THE SPYING GAME – AMLETO VESPA ́S CHINESE AFFAIR (1920 – 1944) Amleto Vespa, (L’Aquila 1884 - Shanghai 1941), spent most of his life in Siberia, Manchuria and China; first as a spy for the Japanese and as an arms dealer, later as a spy for the Chinese, and again as a spy for the Japanese, during Japan’s occupation of China; finally, in 1938, he was linked to the Americans. Some of the secret missions and duties he was assigned as a secret agent were eventually detailed in the book "Secret Agent of Japan", published in London in 1938, and in the U.S. one year later, where he heavily denounced the Japanese occupation of China. He died mysteriously and was likely killed by the Japanese in the Philippines, in 1941. Soon after, his wife and children surfaced in the United States where they disappeared from public view. The reenactment of his biography (Vespa wrote very little about himself) was based on documents sourced from the Historical Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Italian Republic and family letters sent to Italy. Amleto Vespa’s exploits were retraced in their historical contexts: the end of World War I in Siberia, the Italian recruits who built the Trans-Siberian Railway, the Russian Revolution, the fall of the Chinese Empire, the Warlord Era in China, the Japanese occupation of Manchuria, and the Shanghai spy war of the 1930s. The book ends with his mysterious demise and the wall of silence that surrounded his book after the end of World War II.

In Murder in Manchuria, Scott D. Seligman explores an unsolved murder set amid the chaos that reigned in China in the run-up to World War II. The story unfolds against the backdrop of a three-country struggle for control of Manchuria--an area some called China's "Wild East"--and an explosive mixture of nationalities, religions, and ideologies. Semyon Kaspé, a young Jewish musician, is kidnapped, tortured, and ultimately murdered by disaffected, antisemitic White Russians, secretly acting on the orders of Japanese military overlords who covet his father's wealth. When local authorities deliberately slow-walk the search for the kidnappers, a young French diplomat takes over and launches his own investigation. Part cold-case thriller and part social history, the true, tragic saga of Kaspé is told in the context of the larger, improbable story of the lives of the twenty thousand Jews who called Harbin home at the beginning of the twentieth century. Scott D. Seligman recounts the events that led to their arrival and their hasty exodus--and solves a crime that has puzzled historians for decades.

Beskrivelse af fascistiske bevægelser blandt russiske emigranter, som efter revolutionen i 1917 i deres eksil søgte at kompensere for deres magtesløshed ved at hengive sig til desperate fantasier.

The authors of this book focus on transcultural entanglements in Manchuria during the first half of the twentieth century. Manchuria, as Western historiography commonly designates the three northeastern provinces of China, was a politically, culturally and economically contested region. In the late nineteenth century, the region became the centre of competing Russian, Chinese and Japanese interests, thereby also attracting global attention. The coexistence of people with different nationalities, ethnicities and cultures in Manchuria was rarely if ever harmoniously balanced or static. On the contrary, interactions were both dynamic and complex. Semi-colonial experiences affected the people’s living conditions, status and power relations. The transcultural negotiations between all population groups across borders of all kinds are the subject of this book. The chapters of this volume shed light on various entangled histories in areas such as administration, the economy, ideas, ideologies, culture, media and daily life.

This book is a complete reworking and update of Marga Cottino-Jones' popular A Student's Guide to Italian Film (1983, 1993) . This guide retains earlier editions' interest in renowned films and directors but is also attentive to the popular films which achieved box office success among the public.

The first anthology of its kind, The Modern Murasaki brings the vibrancy and rich imagination of women's writing from the Meiji period to English-language readers. Along with traditional prose, the editors have chosen and carefully translated short stories, plays, poetry, speeches, essays, and personal journal entries. Selected readings include writings by the public speaker Kishida Toshiko, the dramatist Hasegawa Shigure, the short-fiction writer Shimizu Shikin, the political writer Tamura Toshiko, and the novelists Miyake Kaho, Higuchi Ichiyo, Tazawa Inabune, Kitada Usurai, Nogami Yaeko, and Mizuno Senko. The volume also includes a thorough introduction to each reading, an extensive index listing historical, social, and literary concepts, and a comprehensive guide to further research. The fierce tenor and bold content of these texts refute the popular belief that women of this era were passive and silent. A vital addition to courses in women's studies and Japanese literature and history, The Modern Murasaki is a singular resource for students and scholars.