The 1937-1945 war between China and Japan was one of the most bitter conflicts of the twentieth century. It was a struggle between the two dominant peoples of Asia. Millions of soldiers fought on each side and millions of soldiers and civilians died. Philip Jowett's book is one of the first photographic histories of this devastating confrontation.

Using a selection of almost 200 historic photographs, he traces the course of the entire war – from the Japanese invasion and the retreat of the Chinese armies and their refusal to surrender, to the involvement of the Americans and the eventual Japanese defeat in 1945.

His graphic account is an absorbing introduction this often-neglected theater of the Second World War. The images show the armies on all sides and the weaponry and equipment they used. But they also record the experience of the troops, Chinese and Japanese, and of the Chinese civilians who suffered terribly through eight years of war.