Seagrave war ein amerikanischer Schriftsteller, investigativer Journalist und Historiker, der sich insbesondere auf Themen des Fernen Ostens konzentrierte. Seine Arbeit taucht tief in die verborgenen politischen und wirtschaftlichen Kräfte ein, die die Region prägen. Seagrave untersucht die komplexen Beziehungen zwischen Ost und West mit einem scharfen Blick für historische Ereignisse und deren langfristige Auswirkungen. Leser können fesselnde Erzählungen erwarten, die sowohl die Vergangenheit als auch die Gegenwart beleuchten.
Morde, Intrigen, Perversionen bestimmten, so die öffentliche Meinung, die Regierungszeit der letzten Kaiserin Chinas. Der Asienexperte Sterling Seagrave zeichnet in dieser Biographie ein wesentlich differenzierteres Bild Tzu-Hsis. Er schildert eine Frau, die verzweifelt versuchte, sich gegen die westlichen Kolonisatoren zur Wehr zu setzen und den verderblichen Einfluß der Mandschufürsten einzudämmen.
Nachkommen eines chinesischen Ausreißers, der in Amerika unter dem Schutz der methodistischen Kirche aufwuchs und in seine Heimat zurückkehrte, um ein Vermögen mit dem Verkauf westlicher Bibeln zu machen, wurde die Familie Soong in der ersten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts zu den Hauptmachthabern Chinas und gewann über viele Jahrzehnte die Unterstützung der amerikanischen Regierung und Presse. Sterling Seagrave beschreibt erstmals den komplexen und faszinierenden Aufstieg von Charlie Soong und seinen Kindern: die Töchter Ai-ling, die einen der reichsten Männer Chinas, H.H. Kung, heiratete; Ching-ling, die Sun Yat-sen, den Führer der chinesischen republikanischen Revolution, heiratete; May-ling, die Chiang Kai-shek, den autokratischen Herrscher des nationalistischen China, heiratete, dessen Verbindungen zur Unterwelt von Shanghai der Autor dokumentiert hat; und Sohn T.V. Soong, der zu verschiedenen Zeiten als Chiangs Wirtschaftsminister, Außenminister und Premierminister diente. Wie alle Soongs, mit Ausnahme von Ching-ling, enormes Vermögen anhäuften, während Millionen von Chinesen in dem langen Kampf gegen Japan und dem ebenso bitteren Kampf gegen Mao starben, sind nur einige der Enthüllungen in diesem explosiven Buch.
Be so subtle that you are invisible. Be so mysterious that you are intangible. Then you will control your rivals' fate. A community of fifty-five million expatriates. Up to two trillion dollars in assets. A highly integrated interconnected network of influence and favor. A firm base on the Pacific Rim. Ambitions to influence the West. Imagine the potential power of such an organization. You don't have to. This is the Overseas Chinese. Sterling Seagrave's brilliant book, Lords of the Rim, uncovers a complex web of operations that already dominates the Far East and is making inroads into the West. It is a superbly researched and spectacularly told account of an extraordinary phenomenon, detailing who the Overseas Chinese are and how they became so powerful. Spanning thousands of years, it encompasses stories of murder and betrayal, bravery and corruption; of triads, syndicates, kingmakers, merchants, emperors, generals, spies, and pirates. In telling this masterful and entertaining history, Seagrave provides the reader with a cautionary tale: that Chinese strategies so effective for centuries are just as successful today.
In 1945, US intelligence officers in Manila discovered that the Japanese had hidden large quantities of gold bullion and other looted treasure in the Philippines. President Truman decided to recover the gold but to keep its riches secret. These, combined with Japanese treasure recovered during the US occupation, and with recovered Nazi loot, would create a worldwide American political action fund to fight communism. This ‘Black Gold’ gave Washington virtually limitless, unaccountable funds, providing an asset base to reinforce the treasuries of America’s allies, to bribe political and military leaders, and to manipulate elections in foreign countries for more than fifty years.
True Stories of Castaways and Other Survivors
Here are the most remarkable stories imaginable of maroons, castaways, and other survivors from the 1500s to the present - their moral dilemmas, their personalities, and their influence on society, literature, and art.
The story of pilots who have earned their living flying in other people's wars.
Most Westerners know little about Japan's current imperial family, and the same is true for many Japanese. Japan's modern history has been largely omitted from postwar textbooks, leaving a generation unaware of significant events like the Rape of Nanking, Pearl Harbor, and the atrocities of World War II. The prevailing narrative focuses on Hiroshima and Nagasaki as symbols of Japan's innocence. Sterling and Peggy Seagrave challenge these misconceptions, revealing the corruption at the core of Japan's postwar economic success. They argue that the royal family, often seen as a relic of the past, played a crucial role in wartime atrocities. Prince Chichibu orchestrated Golden Lily, the systematic looting of occupied territories, while Prince Yasuhiko was involved in the Rape of Nanking. Emperor Hirohito was deeply engaged during the war, capable of preventing Pearl Harbor. The imperial family profited alongside the zaibatsu, the corporate elite, while the nation suffered. This lack of historical acknowledgment stems not only from Japanese revisionism but also from the West's failure to prosecute some members of the imperial family as war criminals despite having the evidence. The Seagraves' work offers a challenging perspective that forces readers to confront uncomfortable truths.
Descendants of a Chinese runaway who grew up in America under the protection of the Methodist church and who returned to his homeland to make a fortune selling Western bibles, the Soong family became the principal rulers of China during the first half of the 20th century and won the support of the American government and press for many decades. Sterling Seagrave describes for the first time the intricate and fascinating rise to power of Charlie Soong and his children: daughters Ai-ling, who married one of China's richest men, H.H. Kung; Ching-ling, who married Sun Yat-sen, leader of China's republican revolution; May-ling, who married Chiang Kai-shek, the autocratic ruler of Nationalist China whose ties to the Shanghai underworld the author has documented; and son T.V. Soong, who at various times served as Chiang's economic minister, foreign minister and premier. How all of the Soongs except Ching-ling amassed enormous wealth while millions of Chinese starved or were killed in the long fight against Japan and the equally bitter struggle with Mao are just some of the revelations in this explosive book.
