By far the most interesting sight in the city itself is the Revolutionary Martyr's Museum (Lieshi lingyuan), housed in a park to the west of the city center. This is a memorial post to all the valiant communists who struggled, from the early days of Republican suppression to the all out war of the later years against Japanese imperialism and the Republican movement, that finally ended with Communist victory in 1950.
The most interesting men buried here, from a foreign perspective, are two foreign doctors, the Canadian Norman Bethune in the western side of the park, and the Indian Dwarkanath Kotnis on the eastern side. These are the
only two foreigners to be considered heroes of the revolution, and are of the few foreigners, along with the more famous Edgar Snow, who had direct contact with the Communists in Yan'an during World War Two.
Dr. Norman Bethune (1890-1939) arrived in China as head of a medical team, helping the wounded from the battles that were raging all across China, mostly on the fronts against Japan. He went to Yan'an, the Chinese Communist Party headquarters, in the spring of 1938, joining the Eighth Route Army as a part of the War of Resistance Against Japan and the tussles against Chiang Kaishek's Kuomintang (Guomindang, Nationalist Party). In true martyr style, Bethune was to die fighting for the cause. Near the front lines in Tangxian County, Hebei, he contracted blood poisoning, and finally passed away, in the small village of Huangshikou, on November 12, 1939. Mao Zedong was to write of this man, in a tribute dated December 12, 1939, as the most selfless of souls, with the line: "What kind of spirit is this that makes a foreigner selflessly adopt the cause of the Chinese people's liberation as his own?".
A Canadian film, "Bethune, the Making of a Hero", is a good introduction to this topic.
Dr. Dwarkanath Shantaram Kotnis (1900-1942) was a young man when he first arrived in China, at the port of Hankou, Wuhan, also arriving as part of a medical mission. He was sent to Yan'an, and was eventually to be posted as director of the International Peace Hospital there. In 1941, Kotnis finally joined the Eight Route Army, after his efforts all across the northern China region (even marching 800 kilometers to tend to the wounded from the Shanxi warfront). The hardships of suppressed military life, stresses that were especially relevant to the doctors who often had to work over 72 hours at a stretch, finally began to tell on him. He died on December 9, 1942, and was buried in the Heroes Courtyard, Nanquan Village. Dr. Kotnis was given a memorial stone in the Martyr's Museum, Shijiazhuang, after the fame of his ideals spread. Madam Sun Yatsen was to say to the Indian nation, concerning his role in the revolution, that "His memory belongs not only to your people and ours, but to the noble roll-call of fighters for the freedom and progress of all mankind. The future will honor him even more than the present, because it was for the future that he struggled."
Both of these heroic figures are also honoured in a small museum at the back of the park, that contains writings of the two men, including a handbook of vocabulary that Kotnis wrote on his passage from India to China, some of the instruments that the surgeons were forced to use in their medical fight for life, and various photos of the doctors, including some with the Communist Party's most influential figures.
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