A wartime welcome: Chinese troops greet an American observer

Han Duofeng / (Carlson, Evans). Lecture on the welcome meeting to Mr. Carlson.

€ 8,500.00

A wartime welcome: a Chinese general's speech for a newly arrived American military observer in the midst of the hard fighting of 1938. Lieutenant-General Han Duofeng (written here as Jo-Feng Han) had just been made Special Commissioner 4th Administration Area of Shandong in the midst of the Japanese invasion, and was tasked with greeting Evans Carlson (1896-1947), an American officer and observer who spent much of 1937 and 1938 in China. In the Second Sino-Japanese War, Shandong saw some of the worst early fighting in terms of both front line and guerilla warfare, which both Han Duofeng and Carlson would come to know well; Carlson became a staunch advocate in America for the Chinese cause.

Han Duofeng's greeting speech to Carlson is aimed not only at Carlson, but at the wider world Carlson represented (and would work so hard to influence). After introductory remarks, Lt.-General Han begins: "It is so hot to-day! It is military time, you know! Mr. Carlson is not afraid of bitters and dangers, and come here to make the investigations with reference to the battle conditions between China and Japan." He adds, highlighting the distinct struggles of 1938, "our enemy (Japan) spread rumors by hook and by crook, that all Chinese troops had been totally defeated by her. But, in the matter of fact, what our enemy say is baseless in all. From Mr. Carlson's reports of his investigations out of China, the whole world would know that there is not a particle of truth in the rumors".

The photographs accompanying the Lt.-General's speech, likely taken by Carlson himself, capture the parades which greeted Carlson across the provinces and factions of wartime China. These include a uniformed group in Wutai County, Shanxi, possibly at the site of the Nanru 8th Route Army Headquarters for Communist forces, as well as crowds in Hebei, Shandong, and numerous other areas, some captioned "Yuan Wu Partisans", "Jen Chin Partisans", and Jing He Masses.