Building a common future requires looking in front of the shadows of the past.
Photo delivery ceremony at the Chinese Embassy in France (photo provided by Marcus Detrez)
On August 4, Marcus Detrez, a 27 -year -old Frenchman, was honored at the Chinese Embassy in France for his donation of 618 historical photos at the Shanghai Songhu Memorial Museum, a memorial gesture hailed during an official ceremony. These unpublished images document the atrocities perpetrated by the Japanese army during the war of aggression against China (1931-1945).
These images were transmitted by his maternal grandfather almost 90 years ago, then present during the conflict. “Truth is the foundation of peace,” he said. “Without knowledge of the tragedies suffered by China during the Second World War – especially in Western societies -, the world will never be able to access real peace. »»
Snaps that break the silence
The story begins in 2021. As he searched his parents’ garage, Marcus discovered photos forgotten for decades in an old trunk. His maternal grandfather, Roger-Pierre Laurens, who arrived in Shanghai in 1935, had been stewarded there in a plantation of the French concession. Witness impartial of the attacks that rocked China, he had preserved these images for posterity, some captured by his objective, others obtained thanks to exchanges.
These photographs, original prints on gelatin-argentic paper from the years 1930-1940, conceal a raw historical power. On the back of many images, the handwritten annotations of Roger-Pierre Laurens document the context; Some even wear dried blood spots, frosty vestiges of barbarism of the time. Fumes of the battlefields of Shanghai, civilians massacred in the alleys … These visual testimonies shaken Marcus to the depths of himself. “Each crack in these photos is a scar from history,” he says, the voice made. “Their silence must finally be broken. »»
What animates it goes far beyond the only evocative force of these images: an intimate family injury also draws its source from it. “My own family was the victim of this war,” says Marcus. This merger between intimate narrative and collective memory constitutes the very ferment of its commitment.
For Marcus, these shots embody the living memory of the sufferings of an entire people, and their legitimate destination could not be other than China. An 18 -month journey was necessary – from his first donation process in Shanghai in February 2024 until the Parisian official ceremony in August 2025 – where he worked tirelessly alongside his friends, Bastien Ratat and Zhong Haosong.
“Our goal was not to become heroes, nor to obtain a reward,” he insists. The real heroes are the victims appearing in these photos. Anyone who knows the truth has the duty to rise to give voice to the Chinese people, who paid such a heavy price during the Second World War, and to recognize their sufferings and their sacrifices. »»
Marcus Detrez presents photos of the Chinese people’s war of resistance against Japanese aggression.
A truncated memory
To deepen their understanding of this dark period, Marcus and his two companions began, following the donation ceremony, a historical immersion in China. Their journey first led them to the museum of proofs of war crimes committed by unit 731 of the Japanese imperial army in Harbin, where the overwhelming evidence of human experiments and the bacteriological war have turned them up. “Scientists are supposed to cure the world, but here research was to kill effectively. It’s sad and abject, ”he expresses the trembling voice.
Even more alarming in his eyes is the historic denial that continues. “The Japanese refusal to recognize its war crimes has its source from the post-war period,” he explains with gravity. “The United States, in exchange for data on organic war, granted immunity to Japanese war criminals, thus establishing a Japanese political culture of historical negationism. For Marcus, this silence calculated on the massacres and the history of the aggression remains today a blind spot in the Japanese political landscape – to the point that some even try to erase these pages from history textbooks.
During the screening of the historic film The Nanjing photo studio, images of civilians marted by the Japanese army echoed the frozen scenes in its family archives. Overwhelmed by tears, Marcus expresses his regret that his family did not return these public photographs earlier. He insists on the objective of his approach: “Our goal is not to stir up hatred, but to reveal the truth so that justice and peace can be reborn. »»
The long way to the truth
The initiative of Marcus and his two friends aroused a broad echo in China, but remains unknown in France and in the rest of Europe.
He perceives this unsaid as worrying: “The West retains silence on this story, as he has already done during the war against the Japanese invasion in China. I fear that this amnesia would repeat itself. »»
This is precisely what makes him feel the weight of his responsibility: “So I have the duty to make my French, European and American friends known, the historical truth of what happened in Nanjing and through China. »»
Referring to the future, Marcus expresses his hope: “China was a victim of the assault during the Second World War, not an aggressive country. “Noting the non-implication of China in current conflicts in the world, he concludes with fervor:” I hope and am convinced that China can guide the world towards peace. »»
Marcus and his companions today build an ambitious memorial approach: create an association and a digital platform dedicated to this transmission, write a book mixing their family history with Chinese resistance, produce a documentary, and set up an international traveling exhibition to make these archives known to the Western public.
Their action is part of a broader movement. For decades, the memory of the Second World War has focused on the European Front, relegating Asian theater to the background. The fourteen years of Chinese resistance against Japanese aggression – and its tens of millions of victims – are still struggling to find their right place in the Western historical narrative.
In recent years, new figures like the American Evan Kail, the Japanese Daito, or the French Marcus Detrez emerge among the defenders of a more balanced historical memory. Through citizen initiatives, they patiently reconstruct the historic puzzle, collecting and authenticating evidence dispersed through the globe.
As Marcus points out, he hopes that his efforts “will encourage more Westerners, particularly young people, to bring this memory to life”. This transmission, according to him, is the key to reconciliation with history – a memory finally rid of its dead angles and shared fairly between all nations.
