| Original caption: “Mao Zedong, leader of China’s Communists, addresses some of his followers.” In a still from the March of Time newsreel short “Inside China Today,” Volume 11, Number 4, released in December 1944, Chairman of the Communist Party Mao Zedong (December 26, 1893 – September 9, 1976) appears with a banner encouraging the Communists to fight the Japanese. Chinese Red Army General Zhu De (December 1, 1886 – July 6, 1976) also spoke to the same mass meeting. Chinese civilians, possibly members of the Min Ping militia, display pennants with anti-Japanese slogans at a Communist Party rally. Some appear to be dressed to participate in Huobaoju (“living newspaper”) street theater. Communist propaganda units would instruct party members in slogans and supervise them as they wrote them on banners and pennants. Cameraman Victor Jurgens (November 18, 1913 – November 30, 1983) joined March of Time in 1935. In 1938, the Japanese granted permission to shoot film in their war zone in China. He shot “Inside China Today” during the Dixie Mission, when American advisors visited Yan’an in late 1944. Time Magazine correspondent Theodore H. White (May 6, 1915 – May 15, 1986) also was there, among other correspondents. Jurgens arrived in Cairo, Egypt, on October 18, 1944, and in Washington, District of Columbia, on October 25, 1944, by aircraft from Air Transport Command. His footage for “Inside China Today” was edited and distributed 2 months after it was shot. | |
| Image Filename | wwii1639.jpg |
| Image Size | 572.20 KB |
| Image Dimensions | 2912 x 2357 |
| Photographer | Victor Jurgens |
| Photographer Title | Franklin D. Roosevelt Library |
| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | October 1, 1944 |
| Location | |
| City | Yan’an |
| State or Province | Shaanbei |
| Country | China |
| Archive | National Archives and Records Administration |
| Record Number | NLR-PHOCO-A-65386(53) |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
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