In 1937, when the Japanese troops invaded China and committed the Nanjing Massacre, medical staff of Gulou (Drum Tower) Hospital were so brave and fearless that they treated the wounded regardless of the nationality. 

In 2020, when COVID-19 is sweeping through the world, medial workers are at the frontline in the fight against the pandemic. China and many countries in the world have helped each other. As President Xi Jinping has said, history and practice have proved that mankind is a community with a shared future, no country can stay immune in a major crisis, and solidarity and cooperation is the only right way in the world. 

Braving the challenges, love without borders 

In Arcadia, California, the inscription on the face of the monument for late U.S. physician Robert O. Wilson reads: "He will always be remembered by us for his courageous act during Nanjing Massacre." 

File photo of Robert O. Wilson in Gulou Hospital.

Wilson, born in Nanjing to missionary parents, remained in the war zone during the Nanjing Massacre to treat victims. Robert O. Wilson, Jr., son of the physician, said as a surgeon his father always tried his best to save civilians injured by the Japanese soldiers and even worked 20 hours a day, performing his duties as a doctor and also out of love for the Chinese people. Because of the pandemic, the junior, also a doctor, was not able to offer free medical help to the disadvantaged in Mexico as usual. He was also touched by the bravery and dedication of medical staff of Gulou Hospital, where his father once worked tirelessly.  

Robert O. Wilson, Jr. visits Gulou Hospital in 2018.

Gu Qin, director of the Department of Critical Care Medicine at Gulou Hospital, was among the first medical team of eight experts sent by China to Latin American and Caribbean countries to help fight the pandemic. Over a journey of mor than 15,000 kilometers, they have showed the humanitarian spirit in the COVID-19 battlefield, a war without smoke of gunpowder.