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On Oct. 4, 1937 in the edition of Life Magazine, showed a lone infant sitting upright in the smoking ruins of a bombed out Shanghai railway station. The child, whose clothes appear to have been burned off, is clearly wailing in agony.
The image was snapped moments after Japanese warplanes struck the city, which at the time was the sixth largest on earth. Hundreds were killed in the attack; scores more were wounded.
The snapshot struck a raw nerve in the United States when it was published. Until that moment, few in the U.S. had paid much attention to the atrocities being committing by the Japanese army in its murderous march across China. As far as most westerners were concerned, the war in Asia was somebody else’s problem — certainly none of America’s business. The Life photo spread helped shift those opinions.
Entitled “Bloody Saturday†or just “Shanghai Babyâ€, the photo became a potent symbol of the plight of the Chinese people, not to mention a lighting rod for anti-Japanese sentiment. If nothing else, it immortalized one of the many waypoints on the long road that would eventually lead Japan and USA to war in 1941. Here are some facts about this remarkable and historic photo:
• The picture was taken by H.S. Wong, a 37-year-old photojournalist in the employ of the powerful Hearst newspaper chain.
H.S. Wong
• Wong captured the now famous image after watching Japanese bombers drop their deadly payload onto a crowded railway station in Shanghai at around 4 p.m. on Aug. 28, 1937. The area was packed with thousands of refugees, all of whom were hoping to flee the burning city by train. The press corps had been tipped off that warplanes were about to strike nearby. Several reporters, including Wong, gathered on a nearby rooftop to take in the grim spectacle.
• Immediately following the attack, newsmen rushed to the station to document the carnage. Wong was among them. “It was a horrible sight,†he later recalled. “Dead and injured lay strewn across the tracks and platform. Limbs lay all over the place. I stopped to reload my camera. I noticed that my shoes were soaked with blood.â€
• Wong spied a helpless infant sitting beside some of the smouldering wreckage. A few feet away lay the lifeless body of the child’s mother. The photographer stole a few frames and then took some footage of the heart-wrenching scene with a 35 mm movie camera. Moments later, an adult male, presumably the child’s father, arrived on scene. Emergency responders tended to the youngster as best they could before the man and child disappeared into the crowd. Wong never learned the infant’s name or fate.
H.S. Wong claimed that the figure in this photo was the infant’s father. Skeptics maintained this shot is evidence that the entire scene was staged.
• Wong developed his film the following day and showed what he’d captured to the editors of the China Press newspaper. They were blown away by the explosive visuals. Wong delivered his film to a U.S warship departing Shanghai for the Philippines. From there, the package was put aboard a flight heading stateside.
• Footage of the infant appeared in newsreels as early as mid-September. By the end of the month, it was being seen in movie houses across the country. As many as 25 million Americans witnessed the brief sequence. The stills were picked up by the Hearst newspaper chain and ran coast to coast and internationally. By October, it’s estimated that 136 million people had seen Wong’s now iconic image.
• Relations between Tokyo and Washington were strained as the U.S. sought to retaliate against Japan for its militarism through diplomatic pressure and economic sanctions. Within four years, the two countries would be at war.
• While many pointed to the image as evidence of the threat Japan posed to world peace, Tokyo declared the image a hoax and placed a $50,000 price on Wong’s head.
• Despite the risks, Wong continued to cover the war in China, often putting himself in the way of the bullets to get his shots. After a number of close calls, he eventually fled to Hong Kong. He continued to work as a photojournalist until 1970. Wong died in Taipei in 1981. He was 81 years old.
• His iconic image would go on to become one of the most influential photographs of all time. Not only did it serve as a grim foreshadow of the horrors that lay ahead in WW2, Wong’s motherless war child became emblematic of civilian victims of conflict in general. The photo has since appeared in numerous retrospectives of the 20th century.
• Some have attempted to make the case that Wong manipulated the scene, reportedly going so far as to physically place the infant in the frame. Others have claimed that the photographer touched up the image in the darkroom afterwards, adding smoke for dramatic effect. However eyewitnesses have defended the shots as authentic.
militaryhistorynow.com
tickld.com
The image was snapped moments after Japanese warplanes struck the city, which at the time was the sixth largest on earth. Hundreds were killed in the attack; scores more were wounded.
The snapshot struck a raw nerve in the United States when it was published. Until that moment, few in the U.S. had paid much attention to the atrocities being committing by the Japanese army in its murderous march across China. As far as most westerners were concerned, the war in Asia was somebody else’s problem — certainly none of America’s business. The Life photo spread helped shift those opinions.
Entitled “Bloody Saturday†or just “Shanghai Babyâ€, the photo became a potent symbol of the plight of the Chinese people, not to mention a lighting rod for anti-Japanese sentiment. If nothing else, it immortalized one of the many waypoints on the long road that would eventually lead Japan and USA to war in 1941. Here are some facts about this remarkable and historic photo:
• The picture was taken by H.S. Wong, a 37-year-old photojournalist in the employ of the powerful Hearst newspaper chain.
H.S. Wong
• Wong captured the now famous image after watching Japanese bombers drop their deadly payload onto a crowded railway station in Shanghai at around 4 p.m. on Aug. 28, 1937. The area was packed with thousands of refugees, all of whom were hoping to flee the burning city by train. The press corps had been tipped off that warplanes were about to strike nearby. Several reporters, including Wong, gathered on a nearby rooftop to take in the grim spectacle.
• Immediately following the attack, newsmen rushed to the station to document the carnage. Wong was among them. “It was a horrible sight,†he later recalled. “Dead and injured lay strewn across the tracks and platform. Limbs lay all over the place. I stopped to reload my camera. I noticed that my shoes were soaked with blood.â€
• Wong spied a helpless infant sitting beside some of the smouldering wreckage. A few feet away lay the lifeless body of the child’s mother. The photographer stole a few frames and then took some footage of the heart-wrenching scene with a 35 mm movie camera. Moments later, an adult male, presumably the child’s father, arrived on scene. Emergency responders tended to the youngster as best they could before the man and child disappeared into the crowd. Wong never learned the infant’s name or fate.
H.S. Wong claimed that the figure in this photo was the infant’s father. Skeptics maintained this shot is evidence that the entire scene was staged.
• Wong developed his film the following day and showed what he’d captured to the editors of the China Press newspaper. They were blown away by the explosive visuals. Wong delivered his film to a U.S warship departing Shanghai for the Philippines. From there, the package was put aboard a flight heading stateside.
• Footage of the infant appeared in newsreels as early as mid-September. By the end of the month, it was being seen in movie houses across the country. As many as 25 million Americans witnessed the brief sequence. The stills were picked up by the Hearst newspaper chain and ran coast to coast and internationally. By October, it’s estimated that 136 million people had seen Wong’s now iconic image.
• Relations between Tokyo and Washington were strained as the U.S. sought to retaliate against Japan for its militarism through diplomatic pressure and economic sanctions. Within four years, the two countries would be at war.
• While many pointed to the image as evidence of the threat Japan posed to world peace, Tokyo declared the image a hoax and placed a $50,000 price on Wong’s head.
• Despite the risks, Wong continued to cover the war in China, often putting himself in the way of the bullets to get his shots. After a number of close calls, he eventually fled to Hong Kong. He continued to work as a photojournalist until 1970. Wong died in Taipei in 1981. He was 81 years old.
• His iconic image would go on to become one of the most influential photographs of all time. Not only did it serve as a grim foreshadow of the horrors that lay ahead in WW2, Wong’s motherless war child became emblematic of civilian victims of conflict in general. The photo has since appeared in numerous retrospectives of the 20th century.
• Some have attempted to make the case that Wong manipulated the scene, reportedly going so far as to physically place the infant in the frame. Others have claimed that the photographer touched up the image in the darkroom afterwards, adding smoke for dramatic effect. However eyewitnesses have defended the shots as authentic.
militaryhistorynow.com
tickld.com