China News Agency, Shijiazhuang, July 7th Question: Veteran recorder Li Junfang: Help the veterans complete a special "assembly"
China News Agency reporter Lu Da Li Qian
Since 2011, Li Pingshan, a photographer from Hebei Pingshan, has visited nearly 500 villages in Pingshan County, leaving images for more than 200 veterans. Under the lens of Li Junfang, there are those who witnessed the signing ceremony of the surrender of the Japanese troops invading China in the Chinese theater, members of the Pingshan Regiment known by Nie Rongzhen as "children of the iron on the Taihang Mountain", and soldiers who had fought bloody battles in famous battles such as the Hundred Regiments. There are also female soldiers who provide security in the rear. They completed a special "assembly" in Li Junfang's black and white images.
On the 5th, Li Junfang came to the home of Feng Derun, a 97-year-old anti-Japanese veteran, for the tenth time. Because of severe vision loss, Feng Derun sitting in the yard stared at him since Li Junfang entered the yard. Until Li Jun let go, the old man suddenly smiled and took Li Junfang's hand and said, "This time we can't go , Be sure to stay and eat."
When Li Jun put the camera up, Feng Derun opposite the lens was sitting dangerously, smiling. Although, this time, he leaned on a cane and couldn't stand upright as he did in the previous camera.
After the Lugou Bridge incident on July 7, 1937, the Anti-Japanese War broke out in an all-round way. Thousands of Pingshan children came out of the villages and villages, and it took only more than 30 days to form a reorganized regiment, namely the 359 brigade 718 regiment (also known as Pingshan regiment) led by Wang Zhen. During the total anti-Japanese war, more than 70,000 people participated in the war in Pingshan County, becoming an important base for soldiers and supplies in the Jinchaji base area.
Li Junfang said that his initial idea was very simple, "want to take a picture of the old man", to establish a data file for the veterans to record a history of his hometown. In 2011, Pingshan, which was a model county in the anti-Japanese era, left only more than 200 veterans. He tried every means to "race" with time, hoping to leave more images for some veterans.
During the search, Li Junfang often drove alone in the mountains of Taihang, and some villages had difficult roads. If the car could not drive in, he needed to find on foot. What makes Li Junfang feel most lost and urgent is that he often drives more than 100 kilometers to find the village of the veterans, but finds that the veterans have passed away.
In recent years, with the completion of the search for veterans, Li Junfang often returned visits to veterans. Record their current lives and try their best to solve some practical difficulties for the veterans.
In Li Junfang's lens, most of these anti-Japanese war veterans dress in accordance with their usual habits, and rarely wear military medals. Li Junfang said that he did not want to put too much emphasis on the status of veterans as "heroes", but focused on them as ordinary people who took off their military uniforms and returned to their hometowns for construction. Now they have become ordinary old people. They have never complained about returning to the countryside.
Li Junfang was gratified to see that in recent years, the government and all sectors of society have become increasingly concerned about the life of these veterans, and more and more young people have joined the ranks of caring for veterans, giving them more respect and decentness.
In Li Jun’s eyes, the veterans’ preferential care and rural old-age pension system have been continuously improved, making the veterans’ life in their later years more and more secure. While China is vigorously advancing precision poverty alleviation, the road in the Taihang mountain area is getting wider and wider, and the road when he returns to the veterans is getting smoother.
However, Li Junfang's footsteps became heavier, "as if he could not move".
This year's Ching Ming Festival, Li Jun put his plan to sweep the grave of a veteran before returning to visit the four veterans. As a result, only one veteran of the four was left alive and he was bedridden. The "return visit" has become a memorial. Soon after, the veteran in bed also left. Today, the anti-war veterans Li Junfang photographed are still alive and there are fewer than 20 people.
Li Junfang put on a pair of white gloves in advance every time he took out the photo of the veteran. And every time he attends the veteran's funeral, he will also bring a photo taken for the veteran as a portrait, and record the old man's final ceremony.
Out of trust, some family members handed over the veterans' certificates and military medals to Li Junfang after they died. Every time he took over these veterans' "anti-war memories", Li Junfang seemed to feel that the veteran's temperature was still there.
Li Junfang said that the touches of the history of the confrontation have made him fuller. The veterans' cherishment of the ordinary life after the disarmament and return to the field also showed him that not only the veterans, but all people yearn for peace, which is the most simple emotion. (Finish)