Doreen Gibbons obituary

My mother, Doreen Gibbons, who has died aged 96, was a civil internee in Shanghai, China, during the second world war. In 1942, soon after Japanese soldiers took over Shanghai, her father, Frank Cook, who worked for the city’s municipal council, was taken to Haiphong Road camp as a “political prisoner”. Doreen described furiously pedalling her bicycle through Shanghai behind the lorry, tears streaming down her face. Doreen, who was then 16, her younger sister Joan and their mother, Dorothy, were given a date to report to the Civil Internee…

Japan approves biggest military buildup since second world war amid China fears

Japan has approved its biggest military buildup since the second world war, warning that China poses the “greatest strategic challenge ever” and outlining plans to develop a counterstrike capability funded by record defence spending. The plans, announced by the government on Friday, reflect growing alarm over a more assertive Chinese military and a North Korean regime that continues to improve its nuclear and ballistic missile capabilities. But the changes have also triggered criticism that Japan is abandoning more than seven decades of pacifism under its postwar constitution. Japan aims to…