Photograph

Photograph

Photograph

Date: 1946
Place of origin:China
Medium: Paper; silver salts
Classification: Archives
Object number: 1996.25.539
Label text:Collected by Juliet Chisholm while in China with U.N.R.A.A.

Label on back:
184. Homeless, starving famine refugees on the streets of Hengyang, Hunan Province, into which in recent months 50,000 starving country people poured to beg for food. Hundreds are dying now on the streets of the much-bombed city, itself bare with famine. CNRRA and UNRRA have collected thousands of starving children and adults and placed them in seven camps in Hengyang where they are housed, given medical attention and fed a gruel made of water and UNRRA flour. Many thousands more need help and many are beyond help.

United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) was formed in 1943 as an international relief agency. It became a part of the United Nations in 1945, but largely shut down operations in 1947 with functions mainly transfering to the International Refugee Organization and World Health Organization.

Hengyang is the second laragest city of the Hunan Province in China. On August 8, 1944 the Japanese captured the city after the longest defense of a single city during the Second Sino-Japanese War.
DescriptionBlack and white photograph of two starving children begging in gutter; child on proper left of photograph is sitting on the curb, wearing pants and a shift; holding a can and chopsticks; feet swollen; child on proper right laying down on walkway; nude with open shirt; in front of child laying down is a dark can with a handle; behind them are several people standing up; legs only visible.
Not on display