Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Marcia R. Ristaino . The Jacquinot Safe Zone: Wartime Refugees in Shanghai . Stanford, Calif. : Stanford University Press . 2008 . Pp. xiii, 206. $27.95.

2010; Oxford University Press; Volume: 115; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1086/ahr.115.2.518

1937-5239

Poshek Fu,

Vietnamese History and Culture Studies

This is a compact, well-researched biography of the French Jesuit Father Robert Charles Emile Jacquinot de Besange, whose relief work with refugees in Shanghai saved about half a million lives during World War II (or, as the Chinese call it, the Chinese War of Resistance against Japan) in 1937–1945. In contrast to the widespread attention given to “China's Schindler,” the German Nazi John Rabe, for his efforts to save many Chinese during the Nanjing Massacre, or the Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, who rescued over 70,000 Hungarian Jews during the Holocaust, Father Jacquinot's “humanitarian service” has been little known to China specialists or the reading public. Marcia R. Ristaino aims to redress that imbalance with this valuable study of Jacquinot's life and accomplishments. Born on March 15, 1878, to an aristocratic family in Saintes, Jacquinot received a vigorous, well-rounded priestly training before he was sent by the Society of Jesus in 1913 to serve in Shanghai. In the early twentieth century, China was in a state of constant social disorder and political violence. Athletic, intelligent, and full of confidence, the young missionary quickly distinguished himself as “a man of action” widely admired among Shanghai elites for his superb organizational skill and fearless commitment to “alleviating crises” (p. 31). When Japan invaded Shanghai in August 1937, Father Jacquinot was vicar of the new parish of St. Pierre and a professor of English at Aurora University in the French Concession. He was also senior chaplain to the Shanghai Volunteer Corps and involved in the Famine Relief Committee and the International Committee for the Social Welfare of Shanghai. These positions enabled him to play a key role in providing safety for victims of the war.