In Memory of Dr. Bethune

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Description: A film showing the work of Dr Norman Bethune with the Chinese Eighth Route Army during the Sino Japanese War from early 1938 until his death in November 1939. The film has a Chinese soundtrack but it may in the future be possible to improve the quality of the metadata.
Duration: 9 mins 54 secs
Year: 1962
Subjects: Physicians, Communism, China, Medical treatment, Surgery, War victims, Armed forces, Japan, War
Segment 1: National Film and Television Archive logo. All titles are in Mandarin Chinese. The opening main titles run over a statue of Dr. Norman Bethune, a Canadian who worked in China during the Second Sino-Japanese War. We are shown the front cover of a book, which is then opened while the commentary is presumably telling us of the book's contents. It appears to be the essay 'In Memory of Dr. Bethune' written by Mao Tse Tung (aka Mao Zedong), in which Mao praised Bethune's spirit of absolute selflessness. (He had earlier served as a doctor during the First World War and again in the Spanish Civil War, in line with his family tradition of dedication to altruistic human service. Bethune had then arranged to go to China via the China Aid Council in New York. He arrived in China early in 1938 where he met with Mao and it is from this point that the film proper begins.) After another shot of Bethune's statue, the film cuts to action footage of the Second Sino-Japanese War showing the Japanese attack on China in 1937 with burning buildings etc. and shots of Chinese forces. We then see Dr. Bethune walking past a row of enthusiastic Chinese villagers including children and a number of men who have clearly been wounded, one of whom Bethune stops to talk to. We then see Bethune treating not only Chinese soldiers but also villagers and sick children. We then see him carrying out surgery in a hospital (?) working alongside Chinese medical workers. We see him making and fitting a wooden pulley to raise and keep straight the leg of a wounded soldier. We then see him sitting at a typewriter presumably creating training materials and explaining the pulley he had created and its uses. His work is then translated into Chinese - shown on screen. All of this appears to be taking place in Yenan, where he started his work.
Segment 2: Dr. Bethune heads off on horseback waving to his friends as he goes. He is accompanied by a number of Chinese people. We then see him being greeted by a unit of Chinese soldiers, shaking hands etc. [Bethune left Yenan in May 1938 and spent the rest of his time in China in the mountain ranges about 200 miles to the north, where Mao's Eighth Route Army was engaged in fierce fighting with the Japanese. His departure from Yenan and arrival at the front may be what these sequences are intended to portray.] We then see him engaged in treating wounded soldiers. The wooden pulley for traction is shown in use again. Bethune is then shown at the head of a column of Chinese heading out on foot. The next shots show the ruins of a village, presumably destroyed by the Japanese Army. We then see him treating wounded near the front line, moving among rows of stretchers full of wounded. This is interspersed with supposed 'action' footage of gun emplacements etc. We also see shots of him in a makeshift shelter assisted by Chinese nurses. Afterwards we see a unit of the Eight Route Army heading off towards the mountain ranges on horseback. Finally we see a shot of Bethune's arm apparently being treated for blood poisoning and a close up of his face as he lies in bed. This happened in November 1939. We then see him dead with many Chinese soldiers passing to pay their respects. The screen is then filled with Chinese writing. It is assumed that this is a last quote from Mao's essay where he praises Bethune for selflessly giving his life. The film closes with a final shot of the statue to Bethune.
Persistent URL: http://edina.ac.uk/purl/isan/0002-0000-2480-0000-0-0000-0000-0
Written and compiled by the British Universities Film & Video Council © BUFVC 2005
Subject classification by University of Edinburgh Library © 2006