NANJING, Nov. 26 (Xinhua) -- Photographer Chris Magee, whose grandfather shot the only documentary about the Nanjing Massacre, is reshooting pictures of the city to make its war history more widely known.
He revealed the progress of his plan in Nanjing, capital of east China's Jiangsu Province, on Sunday.
The first phase of his work started in October by photographing the buildings and streets that had appeared in his grandfather's filmstrips in 1937.
For the next step, he will also choose typical pictures from old images of Nanjing between the 1910s and 1940s and reshoot them in the same place to demonstrate the city's changes.
His grandfather John Magee was an American priest in Nanjing, who secretly filmed the slaughter of Chinese soldiers and civilians by Japanese troops 80 years ago.
The 105 minutes of footage is considered the only film record of the massacre, in which 300,000 people were murdered.
Chris Magee knew the history through his grandfather's diaries, old pictures and films.
A picture of a child named Xia Shuqin touches him deeply. Xia narrowly survived the brutal killings of the Japanese troops.
"I feel sad every time I see these pictures and videos. If Japanese troops did not occupy Nanjing, the life there would have been happy. So I got an idea to rephotograph the city," Magee said.
He hopes to let more people understand the truth of the history through the compared pictures of the past and now. "Anyway, new life is going on," he said.
He will publish a photo album and exhibit his works.
Zhang Jianjun, curator of the Memorial Hall of the Victims in Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders, said that Chris Magee will participate in a memorial ceremony on China's National Memorial Day to recognize Nanjing Massacre victims, on Dec. 13.
