What happens
A young Cantonese man returns home to Canton, China, as Japanese forces close in during 1938. His grandfather has taught him about the city's long history as a meeting point of rivers, trade and foreign ideas. Once back, he finds himself working as a doctor in a makeshift hospital in a basement while bombers strike the city. The city is evacuated and then taken by the Japanese, and the narrator's experiences under occupation unfold. The episode is part of The Pacific Story, an anthology series broadcast by the National Broadcasting Company, and this installment was aired on October 20, 1946, during United Nations Week.
Canton (Guangzhou), China, from 1938 through the Japanese occupation and the end of the Second World War
Characters: Ming Shidao, Grandfather, Wong Lee, Chen, Captain (Japanese officer)
Listen for: The narrator's account of Canton's history as a river and trade center, and his recollections of the bombing and of the Japanese occupation
Written from the episode itself; it never gives away the ending. Every recording is remastered for the stream: cleaned of rumble, hiss and mains hum (and the old TV whine where we found it), then levelled in two passes to steady broadcast loudness, so one show is never quieter than the next.