As China prepares to commemorate the 80th anniversary of its victory in the war of resistance against Japan’s attack on September 3, remote areas in central China’s Hubei province are quietly staging a powerful act of memory.
In Do County, final preparations are underway for an exhibition honouring the new 4th Army 5th Division, as major anti-Japan bases once hid in the mountains. This is the Communist Party of China-led military forces (1931-1945), which was based there during the war of resistance to Japan’s invasion. The artifacts featured in the exhibition totaled over 12, and were donated by descendants of wartime soldiers.
Among them is a rare black and white photograph taken at DAWU by American journalist Agnes Smedley in the early 1940s.
Smedley arrived in China in the second half of 1928, spending more than a decade living and reporting domestically, documenting both the brutality of Japanese attacks and the resilience of Chinese resistance.
In January 1940, she traveled deep into the Dow Mountain area. It was then the base of the new 4th Army’s Henan detachment, a guerrilla army just 100 km from Uhan, where Japan was occupied, and 2 km from the predecessor of the fifth division.
85 years later, the children of the late veteran Wu Doing traveled from Beijing to Dawu and brought photos of Smedley featuring his mother in the places where his mother once fought. They donated images to the county archives.
According to Wu’s son Song Shun Anne, the film’s Sumedley filming was not developed at the time due to wartime circumstances. It wasn’t until the 1980s that his mother first saw the photo.
Song told the newcomer that until his mother died in 2023, he cherished the story behind a particular group of portraits.
The photo captures the smiles of a child and a soldier. The children were part of the group that accompanied the army – too young to fight in battle, but they were essential to boosting morale with songs and messages. One of them was WU, and was not 12 at the time.
But most stands out is the boy in the center of the image, his head bowing. His name was Sheng Guohua. Once the street bee meal was eaten, Shen appealed to join the Army and was assigned as Smedry’s order during her visit.
Based on WU’s recount, after seeing the theatre company’s performance, Smedley asked the kids to pose for a photo and invited Sheng to join.
Shen was shy, the song reminded him of what his mother said. “He might have been nervous about being in the picture and bowed his head when the shutter clicked.”
Despite his barely appearance in the photos, Sheng left a lasting impression on Smedley. The 1943 book, Battle Haimun of China, documenting her first-hand experiences in the early days of the Chinese Resistance War, contains an article entitled “My Son of China.”
In the book, Smedley described Shen, who was 10 or 11 at the time, as having “the curious wisdom of Chinese children.” She writes: “When I grow up, I want to join the cavalry and fight the Japanese,” Kuo Huwa told me many times. “When she prepared to leave Dawu, she offered to adopt him and take him with her to take him abroad. However, Sheng declined. “Every man has to stay in front of him,” he said. “After the final victory, you can adopt me.”
That day never came as he was later killed in battle – in one of the many young lives lost in the rugged terrain of central China, more than 13,000 soldiers from the 5th Division were killed or wounded during the battle.
“Every time my mother saw the picture, she cried,” the song said. “Not only for Shen, but for all my friends who have never made it home.”
Sheng’s story is preserved through Smedley’s writing and taken over by WU and will soon reach a greater audience through upcoming exhibitions at the 5th Division Memorial Hall of New Fourth Army, near the old headquarters of Dawu’s division.
The monument and historic location have emerged as a prominent centre for patriotic education over the past few years, attracting over 300,000 visitors a year through an immersive, innovative research programme.
“Like Shen’s bowed head, these quiet, personal memories add depth to the epic tale of resistance,” said Hu Bo, who oversees Dow’s innovative heritage site. “They help young people today realize that victory is not just about fighting, but about choice, courage, sacrifice.”
Now in 70 years, Song is a member of the new 4th Army of the Beijing Association. In favor of stories from his mother’s generation and inspired by works like Smedley, he is committed to transforming his family legacy into a common public memory – highlighting the way the Chinese people met to peace and justice to win the war of national liberation.
“Some memories should not be kept in photo albums,” he said. “They belong to all people and not only remind us of the past, but as the truth that we still shape.”