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Southern Baptist Missionaries And The Sino-Japanese War, 1931-1945, Sharon J. Burnham

Master's Theses

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 …