After China
中国后期
"Helen was not only an outstanding writer and journalist, but also a prophet. Having observed the expansion of Japanese aggression in China and Asian countries and analyzed the entire war situation, she predicted that Japan would declare war against the U.S. sooner or later. She suggested that American citizens in Asia, women and children in particular, should evacuate from the East as soon as possible. But nearly nobody believed her. Therefore she took a lead to leave for the States in December 1940 after her 10-year stay in China. Then a year later Japan made a surprise attack against the U.S. in Pearl Harbor."
-An Wei "Personal Communication about Helen Foster Snow"
-An Wei "Personal Communication about Helen Foster Snow"
"In the U.S. we (the general "man on the street") tend to think of the Japanese War beginning with the bombing of Pearl Harbor Dec 7th, 1941. However for the people of China, Japanese encroachment and take-over began September 1931. While in Europe, Mussolini had recently taken over Italy and Hitler was rapidly expanding his Nazi power and influence. The problem was Fascism. The Snows' saw Japan as working in concert with the Fascism of Europe."
-Sheril Foster Bischoff "Personal Communication about Helen Foster Snow"
-Sheril Foster Bischoff "Personal Communication about Helen Foster Snow"
Helen found opposition when she arrived home. The Communist Party had become the enemy of the United States. Senator Joseph McCarthy started his witch hunt for suspected communists and Helen was "guilty by association." She was "untouchable" and labeled a communist sympathizer so she could not find a job and was rejected by mainstream media. She had to disassociate herself from Chinese friends and was unable to publish her books. When she and Edgar divorced, he was forced to flee to Switzerland and Helen lived an isolated life in Connecticut.
"After 1949, her positive contribution to US-CCP encounter/exchange was recast in a negative light and people like Helen were considered 'fellow travelers' with the communists, now a bitter U.S. enemy (especially with the beginning of the Korean war)."
-Dr Eric Hyer interview |
Credit- The Salt Lake Tribune
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When Nixon made his ice-breaking visit to China in 1972, Helen's work began to find favor and she re-established relationships with former friends in China. Helen was the last living non-Chinese journalist to interview Mao Zedong. Her encounters with him and many other Communist leaders are some of the few means by which the Chinese and American people came to know about their leaders.