23 Pages of French Diplomatic Archives Accessioned in Qingdao: New Evidence of Japanese Aggression

September 3rd marks the Anniversary of the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression. A special accession ceremony was held at the Qingdao Library — the ceremony to accept Japanese aggression historical materials donated by the Marcus team under the theme "Remember History, Cherish Peace." Twenty-three pages of historical materials from the Diplomatic Archives Center in Nantes, France, were officially accessioned into the Qingdao Library.

So what exactly do these archives record?

Zhang Shufeng, a researcher at the Qingdao Academy of Social Sciences, explained on site: these archives were originally held at the Diplomatic Archives Center in Nantes of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. They consist of 9 documents totaling 23 pages, spanning the years 1920 to 1946, with a core focus on 1931 to 1937. They are consular reports, military intelligence, and situational analyses submitted by the French consul in Qingdao to the French Consulate General in Tianjin at the time, preserving historical records of modern Qingdao from the perspective of a third-party diplomat.

"As original extraterritorial archives preserved by the French diplomatic system, they step outside the narrative framework of both China and Japan, and through an objective and neutral third-party perspective, corroborate the military expansion and economic aggression of Japanese militarism in Qingdao" Zhang Shufengpointed out at the ceremony. He added that these archives hold both academic research value and significance for patriotic education.

The archives traveled from Nantes, France, to Nanjing, and have now finally returned to the city they document — Qingdao. Behind this journey lies more than a year of transnational efforts by three young people from China and France.

French youths Marcus Detrez and Basile Gauvain, together with Chinese youth Zhong Haosong, were brought together by a family memory. Marcus's maternal grandfather, Roger-Pierre Laurence, was in the Shanghai French Concession in the 1930s and used his camera to truthfully record the atrocities committed by Japanese invading forces against Chinese civilians. Last August, Marcus donated 618 historical photographs collected by his grandfather to China free of charge. Since then, the three have embarked on an even more arduous path of uncovering historical materials.

Their footprints have extended from France to Japan and South Korea, sifting through and identifying documents among the vast files of the Diplomatic Archives Center in Nantes, and copying and organizing these long-dormant documents at their own expense. In May this year, they handed over 42 documents totaling 1,993 pages of diplomatic literature to Nanjing. On August 15, the anniversary of Japan's unconditional surrender 81 years ago, they donated another 891 pages of materials on the Japanese invasion of China, as well as 20 kilograms of Japanese-language evidence of wartime crimes brought back from Japan. Through their actions, they have demonstrated what it means to "protect the truth at all costs."

Today, these 23 pages of archives were formally accessioned into the Qingdao Library. This act is not merely a donation of historical materials; it is a vivid practice by young people across borders in safeguarding historical truth and conveying the ideals of peace, demonstrating that remembering history is a common pursuit of all humanity. The three young people were not present at the ceremony, but their names, together with these archives, will be permanently remembered by the city of Qingdao.