Writers and photographers were not shy about goosing the story for effect. On August 28, 1937, H. S. “Newsreel” Wong took a picture of a blackened Chinese baby at the Shanghai South Railway station just after a Japanese air raid. Editors named the picture “Bloody Saturday,” and it became the most celebrated symbol of the conflict. There was China mewling helplessly for a Western savior. Questions were raised about the authenticity of the image when another photograph surfaced showing a man, probably Wong’s assistant, carrying the infant. Wong seems to have staged the shot.
