WWII Sino-Japanese Judd Photo & Manuscript Archive

WWII Sino-Japanese Judd Photo & Manuscript Archive
Group of ephemera and archive of photographs and letters relating to conflict between China and Japan during WWII, ca. late 1930s. Housed in a navy blue album, the collection contains approximately 110 total items. This includes twenty-one front-and-back pages of penned or typed original letters and manuscripts written by government officials and medical personnel in addition to roughly 90 gelatin silver print documentary photographs. All photos are with typed or written annotation and depict scenes of war during the Second Sino-Japanese War. Major battles that are potentially depicted include the Marco Polo Bridge Incident and the Nanjing Massacre.

Approximately half of the photos are of schools and hospitals, but also shell-ravaged structures, bombed buildings, and shrapnel. These prints are pencil and pen annotated by hand with numbers and descriptions along the backs of the photographs, likely captured and captioned by Walter H. Judd and possibly intended for publication in a periodical or newspaper such as Reader's Digest. There is also one small envelope without contents bearing the United States House of Representatives, Washington D.C. letterhead.

All twenty-one pages of the correspondence are war dated. Twelve sheets are handwritten and nine are typewritten by Americans who were stationed in central and northern China. Roughly half of these pages are authored by Walter H. Judd (American, 1898-1994) and relate to his service, experience, and opinion of political tensions in the region.

Walter Henry Judd was an American politician and physician who practiced at the renowned Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. Following his time as a doctor during the conflict in China, he became a representative in the United States House of Representatives. Once there, he established his outspoken reputation by lobbying for a conservative position on China, advocating for all-out support of the Nationalists under Chiang Kai-shek and opposition to the Communists under Mao Zedong.

One excerpt from a typewritten from a letter by Judd, dated October 21st, 1937, reads: "This morning I went in the car to Hsiao [...] First time I had been out of town since my return (from Hankow). The fall weather is so gorgeous, trees just beginning to turn, the countryside so peaceful and tranquil. It seems hard to think of men bent on covering it with blood, killing and laying waste for things they speak of as 'honor', 'power', 'prestige', etc. Sheer insanity --- but the kind that MUST BE SHACKLED or there is no peace anywhere in the world. I hope and pray America will awaken to see that. But at the same time she must be kept from thinking that shackling such insanity means going to war with it."
(Album) height: 11 1/2 in x width: 14 1/2 in x depth: 1 3/4 in.
Condition: The letters are toned. The emulsion of the photographs appears smooth and unbroken. Some wear throughout including handling marks, creases, and minute chips, particularly along the letters. Some wear to the album.