Photo album of a 1937 Japanese air strike on Shanghai handed over to Chinese consulate
Evan Kail tweets that he handed over the photo album to the Chinese Consulate General in Chicago.
Evan Kail, an American pawnshop owner, gave the Chinese Consulate General in Chicago an old collection of photos from World War II yesterday.
The collections contain more than 30 rare color prints documenting Japanese atrocities in Shanghai.
Kail sparked widespread curiosity in September after suggesting on TikTok that the photographs might be from the Nanjing Massacre.
Later, he claimed that the photographs were most likely taken in Shanghai, not Nanjing.
He announced on social media that he had handed over the book to a staff member from the consulate office.
"I want to thank China and all the people who stood by me throughout this process. It has been a life changing experience," Kail wrote.
In a letter to Evan Kail, Chinese Consul General in Chicago Zhao Jian expresses his thanks to him.
In a letter, Zhao Jian, consul general in Chicago, expressed his heartfelt gratitude for the album.
"History serves as a mirror for the people today and your donation certainly helps inspire everyone with a kind heart to safeguard peace," Zhao wrote.
According to Zou Dehuai, a Chinese history blogger, the photos were from a Japanese air raid on Shanghai's crowded Nanjing Road in 1937.
On the afternoon of August 23, 1937, an aerial bomb exploded on the third-floor southeast balcony of Sincere & Co Ltd, which was located on Shanghai's densely populated Nanjing Road.
The windows of the nearby Wing On Co Ltd and stores along Nanjing Road and Laohe Road (now Liuhe Road) were all shattered. The air raid killed 215 people and injured over 570 others.
Photographs in the album depict a Japanese air strike on Shanghai's Nanjing Road in 1937.
