The Lens of the Silenced: Untold war Mobilization in Sha Fei’s Unpublished Photographs

Abstract

This paper addressed Sha Fei’s unpublished photographs from China during World War II in three dimensions: image, symbol, and index. The intrinsic meanings of these images depend upon the historical context and historical relations between the images and historical scenes they represented. Here lies significance of the index function of Sha Fei’s photographs, which is to direct historians’ attention, inspire intensive research for other archival sources or textual evidence and drive researchers to discuss broader questions about Communist war mobilization and political growth.