What happens
Nanking, China, is the setting of this episode of The Pacific Story, first broadcast on December 17, 1944. Dr. Townsend, a missionary who has loved the city for years, watches its history unfold, from the porcelain pagoda built under Emperor Yong-Lo through the Taiping rebels, the Nationalist government and the modern road building of the 1930s. As Japanese forces approach in 1937, the city's foreign residents and Chinese neighbors face bombing raids, a flight across the Yangtze, and the growing threat of the advancing army. The narrator and Dr. Townsend's companions face uncertainty about what the coming days will bring for the city and its people.
Nanking (Nanjing), China, from the 1800s through the Japanese occupation in 1937-1938
Characters: Dr. Townsend, Wang, Zhao, Joe
Listen for: The narrator's account of Nanking's history, the bombing raids of 1937 and the wartime fate of the city's residents
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.