"Bacterial Warfare" is a word we don't want to face. People suffering caused by bacterial viruses is hotter, more intense and more profound than that of being killed directly. The infamous Japanese Army Unit 731, based in Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, is the largest bacterial weapons research laboratory and purgatory in the world.
Fog covers Changde city (in Hunan Province) on Tuesday, November 4, 1941.
In the early hours of the morning, the hasty air raid alarm woke up the sleeping Changde people, who had been accustomed to the air raid at 9am since 1938, but this time they were confused about this air raid.
As usual, they were ready to flee to the countryside of Changde, and found that the plane did not drop any bombs, but instead of wheat, millet, sorghum, rags and other debris all the way around the city. What they didn't know was that all these items were covered with Japanese-made plague. Germ warfare covering the land of Changde.
An early photograph of the crew of Japanese Unit 731 invaded Changde on Nov. 4, 1941.
Li Youshen lived in the countryside of Changde. At midnight on May 8, Li came back from the city and became ill, and then died after two days. After arranged Li's funeral, people who had been contacted with Li fell one by one. Those who came to take care of the sick people or visited them were all spread the plague to others… From Li, a total of 17 people in this small and peaceful village died of the plague.
Li's village was sparsely populated, with only a few households. When the city's epidemic prevention team arrived at Li village, there was no one could collect the corpses in the small village.
According to official statistics, Changde Germ Warfare killed 7,643 civilians, and tens of thousands of people suffering owning to the bacterial war.
Movie Dawning tells a story of victim Xia Jiajun. From the perspective of life, showing the philosophy of love, it involves the deepest love and compassion of the audience. When something becomes an obstacle to be overcome, we would pay a cost for it that we have never imagined.
War is the heaviest and most profound chapter in the history of mankind. It is recorded in blood by countless people. The pain of war is long and hard to heal, and today we have never stopped telling and reflecting on the history of war.
In the movie, little Xia Jiajun was separated from his family during the war and then he cames to the reeducation center. He experienced the tragic situation that his friends had been left one after another due to the plague virus, but he also spent a golden childhood in the "children's Noah's ark" : sharing food, catching fish, putting river lamp etc, these were his wonderful memories of his life during the reeducation center.
But in reality, little Xia Jiajun walked alone to the reeducation center, on the way to the center, jets flying overhead, bomb constantly falling, he and the fastest-running children hid in caves. When he came out, he saw dismembered corpses everywhere, and the air was full of the smell of smoke and blood, the terrible memory never go away.
In 1941, under the siege of artillery attack and bacteria suffering, Changde was like a hell.
At the end of the film, Xia Jiajun who is an old man now calmly facing the camera and recalled, "before entering the reeducation center, I used to hide in the cave. When I came out from cave, I saw blood on the ground, dismembered corpses around the outside cave, the buzzing and creepy sound of the plane always in my mind... "
"No man is an island,
Entire of itself.
Each is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Motherland is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manner of thine own
Or of thine friend's were.
Each man's death diminishes me,
For I am involved in mankind.
Therefore, send not to know
For whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee."
By John Donne（1572－1631）
"细菌战” 是我们不愿面对的词汇，刺痛着我们的心。比起被直接屠杀死，细菌病毒给人们带来的痛苦更炽烈、更煎熬也更深远。臭名昭著的侵华日军731部队，设立于黑龙江省哈尔滨，是世界历史上规模最大的细菌武器研究实验室和炼狱。
1941年11月4日，星期二，大雾笼罩着洞庭湖和常德市。
凌晨，急促的空袭警报惊醒了睡梦中的常德人，从1938年开始，常德人已经习惯了上午9点才会开始空袭的节奏，但对于这次的空袭，他们感到一头雾水。
他们一如既往的准备逃往乡下，却发现飞机并没有投下任何炸弹，取而代之的是飞机在城区上方，一路投下麦粒、谷子、高粱、烂布条等杂物。他们不知道，这些杂物上布满了日军制造的鼠疫，细菌战笼罩在常德的土地。
1941年11月4日清晨侵华日军第731部队在常德投撒鼠疫细菌的机组人员在飞机旁边的合影。
李佑生一家人在常德的乡下，5月8号半夜，李从常德城里回来一病不起，两天后，他离开了人世。给李安排葬礼后，和李有过接触的人都接二连三地倒下，前来照顾的、探望的、帮忙的，又将鼠疫传染给其他人，从李开始，这个平静的小村落一共17人因感染鼠疫而逝世。
当年的李家村人烟稀少，仅有十几户人家，等到城里的防疫队员赶到时，村里已经没有人收尸了。
官方的统计里，常德细菌战，一共有7643名无辜同胞丧生，而因细菌战遭受苦难的人数高达数万人。
电影通过真实人物夏家俊的故事，从生命的角度，透射出简单的哲理, 陪伴的长情。它牵扯到观众内心最深处的爱和同情，当有些东西成为障碍需要去跨越的时候，我们会为它付出未曾想象过的代价。
战争，是人类历史长河中最沉重且深刻的一章，是无数人用鲜血记载的。战争带来的痛苦久久难以愈合，而今天的我们对战争史的讲述和反思一直没有停止过。
电影里，夏家俊在战乱中和家人分离，辗转来到教养院。在这里，他经历了朋友们因感染鼠疫病毒而相继离去的悲惨场面，但他也在这个“儿童诺亚方舟”里度过了一段金色童年：分享食物，河边捉鱼，琴声飞扬，雨中陪伴，放河灯，这些都是他在教养院生活中的美好记忆；
但现实中，夏家俊孤身一人前往教养院，在途中，他经历着日军的轰炸，头顶上空的飞机轰鸣，炸弹不断地往下掉，他和跑得最快的孩子们躲在山洞里，出来时他看见洞口周围已是残肢遍布 ，到处都是血，空气中布满了硝烟味和血腥味儿，这个记忆在脑海中一直消散不去。
1941年，在炮火与细菌的围攻下，常德犹如人间地狱。
影片的最后，夏家俊老人面对镜头平静的回忆: “没进教养院之前，我经常躲在山洞里，出来我就看到大街上有血，洞口周围残肢遍布 ，脑海里都是飞机嗡嗡嗡，毛骨悚然的声音……”
没有人是自成一体、与世隔绝的孤岛,
每一个人都是广袤大陆的一部份.
如果海浪冲掉了一块岩石,
欧洲就减少.
如同一个海岬失掉一角,
如同你的朋友或者你自己的领地失掉一块.
每个人的死亡都是我的哀伤,
因为我是人类的一员.
所以,不要问丧钟为谁而鸣,
丧钟你而鸣!
约翰·多恩John Donne（1572 - 1631）