File talk:Unit 731 victim.jpg

 

We need reliable attribution for this photograph.

For this photograph to be educationally useful at all, we need proper and reliable attribution, i.e., information on who took the picture where and when, as well as what it is actually depicting. We may also need to know where and when this photo was first published just to be sure of its copyright status. Without such information, it would be difficult to use it in Wikipedia or anywhere else--Dwy (留言) 08:04, 19 December 2015 (UTC)

I think we now have a better source to tell us what the.photograph shows.

Personally, I do not buy the idea that the "plague prevention" was indeed a bacteriological test (it would have appeared much more plausible if they had.accused the Japanese military of "match-pump” operation), and I doubt that the Chinese news agency is good enough a source to verify the theory, but I understand that is not an issue here in the Commons. --Dwy (留言) 09:30, 28 January 2016 (UTC)

"Description" and "Author"

User:STSC is trying to change the file description from "Manchukuo personnel attending a 'plague prevention' action, which reportedly was an bacteriological test..." to "Manchukuo personnels attend a 'plague prevention' action which is an bacteriological test..." Apart from the obvious grammatical error, I have objection to the removal of "reportedly". The source, Xinhua News Agency is widely considered to be associated with the official propaganda of the Chinese government. It is not neutral to follow the description of the source blindly.

I also have objection to User:STSC's edit in the "Author" section. Jilin Provincial Archives is definitely not the author, and the information required in the section is who took the photograph in 1940.--Dwy (留言) 00:38, 6 March 2016 (UTC)

The description is attributed to the source, Xinhua Press, whoever they are. Regarding the author field, the Wiki Commons' instruction is "If you don't know any individual, use the name of the institution(s) which released it." STSC (留言) 09:42, 19 March 2016 (UTC)

The description is attributed to a source that is widely known to be biased; that is why we need to alert the users with "reportedly".

Jilin Provincial Archives never really "released it" (in terms of copyright, at least); as you can see in the Source, they allowed Wang Haofei/Xinhua Press/Corbis (wrongly) to claim the copyright to the photograph. The relevant fact here is that an unknown author took the picture a long time ago -- long enough for the picture to be released into the public domain.--Dwy (留言) 18:53, 19 March 2016 (UTC)

As User:STSC doesn't seem to be interested in continuing the discussion here, I went ahead with my compromise version. Hope they don't have an objection. --Dwy (留言) 23:33, 29 March 2016 (UTC)