H. H. Chang / HHChang
CHIANG KAI SHEK - ASIA’S MAN OF DESTINY by H. H CHANG. THE GENESIS OF THE BOOK: WHEN i CAME with my family to this country some three months be fore Pearl Harbor was attacked, the war in China was already fifty months old. We disembarked at San Pedro. Before we landed a re porter asked some pertinent questions about the war with Japan. He wanted to know if the Burma Road was in danger. He also wanted to know how it was that a peace-loving country like China could fight alone against a strong military power like Japan for so long without adequate modern equipment. Above all, he wanted to know all that I could tell him about the remarkable man who had become the ac knowledged leader of his people. That was my first contact with American public opinion. I intended to make a short stay in Los Angeles and complete my arrangements for the family before proceeding to my own duties. The openness and climatic wonders of southern California were indeed marvelous. Though we knew no one there, it was not long before we had a circle of friends who were all kind and anxious to be of help. They were especially anxious, however, to know about conditions in my country. Theirs was a lively and healthy intellectual curiosity. But I soon realized that in spite of the many channels of information which were open to the American public, the understanding of China and things Chinese was both limited and quite often inaccurate. It was not America’s fault. It had been brought up on information that somehow did not seem to offer a satisfactory explanation for the phenomenon of a brave and sustained war of resistance. Interest in the Chinese personalities behind the war was naturally keen. What kind of man is your Chiang Kai-shek? What was his training? What is the background of his thoughts and beliefs? How does he rule his country? These and many others continued to be baffling questions.
