I felt much better after 2 months. Then I realised that the room I stayed was filled with wounded soldiers. Because of their pain, most of them were in a bad mood and liked to curse, sometimes cursing the Japanese and sometimes cursing their superiors and doctors. When I started to feel better, I sang songs to the soldiers, songs I learned on the way from Wuhan to Chongqing. My singing was a breath of fresh air in the lives of the wounded soldiers. I was the only little girl who could sing in the hospital. Gradually, I became a star there. When I sang songs, the soldiers would stop cursing and listen attentively. The soldiers who could move would come close to my bedside and gave me their candies, cookies, and other things they received from charitable organisations. Doctors and nurses were surprised how much a little singing girl could do to change the atmosphere of the hospital. They said to me: “Xiao Bao (little darling), when you sing, there is no cursing and screaming in the room, you should do it every day.” So, it became a routine that, when the doctors came to conduct their daily check on the patients, I would sing.
—Zhao Zhinan, a girl of the Zhongguo zhanshi ertong baoyuhui (ZZEB, Wartime Child Welfare Protection Association), born in 1933 in Wuhan, Hubei Province
两个月后，我的情况好多了。这时我才意识到我住的这间病房里全是伤兵。由于伤痛，他们大多数人的情绪很坏，喜欢咒骂，有时候骂日本人，有时候骂他们的长官和医生。我开始感觉好一些后，我就唱歌给他们听，这些歌是我在从武汉到重庆的途中学会的。我的歌声就是这些伤兵生命中的一道清新空气。我是医院里唯一一个会唱歌的小女孩，渐渐地就成了这里的明星。我一唱歌，士兵们就会停止咒骂，人神地聆听我的歌声。那些能够走动的士兵还来到我的床边，靠近我，把他们从慈善组织里领到的糖果、饼干和其他东西都送给我。医生和护士们对一个唱歌的小女孩竟然能够改变医院的气氛也感到很惊讶。他们对我说:“小宝，你一唱歌，病房里就没有咒骂声和喧闹声了，所以你每天都得唱歌。”就这样，医生一来查房、对病人做日常检查，我就开始唱歌。
—赵知难，战时儿童保育会收养的孤儿，1933年生于湖北武汉