Japanese attempts at genocide in China

My novel ‘The Ishii Legacy’ takes the historical facts about Ishii’s demonic work in China and the ongoing tensions between the countries as the backdrop to a modern detective story.

In the west many of us are familiar with the Nazis’ genocidal ambitions. The word Holocaust is now almost exclusively linked to the Nazis near complete extermination of the Jews. Additionally Dr. Mengele has become famous for his horrific and bogus medical experiments on people.

What is less well known in the west is Japan’s efforts, during their occupation of China, to systematically clear the country of its people. They had their own vision of a Holocaust and their own version of Mengele, one Shirō Ishii, who oversaw a network of bio-weapon research and vivisection facilities throughout China and Southeast Asia. Like the Nazis the Japanese military high command sought to exterminate an entire race, the Chinese.

Today the Japanese government persists with its pretence that Ishii’s network was engaged in harmless medical research. This insistence, along with many other factors, continues to obstruct an improvement in Sino-Japanese relations. 

To put it simply, the Chinese and the Japanese don’t like each other very much.

Opinion polls conducted in both countries in October 2010 found that 90 percent of the Japanese and 81 percent of the Chinese surveyed considered their bilateral relations to be bad. 

This is an astoundingly high percentage and though a follow-up poll in 2011 presented a more positive result it is likely that that improvement is due to improved, and temporary, feelings of gratitude and sympathy around China’s offer of help after the calamitous Tsunami of Mar, 2011 struck Japan.

I hope that in reading my novel ‘The Ishii Legacy’ people will both be entertained by a good story and informed about a truly dreadful phase in China and Japan’s shared history.

The birth of an idea for a book

One night I was walking with a friend through Ersha Dao, an island community in Guangzhou China.

An idea for a story popped into my head and I posed it as a question to my Chinese friend Bill.

I said "The body of an American has been found on the promenade by the river. He was naked except for a pair of red briefs. How did he get there?"

Bill was shocked. He thought I had read about a real murder in a local newspaper. I rushed to explain that the idea had entered my mind from somewhere and I thought it might be a good start to a story. Even I wasn't sure at the time.

He told me that it was nothing to do with him and hailed a cab to take us to the BBR - the bar by the river - my favorite bar in the world. I'm Irish and well traveled so I know a thing or two about bars.

I'm sure many other writers have similar experiences. In my case, that spontaneous question begat many months of hard but enjoyable and ultimately rewarding work.

The result is my detective novel - Chingland - my answer to the question I posed.

Why write detective stories set in modern day China?

My priorities in a book are that it should entertain (paramount) but also inform (very important). There's something unfullfilling about reading a book, no matter how well written and enjoyable, and yet learning nothing.

I am excited and hopeful that my Inspector Lin series of novels, set in Guangzhou, China satisfies these priorities and will resonate with the reading public.

There is no tradition, a la the West, of the police or private detective novel in China, not even in Chinese language books. There is no Chinese Marlowe, Spade, Cole or Bosch. Yes, there is Charlie Chan but he operated in the States.

I became aware of this when I lived in China and, having written (and liked) my detective novel - Disbelief - set in DC, I wondered if I couldn't fill this obvious gap.

Why China?

The main reason is because China is a truly fascinating place.

Also, I know the country well, particularly the southern part. I spent three years working on a project in Guangzhou in the early '00s. I made good friends and traveled there for vacations and to see my friends many times in the mid '00s. I also spent a lot of time in Beijing and Chengdu. Then, when my private life fell apart, I moved to Guangzhou to try and heal myself. Writing helped me a lot.

I am often struck by how little many of my western friends know about China, the country likely to dominate our little planet for the next hundred years.

Ignorance begets misconceptions. I felt that by writing a series of detective novels set in China I could help to dispel those misconceptions, give people insights into what is a truly interesting culture while at the same time indulging myself by writing  in my preferred genre - crime.

I write the novels in my usual style. I do not put mangled English into my characters' mouths. Why? Well, most of my Chinese friends are, it must be said, well educated middle-class urbane types with excellent English. Also I find it irritating to write, or read, pidgin.

Each novel takes a particular aspect of Chinese society and weaves that into the story. I accept that, particularly with "Chingland" where I introduce my Inspector Lin character, this can slow the pace of the story down somewhat but I think this is Ok since I wish my readers to be both entertained by the story and come away with the real feeling that they have learned something about China and the Chinese that they didn't know previously.

The strange thing about China and the Chinese is that, in many many ways, they are not so strange at all.

Read my books and see if you agree.

Welcome

Welcome to my blog.

I read a quote a long time ago, I can't remember who from, which said "Everyone has a book inside them, and that's exactly where it should stay."

Perhaps that's wise advice but sitting here alone typing into the void that is the blog sphere hoping that my work will get noticed via my blog, Amazon, the Apple ibookstore, prayer or other well-tried marketing techniques, I disagree.

Well, I would, wouldn't I?

I'm sure that people write for all sorts of reasons - as a catharsis, as a way of killing time or avoiding boredom, because they seek riches (ha) or self-esteem, because they feel they have to.

Why do I write? Painful as it is to admit, it's for some of the above reasons and for a couple of other ones.

Personally, I love the independence of writing, of course if I was making money from it, then I would be more independent and would surely love it more.

I love the challenge of it. The creative challenge. Writing a book is hard work, writing a good short story is perhaps even harder. Writing a full length novel, for me at least, requires months of application, discipline and that word some Americans use - stickability.

I love the sense of accomplishment, though that would also be increased if I could get a few people to buy (very important), read (very important) and like (uber-important) my books.

As one of a legion of people self-publishing authors toiling away in some small room (mine's a spare bedroom in my parents' house (don't ask)), I intend to continue writing. Who knows, maybe I can attract a few people to read my work.

Now, that would be cool.