Sterling Seagrave (April 15, 1937 – May 1, 2017) was an American

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the st ...

. He was the author of numerous books which address unofficial and clandestine aspects of the 20th-century political history of countries in the

Far East The ''Far East'' was a European term to refer to the geographical regions that includes East and Southeast Asia as well as the Russian Far East to a lesser extent. South Asia is sometimes also included for economic and cultural reasons. The t ...

Personal life

Born in Columbus, Ohio on April 15, 1937, Seagrave grew up on the

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

border, the fifth generation of an American family living in the Orient for nearly two centuries (his father was Dr.

Gordon Seagrave Gordon Stifler Seagrave (18 March 1897 – 28 March 1965) was a Burmese-born American missionary, physician and author. Life and career Born in Rangoon, he was the son of American Baptist missionaries Rev. Albert Ernest Seagrave and Alice Vint ...

, author of ''Burma Surgeon''). He and his family moved to Corpus Christi, Texas and he attended W. B. Ray Highschool from 1953 to 1955. Seagrave's collaborator and wife of 35 years was Peggy Sawyer Seagrave, who died about a year before her husband.Staff writer (Jul. 31, 2017)
"Sterling Seagrave, 1937–2017: Investigative journalist Sterling Seagrave has died at the age of 80."
''

Verso ' is the "right" or "front" side and ''verso'' is the "left" or "back" side when text is written or printed on a leaf of paper () in a bound item such as a codex, book, broadsheet, or pamphlet. Etymology The terms are shortened from Latin ...

''. Archived fro
the original.
/ref> Seagrave died on May 1, 2017 in France, where he had been living for more than 30 years with his wife. Seagrave's death was not announced publicly until July 31, 2017.

Publications

Seagrave worked as an investigative journalist in

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an are ...

, and he contributed to several major newspapers and magazines. His books include: * ''Yellow Rain: A Journey Through the Terror of Chemical Warfare''. New York: M. Evans (1981). . * ''The Soong Dynasty''. London:

Sidgwick & Jackson Sidgwick & Jackson is an imprint of book publishing company Pan Macmillan. Formerly it was an independent publisher; as such it was founded in Britain in 1908. Its notable early authors include poet Rupert Brooke and novelist E.M. Forster. In mo ...

(1985). . * ''The Marcos Dynasty''. New York:

Harper & Row Harper is an American publishing house, the flagship imprint of global publisher HarperCollins based in New York City. History J. & J. Harper (1817–1833) James Harper and his brother John, printers by training, started their book publishin ...

(1988). . * ''Dragon Lady: The Life and Legend of the Last Empress of China''. New York:

Vintage Books Vintage Books is a trade paperback publishing imprint of Penguin Random House originally established by Alfred A. Knopf in 1954. The company was purchased by Random House in April 1960, and a British division was set up in 1990. After Random Ho ...

(1992). . *'' Lords of the Rim''. New York: Putnam (1995). . * ''The Yamato Dynasty: The Secret History of Japan's Imperial Family''. New York:

Broadway Books Broadway Books, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a Division of Random House, Inc., released its first list in Fall, 1996. Broadway was founded in 1995 as a unit of Bantam Doubleday Dell a unit of Bertelsmann. Bertelsmann acquired Rando ...

(1999). . * ''Gold Warriors: America's Secret Recovery of Yamashita's Gold'', with Peggy Seagrave. New York:

(2003). . *''Red Sky in the Morning: The Secret History of Two Men Who Got Away - and One Who Didn't'', with Peggy Seagrave. Charleston, SC: BookSurge (2008). .

Critiques

Donald G. Gillin, a

Sinologist Sinology, or Chinese studies, is an academic discipline that focuses on the study of China primarily through Chinese philosophy, language, literature, culture and history and often refers to Western scholarship. Its origin "may be traced to the ex ...

affiliated with

Hoover Institution The Hoover Institution (officially The Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace; abbreviated as Hoover) is an American public policy think tank and research institution that promotes personal and economic liberty, free enterprise, a ...

, wrote a book ''Falsifying China's History: The Case of Sterling Seagrave's The Soong Dynasty'', in which he criticised Seagrave's book ''The Soong Dynasty'' as being biased against

Chiang Kai-shek Chiang Kai-shek (31 October 1887 – 5 April 1975), also known as Chiang Chung-cheng and Jiang Jieshi, was a Chinese Nationalist politician, revolutionary, and military leader who served as the leader of the Republic of China (ROC) from 1928 ...

.Gillin, Donald G. (1986)
''Falsifying China's History: The Case of Sterling Seagrave's The Soong Dynasty''.
Stanford, Calif.: Hoover Institution Press
p. 4.
. ''Dragon Lady'' challenges the notion that the

Empress Dowager Cixi Empress Dowager Cixi ( ; mnc, Tsysi taiheo; formerly romanised as Empress Dowager T'zu-hsi; 29 November 1835 – 15 November 1908), of the Manchu Yehe Nara clan, was a Chinese noblewoman, concubine and later regent who effectively controlled ...

used the Boxers in the

Boxer Rebellion The Boxer Rebellion, also known as the Boxer Uprising, the Boxer Insurrection, or the Yihetuan Movement, was an Xenophobia, anti-foreign, anti-colonialism, anti-colonial, and Persecution of Christians#China, anti-Christian uprising in China ...

Kang Youwei Kang Youwei (; Cantonese: ''Hōng Yáuh-wàih''; 19March 185831March 1927) was a prominent political thinker and reformer in China of the late Qing dynasty. His increasing closeness to and influence over the young Guangxu Emperor spar ...

is said to be the source of false stories which stained her reputation. In the book, Cixi is portrayed sympathetically. In its review of ''Gold Warriors: America's Secret Recovery of Yamashita's Gold'', which dealt with allegations that post

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

the

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...

had misappropriated billions of dollars of Japanese war loot (the titular Yamashita's Gold),

BBC History Magazine ''BBC History Magazine'' is a British publication devoted to both British and world history and aimed at all levels of knowledge and interest. The publication releases thirteen editions a year, one per month and a Christmas special edition, an ...

noted that whilst "numerous gaps remain.... this is an important story, with far-reaching implications, that deserves to receive further attention".Attar, Ron (Jan. 2006). Review of ''Gold Warriors: America's Secret Recovery of Yamashita's Gold'', by Sterling Seagrave and Peggy Seagrave. ''

'', vol. 7, no. 1. p. 62. Bristol Magazines Ltd.

References

External links

Official website
American historians Writers from Columbus, Ohio 2017 deaths 1937 births {{US-historian-stub