Podcast with Hans van de Ven, “Blood Dawn”
In March 1942, Japanese troops landed on Java’s north coast and were welcomed by many of the Indonesians they had come to conquer. It’s an indication of just how much the Second World War undermined the foundations of European empire, setting up a postwar order that still governs Asia today.
Hans van de Ven’s new book Blood Dawn: World War II and the Making of Modern Asia (Basic Books, June 2026) starts in the 19th century, as European empires spread across Asia—only for Japan’s invasion of China in 1937, followed by its rapid advance south in 1941, to undermine the rationale for Western influence and control in China, Indonesia and India—and then, even after Japan’s defeat, the West was forced to retreat from the region.
Blood Dawn was reviewed for the ARB by Francis P Sempa in September 2026. Read the full review here.
Hans van de Ven is a professor of modern Chinese history at Cambridge University and a visiting chair professor in history at Peking University. He is the author or editor of ten previous books on Chinese history and the history of warfare.
