Date of Award
8-1995
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Department
History
First Advisor
Dr. W. Harrison Daniel
Second Advisor
Dr. R. Barry Westin
Third Advisor
Dr. Ernest C. Bolt, Jr.
Abstract
Southern Baptist men and women had lived and worked in China as missionaries for a century when Japan began its occupation of the country. They built churches and established schools and medical facilities while spreading Christianity. When the Japanese army, in 1937, escalated the war in China the missionaries found themselves working in two arenas. Many were involved in refugee relief activities in Free China, while others willingly maintained their positions in occupied territory. After the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and the United States entered World War II Southern Baptists in Occupied China became prisoners of the Japanese. They were assembled with other captured foreigners in detention camps where they lived until they were exchanged for Japanese prisoners from the United States. This research of primarily missionary manuscripts, Southern Baptist, and United States government sources, analyzes the political and economic situation of the Southern Baptist missions in China during the Sino-Japanese War and the diplomatic prisoner exchange on the Gripsholm which brought the missionary repatriates home.
Recommended Citation
Burnham, Sharon J., "Southern Baptist missionaries and the Sino-Japanese War, 1931-1945" (1995). Master's Theses. 595.
https://scholarship.richmond.edu/masters-theses/595