Recent Acquisitions

Earliest Diaries of Chiang Kai-shek Open for Research on March 31, 2006

The Hoover Institution has been helping to preserve the handwritten diaries of Chiang Kai-shek and his son Chiang Ching-kuo since Chiang family members deposited them at Hoover last year. Those diaries of the first and third constitutional presidents of the Republic of China are on deposit pending the creation of a suitable repository, perhaps a presidential library system, on the territory of China. While the diaries are on loan to Hoover, they are being microfilmed and screened by family members so that they can be made available for research. In the first release phase, the diaries of Chiang Kai-shek from 1917 to 1931 will be opened on March 31, 2006. The remainder of the diaries will be opened sequentially during the next few years.

In the period covered by these diaries, Chiang Kai-shek rose to the leadership of the Kuomintang (Nationalist Party). After training in the Japanese army from 1909 to 1911, Chiang participated in the revolutionary struggles that established the Chinese Republic and began his association with Sun Yat-sen in the Kuomintang. Chiang founded the Whampoa Military Academy, where the Kuomintang army was trained, in 1924. After Sun's death in 1925, Chiang rose to power by leading the Kuomintang army to defeat the northern warlords and unify China. Chiang split with the leftists of his party in 1927 and spent the rest of his life struggling against the Communists.

Having survived civil war, foreign invasion, numerous moves, and an ocean crossing, Chiang's diaries are too fragile for handling. To ensure their preservation, and conform to the wishes of family members, use copies of the handwritten pages will be available at the Hoover Archives. The copies reflect the poor condition of the originals, with some pages water damaged, stuck together, or entirely missing. In addition, some sentences were crossed out in ink on the originals.

Given the uninhibited nature of many personal comments in the diaries, family members have chosen to keep some passages private and have redacted these from the use copies. Although in most cases the individuals named are deceased, family members wish to protect the feelings of living descendants or other relatives. Recognizing the historical significance of the diaries in their entirety, however, family members have authorized that the redacted passages be released in 2035.

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• Inventory of the Chiang Kai-shek Diaries