Harrison Forman Diary, China, December 1942 - March 1943

Harrison Forman, photographer and journalist, travelled throughout Henan province to witness first-hand the famine of 1942–1943 and gives his account in this diary. Forman begins the diary describing an event attended by Zhang Boling (1876-1951), founder of Nankai University and the Nankai school system; Lin Sen (1868-1943), President of the National Government of the Republic of China; and Chiang Kai-shek (1887-1975), who was at that time Chairman of the National Military Council. He then begins his account of the famine by interviewing a group of missionaries and government officials in the most famine-stricken areas such as Zhengzhou, Luoyang, and Xuchang. Missionaries James A. Hunter, Emery W. Carlson, E. P. Ashcroft, David Graham, Elliot C. Aandahl and others share their stories with Forman. Forman asks them to give their perceptions of the cause of the famine, with most commenting on the combination of inadequate crop yields due to poor irrigation and the impact of war during the Japanese occupation of China. They talk about the burden on farmers to pay the government "tax;" a portion of their crop yield to the Chinese Revolutionary Army. The missionaries talk about how many people they can feed for how long, how many people die each day, and where and how they get their food supplies. Forman talks with General Tang Enbo (1899-1954), Vice Commander, 1st War Area, of the Chinese National Revolutionary Army and they discuss the efforts the Chinese government has made for famine relief thus far. Forman observes the hundreds of refugees packing into trains to flee to other areas with food and those left behind with little chance of survival. He tells stories of people stripping bark from trees to eat and gruesome tales of people resorting to cannibalism. Some of the officials and missionaries Forman interviews give their ideas on how to alleviate the famine.The diaries are part of the Harrison Forman Papers 1931-1974 housed at the Special Collections & University Archives, University of Oregon Libraries. UWM Libraries received the dairies on a loan from the Special Collections & University Archives at the University of Oregon Libraries and digitized them to accompany the digital collection of Forman's photographs. The diaries were digitized to provide research materials for the Forman's negatives scanned as part of the NEH grant project "Saving and Sharing the AGS Library's Historic Nitrate Negative Images.