Gilman, LaSelle "Cargo to Wanping."

Set during the Japanese late 1930s invasion of China. Two young Americans (a male tea company agent and a female mission worker) are trapped in a small Chinese harbor between the Chinese and Japanese lines when they stumble upon “a dirty little coaster,” the steamship HSIN FANG, still in port. Collier’s “[Coming] Next Week” blurb of Feb. 18, 1939 neatly sums up what happens next: “The trouble aboard the HSIN FANG was simply this: the ship was loaded with munitions; it had been seized by the Japs; and the Chinese below decks decided to blow the whole thing up.” Suffice to say, Gilman’s hero and heroine survive the cataclysm (and, this being magazine fiction, fall in love). What’s surprising at this late date is Gilman’s somewhat neutral depiction of Japanese military forces.