Photos of ‘Japanese soldiers’ posing at Chinese war memorial site spark anger online
Social media users call for investigation after four men in military garb pictured at site of bloody conflict during Sino-Japanese war
A series of photographs showing four men posing in second world war-era Japanese military uniforms at the scene of a bloody conflict during the Sino-Japanese war has sparked outrage on the internet.
The images of four young, apparently Chinese, men were taken against the backdrop of the Continental Bank Warehouse, where Chinese troops defeated an invading Japanese force in a week-long battle in 1937.
The identities of the men and their reason for taking the photographs are a mystery, but the appearance of the images on Weibo, China’s version of Twitter, on Monday provoked a wave of anger among the Chinese public.
“These people [are] openly traitors and [have] run wild on China’s land. Isn’t there anyone to intervene? In Germany, the government intervenes, why doesn’t China?” a person wrote after seeing the images.
The setting for the photographs is the Sihang (Four Banks) Warehouse complex, which was made a heritage site by the Shanghai government in 1985. The owners said they have been unable to identify the four men as there are no surveillance cameras in the area.