Peace In Their Time

Peace In Their Time

By Peace In Their TimeHistory
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Peace In Their Time episodes

  • Episode 153 - Manchurian Goodbye

    Today the focus shifts back to the misadventures of Chiang Kai-shek and the Nanjing government. The Central Plains War had been won, and it looked for the briefest of moments that things were going to be fine for them. Then the new campaigns against the Communists fell into disarray, and in September 1931 the Japanese invaded Manchuria. For Chiang, there would be no breaks. Ever. 

     

    Bibliography for this episode: 

     

    1. Fairbank, John K & Denis Twitchett The Cambridge History of China, Volume 12: Republican China 1912-1949, Part 1 Cambridge University Press 1983
  • Fairbannk, John K & Albert Feuerwerker The Cambridge History of China, Volume 13: Republican China 1912-1949, Part 2 Cambridge University Press 1983
  • Sheridan, James E. China in Disintegration: The Republican Era in Chinese History 1912-1949 Macmillian Publishing Co, Inc 1975
  • Taylor, Jay The Generalissimo: Chiang Kai-shek and the Struggle for Modern China Harvard University Press 2011
  • Van de Ven, Hans J. War and Nationalism in China, 1925-1945 Routledge 2003

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    Questions? Comments? Email me at [email protected]

    31 min
  • Episode 152 - Let Sleeping Bears Lie

    A fun and not very well-known little border war was the Sino-Soviet conflict of 1929. Basically the Soviets controlled the railways of northern Manchuria, and the Chinese wanted them out. Simple idea, difficult to execute in practice, and the way it was handled opened the door for the Red Army to humiliate the warlord forces of Manchuria. Which would in turn get other parties thinking about how easy it would be to go on an adventure of their own in the region.

     

    Bibliography for this episode: 

     

    1. Walker, Michael M. The 1929 Sino-Soviet War: The War Nobody Knew University Press of Kansas 2017
  • Kotkin, Stephen Stalin: Waiting for Hitler 1929-1941 Penguin Press 2017

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    Questions? Comments? Email me at [email protected]

    41 min
  • Episode 151 - The Central Plains War

    We get the real-deal history underway with some very familiar material: a warlord showdown. Except this would be bigger than ever, and would decide if Chiang Kai-shek's centralizing policies even had a prayer. 

     

    Bibliography for this episode: 

     

    1. Fairbank, John K & Denis Twitchett The Cambridge History of China, Volume 12: Republican China 1912-1949, Part 1 Cambridge University Press 1983
  • Fairbannk, John K & Albert Feuerwerker The Cambridge History of China, Volume 13: Republican China 1912-1949, Part 2 Cambridge University Press 1983
  • Sheridan, James E. China in Disintegration: The Republican Era in Chinese History 1912-1949 Macmillian Publishing Co, Inc 1975
  • Taylor, Jay The Generalissimo: Chiang Kai-shek and the Struggle for Modern China Harvard University Press 2011
  • Van de Ven, Hans J. War and Nationalism in China, 1925-1945 Routledge 2003

    •  

    Questions? Comments? Email me at [email protected]

    30 min
  • Episode 150 - Enter the Nanjing Decade

    Last season I left off my China coverage with the successful conclusion of the Northern Expedition. But just because that long campaign was successful didn't mean that Chiang Kai-shek and the KMT had everything go their way. To kick off this new mini-series I'll be spending some time re-introducing some older friends, as well as newer groups and factions that were going to play a larger role in the years to come. 

     

    Bibliography for this episode: 

     

    1. Fairbank, John K & Denis Twitchett The Cambridge History of China, Volume 12: Republican China 1912-1949, Part 1 Cambridge University Press 1983
  • Fairbannk, John K & Albert Feuerwerker The Cambridge History of China, Volume 13: Republican China 1912-1949, Part 2 Cambridge University Press 1983
  • Sheridan, James E. China in Disintegration: The Republican Era in Chinese History 1912-1949 Macmillian Publishing Co, Inc 1975
  • Taylor, Jay The Generalissimo: Chiang Kai-shek and the Struggle for Modern China Harvard University Press 2011
  • Van de Ven, Hans J. War and Nationalism in China, 1925-1945 Routledge 2003

    •  

    Questions? Comments? Email me at [email protected]

    29 min
  • Episode 149 - Restoration

    When events in China cooled off, the ones back in Japan heated up. With the exit of Japan from the League of Nations in 1933, the unilateralist approach was chosen to secure the empire. But even then, there was disagreement on approach that would create conflict on the home islands that were only starting to get resolved by the time formal war with China broke out in 1937. 

     

    Bibliography for this episode: 

     

    1. McClain, James L A Modern History of Japan WW Norton & Company Inc, 2002
  • Duus, Peter The Cambridge History of Japan, Volume 6: The Twentieth Century Cambridge University Press 1988
  • Young, Louise Japan's Total Empire: Manchuria and the Culture of Wartime Imperialism University of California Press 1998

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    Questions? Comments? Email me at [email protected]

    38 min
  • Episode 148 - Jewel of the Empire

    Today we wrap up our close-in look at the puppet state of Manchukuo and cover what drove the state and kept it a function part of the Japanese Empire. The short answer is money, but there were also fitful attempts at building an identity mixed in there too. Not terribly successful ones, but enough that there was a veneer of legitimacy covering up the abject servitude. 

     

    Bibliography for this episode: 

     

    1. McClain, James L A Modern History of Japan WW Norton & Company Inc, 2002
  • Duus, Peter The Cambridge History of Japan, Volume 6: The Twentieth Century Cambridge University Press 1988
  • Young, Louise Japan's Total Empire: Manchuria and the Culture of Wartime Imperialism University of California Press 1998
  • Jowett, Philip S. Rays of the Rising Sun: Armed Forces of Japan's Asian Allies 1931-45 Helion & Company Limited 2004
  • Duara, Prasenjit Sovereignty and Authenticity: Manchukup and the East Asian Modern Rowan & Littlefield Publishers, Inc 2003
  • Matsusaka, Yoshihisa Tak The Making of Japanese Manchuria, 1904-32 Harvard University Asia Center 2001
  • Mitter, Rana The Manchurian Myth: Nationalism, Resistance, and Collaboration in Modern China University of California Press 2000
  • Paine, S.C.M. The Japanese Empire: Grand Strategy from the Meiji Restoration to the Pacific War Cambridge University Press 2017
  • Paine, S.C.M. The Wars for Asia, 1911-1949 Cambridge University Press 2012 

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    Questions? Comments? Email me at [email protected]

    29 min
  • Episode 147 - In For a Penny, In For a Pound

    Turns out that when you build an artificial state via conquest and exploitation that it doesn't lend itself to stability. The establishment of Manchukuo in early 1932 didn't clear out the hundreds of thousands of unemployed soldiers, partisans, and bandits roaming the countryside. It would take years of campaigning to instill even a sense of control, and the Chinese collaborators would at best make for unreliable allies. And to top it all off, officers in the Kwantung Army decided that more expansion would lead to stability. 

     

    Bibliography for this episode: 

     

    1. McClain, James L A Modern History of Japan WW Norton & Company Inc, 2002
  • Duus, Peter The Cambridge History of Japan, Volume 6: The Twentieth Century Cambridge University Press 1988
  • Young, Louise Japan's Total Empire: Manchuria and the Culture of Wartime Imperialism University of California Press 1998
  • Jowett, Philip S. Rays of the Rising Sun: Armed Forces of Japan's Asian Allies 1931-45 Helion & Company Limited 2004
  • Duara, Prasenjit Sovereignty and Authenticity: Manchukup and the East Asian Modern Rowan & Littlefield Publishers, Inc 2003
  • Matsusaka, Yoshihisa Tak The Making of Japanese Manchuria, 1904-32 Harvard University Asia Center 2001
  • Mitter, Rana The Manchurian Myth: Nationalism, Resistance, and Collaboration in Modern China University of California Press 2000
  • Paine, S.C.M. The Japanese Empire: Grand Strategy from the Meiji Restoration to the Pacific War Cambridge University Press 2017
  • Paine, S.C.M. The Wars for Asia, 1911-1949 Cambridge University Press 2012 

    •  

    Questions? Comments? Email me at [email protected]

    31 min
  • Episode 146 - Indigestion

    While the Kwantung Army ran roughshod over Manchuria in defiance of all orders coming out of Tokyo, events back in the Home Islands didn't remain static. The crisis caused a nationalistic frenzy among leaders, in the media, and in public opinion. A surge of domestic terrorism in the spring of 1932 would fatally undermine elected government, as Hirohito and his advisors turned towards hand-picked leaders they believed could navigate Japan through the crisis they were in. 

     

    Bibliography for this episode: 

     

    1. McClain, James L A Modern History of Japan WW Norton & Company Inc, 2002
  • Duus, Peter The Cambridge History of Japan, Volume 6: The Twentieth Century Cambridge University Press 1988
  • Young, Louise Japan's Total Empire: Manchuria and the Culture of Wartime Imperialism University of California Press 1998

    •  

    Questions? Comments? Email me at [email protected]

    29 min
  • Episode 145 - The Mukden Incident

    The first big aggression of the chaotic 30s proved not to come from Europe, but East Asia. And the Japanese invasion of Manchuria wasn't even a deliberate act of state policy, but the consequence of renegade Japanese officers taking matters into their own hands. But once events got underway, the government in Tokyo proved incapable of stopping the expansion of conflict on the Asian mainland. 

     

    Bibliography for this episode: 

     

    1. McClain, James L A Modern History of Japan WW Norton & Company Inc, 2002
  • Duus, Peter The Cambridge History of Japan, Volume 6: The Twentieth Century Cambridge University Press 1988
  • Young, Louise Japan's Total Empire: Manchuria and the Culture of Wartime Imperialism University of California Press 1998
  • Jowett, Philip S. Rays of the Rising Sun: Armed Forces of Japan's Asian Allies 1931-45 Helion & Company Limited 2004
  • Duara, Prasenjit Sovereignty and Authenticity: Manchukup and the East Asian Modern Rowan & Littlefield Publishers, Inc 2003
  • Matsusaka, Yoshihisa Tak The Making of Japanese Manchuria, 1904-32 Harvard University Asia Center 2001
  • Mitter, Rana The Manchurian Myth: Nationalism, Resistance, and Collaboration in Modern China University of California Press 2000
  • Paine, S.C.M. The Japanese Empire: Grand Strategy from the Meiji Restoration to the Pacific War Cambridge University Press 2017
  • Paine, S.C.M. The Wars for Asia, 1911-1949 Cambridge University Press 2012 

    •  

    Questions? Comments? Email me at [email protected]

    32 min
  • Episode 144 - Sayonara Internationalism

    Today marks the start of our second miniseries covering the Japanese Empire! That nation had spent the 20s grappling with an underperforming economy, a more active democracy, and how to ensure national security on its own terms. Turns out, none of those issues had been properly addressed, and the Great Depression would form a sad denouement to all the work done during the prior decade. 

     

    Bibliography for this episode: 

     

    1. McClain, James L A Modern History of Japan WW Norton & Company Inc, 2002
  • Duus, Peter The Cambridge History of Japan, Volume 6: The Twentieth Century Cambridge University Press 1988
  • Mason, RHP & JG Caiger A History of Japan Tuttle Publishing 1997

    •  

    Questions? Comments? Email me at [email protected]

    28 min

About Peace In Their Time

From the publisher's feed

A history podcast dedicated to examining the global history of the 1920s and 30s in order to explain the causes of World War II, both large and small. As you might imagine, there’s a lot of ground to cover just to contextualize how the conflict got so out of control. If you love historical deep-dives and play-by-plays of nations in way over their collective heads, this is the show for you. Best niche history podcast out there!