Frenchman seeks to donate photo album documenting Japan's wartime atrocities

Frenchman Marcus Detrez was leafing through a dust-covered photo album depicting his grandfather's fulfilling life in Shanghai in the 1930s when a picture thrust him into appalling moments of war.

A sharp contrast to scenes of tranquil lakes and bustling food stalls on the streetside, the photograph shows a civilian, whose head has been completely blown off, lying on the ground.

The chance discovery made in the garage of his family home in 2021 put the 26-year-old on a truth-seeking journey that offered further evidence of the wartime atrocities committed by Japanese soldiers during China's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1931-45), as well as the resilience of local residents — which is all documented in a collection of 622 photographs.