Documenting the War
Wars in the 20th century are marked by a proliferation of documentation and an increasing ease of sharing images and stories of the war effort around the world. Wuhan was a central location from which journalists documented the Anti-Japanese War. Not only was Wuhan the place of strategic command but the concessions in Hankou allowed western journalists to be well-established in their place. Among those documenting the war was Robert Capa, a war photojournalist, and Joris Ivens, a documentary filmmaker. In the history of the city of Hankou, international journalism and documentary films and photographs created popular narratives of the city to a much wider audience than ever before.
April 1938. Robert Capa, kneeling, and Joris Ivens, in beret on left, filming for "The 400 Million"