holds the papers of many important United States officials
or others involved with China, including Owen Lattimore. A valuable
research tool is the National Union Catalog of Manuscript
Collections, Volumes 1-37 (Washington: Library of Congress,
1959-1993).
See also the online listing of manuscript collections at lcweb.loc.gov/coll/nucmc/nucmc.html.
This website also provides links to thousands of other libraries
and research institutions in the United States. Another useful
list of archives and major libraries is available from Columbia
University at www.columbia.edu/cu/libraries/subjects/speccol.html.
Marine Corps Historical Center
Department of the Navy
9th and M Streets, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20374
www.usmc.mil/historical.nsf/Nav3
The Marine’s collection of over 6,500 oral histories include
many from those stationed in China prior to 1941. See Benis
M Frank, compiler, Marine Corps Oral History Collection Catalog
(Washington: History and Museums Division, United States
Marine Corps, 1989); Marine Corps Personal Papers Collection
Catalog (1974, rev. 1980); and Michael O’Quinlivan
and Jack B. Hilliard, An Annotated Bibliography of the United
States Marine Corps in the Second World War (Washington:
Historical Branch, G-3 Division Headquarters, U.S. Marine Corps,
1970).
Missionary Periodicals Database
Yale University
http://namp.divinity.yale.edu/NAMP.taf
This database was created by the Currents in World Christianity
Center at the University of Cambridge. It lists hundreds of
missionary periodicals, publishers, and dates of publications.
Users can sort the database by keyword, region, or title. The
database lists over 200 periodicals for East Asia alone. The
CWC also publishes a series of research papers on the history
of missionary activities around the world. See http://office3.divinity.cam.ac.uk/carts/cwc/PosPaper.htm for further information.
National Agricultural Library
United States Department of Agriculture
10301 Baltimore Avenue
Beltsville, MD 20705
See AGRICOLA (AGRICultural OnLine Access), a database of bibliographic
records created by the National Agricultural Library and its
cooperators at www.nal.usda.gov/ag98, as well as Theodore Besterman,
Agriculture: A Bibliography of Bibliographies (Totowa,
NJ: Rowman and Littlefield, 1971); Susan Chapman, "Guide to
Historical Research at the National Agricultural Library" (National
Agricultural Library, Special Reference Brief SRB 94-02, February
1994); and Alan E. Fusonie, Guide to Manuscripts in the National
Agricultural Library (Washington, 1979).
National Archives and Records Administration
8601 Adelphi Road
College Park, MD 20740
Central repository for United States Government records, including
materials from the departments of State, War, Agriculture, and
Commerce, as well as the Office of Strategic Services. Of particular
importance are the decimal files of the Department of State
(Record Group 59). Along with the Roosevelt Presidential Library,
the Archives holds the original copies of the materials extracted
for the Foreign Relations of the United States series.
Many of the records are also available on microfilm at the National
Archives. Much of the Department of State decimal files are
also available on microfilms compiled by University Publications
of America.
Some of the most valuable guides or secondary sources include
Guide to the National Archives of the United States (Washington:
National Archives, 1974); Gerald K. Haines, A Reference Guide
to United States Department of State Special Files (Westport:
Greenwood Press, 1985); Eugene L. Rasor, The China-Burma-India
Campaign, 1931-1945: Historiography and Annotated Bibliography
(Westport: Greenwood Press, 1998); and Lawrence H. MacDonald,
"The OSS and Its Records," in George C. Chalou, ed., The
Secrets War: The Office of Strategic Services in World War II
(Washington: National Archives and Records Administration,
1992).
Nazi War Criminal Records Interagency Working Group (IWG)
On January 11, 1999, in accordance with the Nazi War Crimes
Disclosure Act (PL 105-246), President Clinton established the
IWG. Its mandate includes materials of Germany and other Axis
nations, such as Japan. The IWG carries out the work of the
Nazi War Crime Disclosure Act of 1998, which requires that records
related to war crimes committed by "any government which was
an ally of the Nazi government of Germany," be identified, declassified,
and made available to the public. Recently efforts have begun
to focus on Japanese war crimes, and will certainly include
information on Sino-Japanese conflict. The documents include
materials from the Department of State, the Department of War,
and the Office of Strategic Services.
University of Oregon Library System
Special Collections
Knight Library
University of Oregon Library
Eugene, OR 97403
http://libweb/uoregon.edu/speccoll/
The University of Oregon has its own missionary collection
that contains the papers of almost 100 individuals, most of
whom spent time in China during the first half of the twentieth
century. Materials include manuscripts, annual reports, diaries,
photos, and correspondence.
The Rockefeller Archive Center
15 Dayton Avenue
Pocantico Hills
Sleepy Hollow, New York 10591
email: archive@rockvax.rockefeller.edu
The Rockefeller Archive Center, a division of The Rockefeller
University, was established in 1974 to assemble, process, and
make available for scholarly research the papers of the Rockefeller
family and the records of various philanthropic and educational
institutions founded by the family, including The Rockefeller
University, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Rockefeller
Brothers Fund. Holdings include the papers of the China Medical
Board and Peking Union Medical College and their staff. These
files have information on the Japanese invasion, and the attempt
to move many of these institutions inland during the late 1930s.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt Library
National Archives and Records Administration
Hyde Park, NY 12538
Includes materials sent to or received from Roosevelt, as well
as the personal papers of a wide variety of figures key to the
Roosevelt Administration. The Library is in the process of placing
some of the most requested document series online. See Historical
Materials in the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, 10th ed.
(Hyde Park: Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, National Archives
and Records Administration, 1996).
The Rutgers Oral History Archives of World War II
Special Collections and University Archives
Archibald Stevens Alexander Library
169 College Avenue
New Brunswick, NJ 08903
http://history.rutgers.edu/oralhistory/orlhom.htm
Includes interviews with Americans who served in China during
the War. These interviews provide insight into two areas: 1)
Nationalist military, and 2) Life in China, particularly Chongqing
and Kunming.
Southern Baptist Historical Library and Archives (SBHLA)
Southern Baptist Convention Building
901 Commerce Street
Nashville, TN
Contains the private papers of Baptist missionaries in China,
including diaries, letters, photographs, and reports to the
Foreign Mission Board in the United States. The SBHLA also holds
materials related to Baptist schools and colleges in China,
and the papers, reports, and meeting minutes of the Foreign
Missions Board.
Harry S Truman Presidential Library
Truman Library
500 W. U.S. Hwy 24
Independence MO 64050
Includes materials sent to or received from President, as well
as the personal papers of a wide variety of figures key to the
Truman Administration. The Library is in the process of placing
some of the most requested document series online, and is putting
many oral histories online.
updated
10-01-01
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