This striking elevated photograph, preserved in a WWII-era Japanese personal photo album, looks down over a walled town nestled in China's loess plateau region, likely in Shaanxi, Shanxi, or Gansu province. The heavily eroded terrain, terraced hillside farms, and cave dwellings cut into the cliffs are hallmarks of this distinctive landscape. Photographs such as this were commonly taken by Japanese servicemen documenting the occupied Chinese countryside during the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945), part of the wider conflict that merged into World War II. Project: 218276