American journalist's photos and writing rekindle China's wartime memories

WUHAN, July 27 (Xinhua) -- As China prepares to mark the 80th anniversary of its victory in the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression on Sept. 3, a remote town in central China's Hubei Province is quietly staging a powerful act of remembrance.

In Dawu County, once a key anti-Japanese base tucked away in the mountains, final preparations are underway for an exhibition honoring the New Fourth Army's Fifth Division -- a Communist Party of China-led force that was based there during the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression (1931-1945). The artifacts to feature in the exhibition, more than a dozen in total, were donated by descendants of wartime soldiers.

Among them is a pair of rare black-and-white photographs taken in Dawu in early 1940 by American journalist Agnes Smedley.

Smedley arrived in China in late 1928 and spent over a decade living and reporting in the country, documenting both the brutality of Japanese aggression and the resilience of the Chinese resistance.

In early 1940, she traveled deep into the Dawu Mountain region, then a stronghold of the New Fourth Army's Henan-Hubei Detachment -- which was a guerrilla force operating just 100 km from Japanese-occupied Wuhan and the predecessor of the Fifth Division.

Eighty-five years later, the children of late veteran Wu Daoying traveled from Beijing to Dawu, bringing Smedley's photographs featuring their mother to the very place where she once fought. They donated the images to the county archive.

According to Wu's son, Song Shenguang, the film Smedley shot had not been developed at the time due to wartime conditions. It wasn't until the 1980s that his mother saw the photographs for the first time.

Song told Xinhua that his mother had cherished the story behind one particular group portrait until she died in 2023.

The photo captures the smiling faces of children and soldiers. The children were part of a troupe that accompanied the army -- too young to fight in battle but essential in boosting morale with songs and messages. One of them was Wu, not yet 12 at that time.

But what stands out most is a boy at the center of the image, his head bowed. His name was Sheng Guohua. Once a street beggar, Sheng had pleaded to join the army and was assigned as Smedley's orderly during her visit.

Based on Wu's recount, after watching a performance by the troupe, Smedley had asked the children to pose for a photo and invited Sheng to join.

Sheng was shy, Song recalled his mother saying. "He might feel nervous about being in the picture and lowered his head just as the shutter clicked."

Despite barely appearing in a photo, Sheng left a lasting impression on Smedley. Smedley's 1943 book "Battle Hymn of China," which documents her firsthand experiences during the early years of China's resistance war, includes an article titled "My Chinese Son," which highlights her brief yet touching bond with Sheng during the three-month visit to the base.

In the book, Smedley described Sheng, then 10 or 11 years old, as possessing "that curious wisdom of China's children." She wrote: "'When I grow up, I want to join the cavalry and fight the Japanese,' Kuo-hwa said to me more than once." When she prepared to leave Dawu, she offered to adopt him and take him abroad to be educated. However, Sheng declined. "All men must remain at the front," he said. "You can adopt me after the final victory."

That day never came for Sheng as he was later killed in battle -- one of many young lives lost in the rugged terrain in central China, where over 13,000 soldiers of the Fifth Division were either killed or wounded during the battles.

"Every time my mother looked at that photo, she cried," said Song. "Not just for Sheng, but for all the friends who never made it home."

Sheng's story, preserved through Smedley's writing and passed down by Wu, will soon reach a wider audience via the upcoming exhibition at the New Fourth Army's Fifth Division Memorial, located near the former headquarters of the division in Dawu.

The memorial and the historical site have emerged as a prominent center for patriotic education over the past years, drawing more than 300,000 visitors annually through its immersive revolutionary-themed study programs.

"These quiet, personal memories, like Sheng's bowed head, add depth to the grand narrative of resistance," said Fu Bo, who oversees Dawu's revolutionary heritage sites. "They help today's youth understand that victory was not just about battles, but about choices, courage and sacrifice."

Now 70, Song is a member of the Beijing Society for the New Fourth Army. Raised on stories from his mother's generation and inspired by works like Smedley's, he is committed to transforming his family legacy into a shared public memory -- one that highlights how the Chinese people, along with others around the world who stood for peace and justice, came together to win the war of national liberation.

"Some memories shouldn't be kept in a photo album," he said. "They belong to all people and not just as reminders of the past, but as truths that still shape who we are." ■