| Abstract |
These interviews reflect the experiences of Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Commentary relates to tobacco interests and operations, the Chinese people, War Lords, Japanese invasion of China, and life in a Japanese prison. |
| General note | Interviewer: Donald R. Lennon. Interview date: July 28, 1982 and September 10, 1982. |
| Access restriction | No access restrictions. |
| Cite as |
Irwin S. Smith Oral History Interview (#OH0074), East Carolina Manuscript Collection, J. Y. Joyner Library, East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina, USA. |
| Terms of use | Repository does not own copyright to the oral history collection. Permission to cite, reproduce, or broadcast must be obtained from both the repository and the participants in the oral history, or their heirs. |
| Acquisitions source |
Joyner- Gift of Irwin S. Smith. |
| Biographical note | Irwin S. Smith and three other employees of British-American Tobacco Company left North Carolina for China in 1930, where he served as a tobacco buyer in the interior of China. He married Miss Hal Grimes in 1940 and she accompanied him back to China. With the outbreak of war with Japan in 1941, wives were evacuated but Mr. Smith was interned by the Japanese for some months before being exchanged in 1943. He returned to China in 1945 but was forced to flee when the Communist overran the country in 1949. |
