WORLD WAR I IN CHINA - MIFUNE, Shuko (photo.).

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Nichidoku sen'eki kinen shashin-cho ("Celebratory Photograph Album of the German-Japanese War"). Second edition, first printing, of this album of photographs of Qingdao in the First World War. It contains many shots from the only major land battle of the war to take place in China, including of heavy weaponry, soldiers on the march, encampments, and local infrastructure.As part of the succession of unequal treaties imposed upon the Qing Dynasty in the late 19th century, the German Empire leased Jiaozhou Bay in 1898 and used it to build the city of Qingdao. This became its primary naval base in the region, and therefore a major target in the First World War. Under the terms of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance of 1902, Britain requested help from the Japanese Empire to dislodge the German forces. The Imperial Japanese Navy proceeded to blockade the port and land their troops, putting it under siege in September 1914. The garrison held out for two months, but was overwhelmed. This was the only major land battle in the Asian theatre of the First World War, the second air-sea battle in world history, and the second time that the Japanese had defeated a major Western power.This volume is a collection of photographs taken during the preparation, fighting, and aftermath of this battle. The photographer was Mifune Shuko, who "accompanied the soldiers through thick and thin, running through a rain of bullets, facing rain and wind, hunger and frost, putting his body on the line to photograph

• Printing: first

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