ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the history of the Sino-Japanese War (SJW) and examines their literary and visual representations in juvenile trade publications. It concerns the combat history and wartime atrocities, a subject which has periodically fueled international conflict in East Asia. The chapter describes the political and class identity of people in association with the roles they play in the war. The irony of sexual explicitness in the SJW stories is amplified by the fact that current Chinese youth literature on sex education is poor in quantity and conservative in nature. In the fictional world, the nine combat stories which begin during or immediately after the Campaign mostly end with battles won by the Chinese. Among military combat stories, victorious battles fought by the Communist forces receive the most attention. The politicization of war history in lian huan hua (LHH) and youth literature resulted in changing favored subject matter and sanctioned themes.
