F. Tillman Durdin
Frank Tillman Durdin (March 30, 1907 – July 7, 1998) was a longtime foreign correspondent for
Biography
Durdin was born in Elkhart, Texas. He attended Texas Christian University. After graduation, he was a reporter for newspapers in Texas and California, as well as an editor and reporter of English newspapers in China from 1930 to 1937.[2]
Durdin joined The New York Times in 1937 as a foreign correspondent in Asia, Africa and Europe. He served in that position until 1961, covering the Chinese Civil War, combat during
Reports about the Nanjing massacre
Durdin was in Nanjing in 1937 when it fell to the Imperial Japanese Army. He left Nanjing on the USS Oahu on December 15, 1937. Durdin's report was one of the first printed accounts of the Nanjing Massacre. Although Durdin is often credited as being the first to inform the non-Japanese world about events in occupied Nanjing, it was actually Archibald Steele of the Chicago Daily News who broke the news, bribing a crew member of the Oahu to send his story in. In what David Askew characterizes as "one of the best journalistic accounts of the fall of Nanking", Durdin reported all the major issues of the Nanjing incident: the murder of civilians, the execution of Chinese soldiers, conscription, looting, torture, and rape.[4]
Reports about the February 28 massacre
Together with his wife Peggy, Durdin was one of the few Western reporters to write about the February 28 massacre in Taiwan in 1947. Tillman Durdin's account in The New York Times and Peggy Durdin's articles in The Nation provided a gripping account of the events of what came to be known as the "February 28 incident", the start of 40 years of martial law in Taiwan.[5]
Books
- Durdin, Tillman (1971). The New York Times Report from Red China. Quadrangle Books. ISBN 0-8129-0342-0.
- Durdin, Tillman (1953). China and the world. Foreign Policy Association.
- Durdin, Tillman (1965). Southeast Asia. Atheneum.
References
- ^ "Online Archive of California - Frank Tillman Durdin Papers". Retrieved April 15, 2009.
- ^ a b Pace, Eric (July 9, 1998). "Tillman Durdin, 91, Reporter In China During World War II". The New York Times. Retrieved April 15, 2009.
- ^ "World: Life On Guadalcanal". Time. September 28, 1942.
- ^ Askew, David. "The International Committee for the Nanking Safety Zone: An Introduction" (PDF).
- ^ "In Memoriam: F. Tillman Durdin".
External links
- The Register of Frank Tillman Durdin Papers 1937–1974 housed in the Mandeville Special Collections Library, Geisel Library, University of California, San Diego
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