On Aug. 25, 1945, just 10 days after Victory over Japan Day, U.S. Army Capt. John Birch, a devout Baptist and Mandarin speaker, was murdered in northern China by Chinese communist soldiers—the United States’ erstwhile “allies” in its fight against the Japanese.
“Birch was shot in the thigh, carried to a cinder pile near the train station, and bayoneted to death,” Richard Bernstein wrote in his book “China 1945.” “The body was found wrapped in a straw mat, the hands and feet were bound. There was a large wound in the left thigh, a large hole in the right shoulder, and the whole face had been mutilated beyond recognition.”
