F.Tillman Durdin
Encyclopedia
F. Tillman Durdin was a longtime foreign correspondent for the New York Times. During his career, Durdin reported on the Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945), the collapse of European colonial rule in Indo-China and the emergence of the People's Republic of China
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...

. He was the first American journalist granted a visa to reenter China in 1971.

Biography

Durdin was born in Elkhart, Texas. He attended Texas Christian University
Texas Christian University
Texas Christian University is a private, coeducational university located in Fort Worth, Texas, United States and founded in 1873. TCU is affiliated with, but not governed by, the Disciples of Christ...

. After graduation, he was a reporter for newspapers in Texas and California and then worked as a reporter and editor of English-language newspapers in China from 1930 to 1937.

Durdin joined the staff of the New York Times in 1937 and served as a foreign correspondent in Asia, Africa and Europe until 1961, covering the Chinese Civil War, combat during World War II in the Pacific
Pacific War
The Pacific War, also sometimes called the Asia-Pacific War refers broadly to the parts of World War II that took place in the Pacific Ocean, its islands, and in East Asia, then called the Far East...

, post-war China, and the French-Indochina War. He then spent three years as a member of The Timess editorial board. From 1964 to 1967, Durdin was a correspondent in Australia and the southwestern Pacific area, wrote about the unrest in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), then became the paper's Hong Kong bureau chief, based there until his retirement in 1974.

Reports about the Nanking Massacre

Durdin was in Nanking in 1937 when it fell to the Imperial Japanese Army
Imperial Japanese Army
-Foundation:During the Meiji Restoration, the military forces loyal to the Emperor were samurai drawn primarily from the loyalist feudal domains of Satsuma and Chōshū...

. He left Nanking on the USS Oahu
USS Oahu (PR-6)
The first USS Oahu , a Yangtze River gunboat, was laid down by Kiangnan Dock and Engineering Works, Shanghai, China, 18 December 1926; launched as PG–46 on 26 November 1927; sponsored by Mrs. Bryson Bruce, wife of Comdr. Bruce; and commissioned 22 October 1928, Lt. Comdr. A. C...

 on December 15, 1937. Durdin's report was one of the first printed accounts of the Nanking Incident. Although Durdin is often credited as being the first to inform the non-Japanese world about events in occupied Nanking, it was actually Steele who broke the news, bribing a crew member of the Oahu to send his story in. In what David Askew characterizes as "one of the best journalistic accounts of the fall of Nanking", Durdin reported all the major issues of the Nanking Incident: the murder of civilians, the execution of Chinese soldiers, conscription, looting, and rape.

Reports about the February 28th Massacre

Together with his wife Peggy, Durdin was one of the few Western reporters to write about the February 28th Massacre
228 Incident
The 228 Incident, also known as the 228 Massacre, was an anti-government uprising in Taiwan that began on February 27, 1947, and was violently suppressed by the Kuomintang government. Estimates of the number of deaths vary from 10,000 to 30,000 or more...

 in Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...

 in 1947. Tillman Durdin's account in the New York Times, and Peggy Durdin's articles in The Nation
The Nation
The Nation is the oldest continuously published weekly magazine in the United States. The periodical, devoted to politics and culture, is self-described as "the flagship of the left." Founded on July 6, 1865, It is published by The Nation Company, L.P., at 33 Irving Place, New York City.The Nation...

provided a gripping account of the events of what came to be known as the "February 28th Incident", the start of 40 years of martial law in Taiwan.

External links

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