Photographer's mission comes into focus
Former Chinese fighter pilot uses a camera to document legacy of villagers' wartime experiences
In a museum in eastern China, photos of the tribulations of Chinese people speak louder than words.
In September 2025, William Ross Kantenberger, grandson of a US airman who took part in the 1942 Doolittle Raid, stood before a series of black-and-white portraits at the Yuandao Museum in Quzhou, Zhejiang province. The photographs show elderly Chinese civilians who survived Japan's biological warfare during World War II.
The images were taken by Han Qiang, a former Chinese fighter pilot turned documentary photographer. For Han, the encounter reflected the convergence of two wartime histories — one of civilian suffering, the other of cross-border rescue — linked by a shared past that continues to shape lives decades later.
Han retired from the air force in 1997. In 2011, he picked up a camera with a specific aim: to document these wartime histories before they vanished with the last witnesses.
