Zhang Xueliang inherited his murdered father's Manchurian army in 1928 and spent more than 50 years in detention

On 4 June 1928 a bomb planted by Col. Komoto Daisaku of Japan's Kwantung Army hit warlord Zhang Zuolin's train at Huanggutun near Shenyang. Zhang died a few hours later, and his death was kept secret for more than two weeks. His son Zhang Xueliang took command of the Northeastern Army, which held three provinces, and allied with the Nationalists instead of Japan. On 10 January 1929 he invited his father's senior officers Yang Yuting and Chang Yinhuai to his home for mahjong. He had them arrested and executed that night. In December 1936 he and Yang Hucheng detained Chiang Kai-shek at Xi'an to force an alliance with the Communists against Japan. He flew to Nanjing with Chiang, was arrested and sentenced to 10 years. He was pardoned in January 1937 but held anyway, first on the mainland and then in Taiwan. His freedom was restored in 1988. In 1995 he gave his papers to Columbia on condition that they open in June 2002. They include a 4,800-page oral history. He died in Honolulu aged 100. In 2026 the papers are at Columbia's Rare Book and Manuscript Library, and he is buried in Honolulu^†.