On the empty firing field, there was only a emaciated figure, whose expression was not as alarmed as the other prisoners, and stood there calmly, dressed in a well-ironed straight military uniform, with his hands tied behind his back, with a calm and open-minded smile on his face, as if he were about to go to a very good place. The onlookers were silent, not knowing whether to sympathize or anger at the trial.
Among the onlookers were the veteran's comrade-in-arms, his sick friends, all the Japanese doctors who assisted China, and people who did not know him, only that he was a division-level cadre who shot and killed the Japanese doctor who treated him. The executing soldier suddenly stood solemnly in salute, and the death row inmate lay down on the ground forever with the sound of the gunshot, his eyes still as usual, looking at the world with pity, but slowly fading and becoming hollow.
Sha Fei
The last scene these eyes see is still the clear blue sky of this world. When the soul finally leaves the body, what is he thinking, will he remember the sky he looked at when he was young, lying on the grass, when he had a lot of simple and beautiful visions and imaginations for this world. Who is this person? Why shoot a Japanese doctor? Why was the death penalty imposed?
The death row inmate is only 38 years old, a native of Kaiping, Guangdong, whose original name was Situ Chuan, and his more well-known name is Sha Fei. 14 years ago, he was an ignorant teenager who studied at the Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts, and was influenced by the May Fourth Patriotic Movement, and his heart was filled with reverence for the leaders of the left.
The young man had just bought a camera with all his wealth, and when he learned that his classmates had a chance to meet Mr. Lu Xun, he disregarded his wife's persuasion and stepped on the northbound train with enthusiasm. At the woodcut exchange exhibition, Sha Fei met Mr. Lu Xun for the first time, who was seriously ill, and what he did not expect was that eleven days later, when he saw Mr. Lu Xun for the second time, he took the only remains left in the world.
Sha Fei photographed Lu Xun's remains
The photographs he took for Mr. Lu Xun were published in the Shanghai Liangyou magazine. Mr. Lu Xun's death has brought him great touches, as a young man, he must do something, to do something beyond the ego. With such an ideal, he named himself Sha Fei, which means free flying sand.
Sha Fei had a natural sensitivity to literature and art, but in the revolutionary era at that time, only by carrying a gun could he truly save the country and save the people. He was enthusiastic but unable to show it, and when he had no idea, he inadvertently flipped through foreign pictorials and was instantly deeply attracted by some wonderful historical photos. Sha Fei looked at the beloved camera he held in his arms and had a bold idea in his heart.
That's "I'm going to carry a camera to the battlefield." Whether he was influenced by the wartime woodcut prints created by Mr. Lu Xun, Sha Fei decided to create China's first wartime pictorial. At this time, when the Eighth Route Army had achieved the great victory of Pingxingguan, Sha Fei saw the opportunity and came to Taiyuan, Shanxi, the front line of the anti-Japanese war, where he began his future heavy stroke in the history of Chinese wartime photography.
Sha Fei's works: "Conquering the Flat Pass"
Sha Fei's body fell heavily on the execution ground, and one person in the crowd burst into tears, he was Nie Rongzhen, commander of the Jin-Cha-Ji Military Region. At that time on the Taiyuan front, without his strong support, Sha Fei's idea of starting a wartime pictorial might never have come true. If it weren't for his consent, Sha Fei would have followed the troops on the front line to see the killing and conquest, perhaps this spiritual young man would not have ended up like this.
Nie Rongzhen could not suppress his deep nostalgia for Sha Fei in his heart, and could only question his choice over and over again. In that era of scarce materials, soldiers did not have enough to eat and wear, how could they have leisure to start a pictorial newspaper. However, the commander at that time, Nie Rongzhen, saw the great significance of the times behind Sha Fei's ideas with a developmental vision, and he actively supported Sha Fei in his work, even at the most intense moment of the war, the entire four boxes of negatives taken by Sha Fei were well preserved around.
When Sha Fei first came to Taiyuan, he was received by the commander at the time, Nie Rongzhen, who looked at the young man in front of him who was full of enthusiasm and ideals, and his eyes were all firm about national rejuvenation. Sha Fei received special approval, conducted an exclusive interview with Nie Rongzhen, and obtained permission from front-line war correspondents to follow the combat team everywhere.
Nie Rongzhen rescues the orphan girl of Japan
During this period, he left many classic photographic works, including "Long Drive Attack - The Eighth Route Army Cavalry Unit Passes Through Pingxingguan" and "Victory in the Battle of Pingxingguan" and other series of photos. There is also a set of photographs of the Great Wall, such as "Advancing Behind enemy lines -- The Cavalry Battalion of the 115th Division Advances Toward the Ancient Great Wall Pass in Northeast Jin", "Plugging in the Wind and Clouds -- The Yang Chengwu Detachment of the Eighth Route Army Marching Inside and Outside the Great Wall", "Shayuan Iron Horse - The Eighth Route Army Cavalry Battalion Advancing to The West of Hebei", "The Eighth Route Army Recovers the Important Pass of the Inner Great Wall and Inserts Arrow Ridge", and so on.
The exquisite composition of these photographs and the extremely impactful war pictures became the excellent and inspiring anti-Japanese propaganda materials of the time. The unity of the Eighth Route Army against Japan and the heroic fighting figures were also recorded by Sha Fei with a camera. Under the leadership of Nie Rongzhen, the Jin-Cha-Ji anti-Japanese troops have always insisted on using Sha Fei's photographs to inspire people's hearts and publicize the anti-Japanese spirit.
The Eighth Route Army in the Green Gauze Tent
On New Year's Day 1939, the Jin-Cha-Ji revolutionary base area even held the first photography exhibition in the history of Chinese revolutionary photography. The exhibition had a wide impact among revolutionary fighters, even attracting Doctor Bethune, who was aiding China at the time. Dr. Bethune was also very interested in photography and gave Sha Fei many suggestions on photography techniques.
Since then, Mr. Bethune and Sha Fei have formed a deep friendship because of the common hobby of photography, until Bethune's death, and he left his camera to Sha Fei at the end of his life. This camera with special feelings stayed with Sha Fei until he was executed and died. These works taken by Sha Fei were all enlarged and transmitted to the central authorities, and Chairman Mao saw them and praised them greatly.
These wartime pictorials sponsored by Sha Fei vividly recorded the anti-Japanese activities of the Jin-Cha-Ji Military Region in the past five years, and these pictorials eventually spread overseas, showing the people of the whole world the determination of the Chinese people to resist Japan. As a war correspondent, Sha Fei followed the Eighth Route Army through large and small battles, and every time in order to obtain the battle situation at the front line, he had to rush to the forefront.
Rescue U.S. pilots
Although during his school years, Sha Fei had always had a very high sense of revolution under the influence of the May Fourth Movement, the process of resisting the Japanese army was not imagined by a literary and artistic young man. The cruelty of war, accompanied by blood and the fall of one life after another, was so unadorned by him.
His eyes saw too many life-and-death partings, whether he lost or won, it was a hellish trial for the soldiers on the front line to gamble their lives. Every time Sha Fei went to the front line with the troops, he would wear a new pair of shoes, because in his hometown, wearing new shoes meant that there was no intention of returning. The war brought only heaviness, and the innocence that belonged to youth in Sha Fei's eyes had gradually been worn away into a deeper severity.
Captured Japanese troops
In the long process of resisting Japan, china and Japan also had some highlight moments of noble human nature in addition to war, winning and losing, and also belonging to noble human nature. This happened in the Jin-Cha-Ji Military Region, commander Nie Rongzhen in the Battle of Jingxing Coal Mine to save a pair of Japanese sisters and their dying father, their father is a station master, the mother has long been killed in the fierce war, the father of the two sisters died in vain, Nie Rongzhen has been taking good care of the two orphans.
He had intended to take in the two sisters, but given the fact that the war was not known to end and the conditions of the troops were difficult, he had to abandon the idea of adoption. In order to make the two little girls grow up better, Nie Rongzhen had to entrust the Japanese troops stationed in Shijiazhuang to hand over the two little girls to their other Relatives in Japan for raising. Before sending the two little girls away, Sha Fei took a classic photo of Nie Rongzhen, "The General and the Orphan Girl".
The General and the Orphan Girl
War is cruel and at the same time helpless. Before nie Rongzhen handed over the two little girls, he attached a letter in which he sincerely wrote that Chinese did not want to be enemies of the Japanese, but in the face of the damage to national sovereignty, he had to resist the Japanese army to defend himself. The Chinese and Japanese peoples should unite so that the lives of the Chinese people can be happy and Japan's future development can be looked forward to.
However, the simple desire carried by this thin letter did not reverse the urgent situation at that time. In turbulent situations, the happiness that people's hearts desire comes from peace. However, such a simple wish comes at the cost of countless blood.
After Japan's surrender in 1945, people could finally return to normal life, but Sha Fei began to become eccentric. According to Sha Fei's wife, Sha Fei was always talking to himself alone, swinging his fist at the air as if he were going to hit someone. During the War of Resistance Against Japan, Sha Fei constantly rushed to the front line in order to obtain precious images, and had to painstakingly edit the pictorial newspaper in order to plan, and the long-term fatigue and the harsh environment of the troops made him infected with tuberculosis.
Bethune
After the war, Sha Feicai was hospitalized at the Bethune Peace Hospital in Shijiazhuang for treatment. The attending doctor who treated him, Katsuzawa Katsu, was a Japanese who came to China to aid him by an anti-war coalition. At that time, no one knew that a tragedy was secretly germinating.
That day came very suddenly, Dr. Tsuzawa Katsu treated Sha Fei as usual, but was knocked to the ground by the gun that Sha Fei suddenly pulled out, Dr. Tsuzawa Katsu was shot twice in the chest, but Sha Fei was not willing to rest, walked to Tsuzawa Katsu and shot him in the head. After killing Tsuzawa, Sha Fei had a smile of excitement on his face that had never been seen before, and shouted loudly, I finally killed this Japanese agent.
For this sudden incident, everyone was stunned, until Sha Fei was sentenced to capital punishment, people still could not find the right words to evaluate the incident, everyone could not understand, could not believe, grief, speechless. Until many years later, Sha Fei's daughter visited countless of Sha Fei's comrades-in-arms and the people who visited him at that time for her father's outrageous behavior.
On the eve of the Battle of the Hundred Regiments
Learning about the violent impact that Sha Fei suffered during the war had a great trauma to his spirit. This is why persecution-delusional schizophrenia was triggered after the war. Sha Fei treats Tsuzawa Katsu to treat him, over-interprets normal medical behaviors such as pulse as a deliberate attempt to poison him, and sends intelligence to Japan. That's why the doctor is killed in a state of insanity. After finding out the truth of this sadness, Sha Fei's family repeatedly filed complaints.
Finally, in 1986, 36 years after Sha Fei was sentenced to death, the Military Court of the Beijing Military Region revoked the original sentence against Sha Fei. This tragedy caused two young and promising lives to make senseless sacrifices due to the mental trauma left by the war. After witnessing countless inhumane wars, Sha Fei began to go to extremes, with only doubt and hatred left in his eyes. His anger spread to the innocent doctor Tsuzawa Katsu, which is a tragedy of the times and a tragedy of two countries.
He Long
War destroys a spiritual teenager into a psychopath, and in such an extreme way leads to destruction. The photographic works created by Sha Fei still have great artistic value today, and his life is extremely idealistic, and only people with pure enough spirit can make such achievements.
And his success or failure is also because of this, and in the end he also fell too deep and embarked on a dead end. Perhaps, we are not qualified to evaluate his short life, he has always been as he wishes, like the sand of freedom floating in the wind of the times.