The International Medical Relief Corps in Wartime China, 1937-1945

Both before and during World War II, the Nazis curtailed the rights of Jewish and communist doctors living in countries they controlled. Some of these doctors fought back first by fighting against Fascism in the Spanish civil war and then traveling to China to help the Chinese in their struggle again Japan. However, conditions were not easy because of two rival factions in China—one favoring Chiang Kai Shek (the nationalists) and the other the communists. The twenty-seven foreign physicians and medical personnel—including several women—were caught between these two groups; as well as the poverty of the country, and the graft occurring. The rigors of war and bureaucracy created almost impossible odds involving hazardous traveling, keeping sanitary conditions, and surviving in these conditions. The International Medical Relief Corps in Wartime China reveals how many of these doctors began as physicians without national borders, yet quickly became men and women without countries and ultimately enemy aliens of all of the combatants in World War II. Still, they intrepidly pursued their work against amazing odds providing models of heroism and valor that cements relationships among these countries today.