August 27 was the day in 1945 when 28 of the 170 female employees of Oji Paper's subsidiary, Nichiman Pulp Manufacturing (Tunka Factory), who had been gang raped by 300 Soviet soldiers on a daily basis, committed mass suicide in one of the many confinement rooms (Nichiman Pulp Incident).
After the incident, the Soviet officers, fearing that they would be held responsible, disposed of the bodies, stopped assaulting the surviving women, and threw them into the camps of the Japanese male employees.
The site was Dunhua County, Jilin Province, Manchukuo (now Dunhua City, Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture, People's Republic of China).
After the end of the Greater East Asia War, tragedies under such lawlessness and violence continued at countless sites.
May the souls of all of them rest in peace.
We must not forget the regret and thoughts of our predecessors and make Japan a country that can protect its precious things even if it has to fight for them.
Tragedies in Manchuria before and after the war
(Manchu Mother and Child Jizo Protection Society)
Japanese Victims in Manchuria at the End of the War
◎ Japanese population in Manchukuo and Kwantung Province = 1.662.234
Manchukuo = 1.433.324 (Excluding military personnel, civilians and their families. Including pioneer settlers) ['44.9, Manchukuo Government Survey].
Kanto Province = 228.910 ['45.6, Kanto Bureau survey].
Manchuria before and after the end of the war = 245,000 (about 60,000 during the Soviet-Japanese war, about 185,000 after the war) (Ministry of Health and Welfare - "50 Years of Relief" [H9] - P86)
◎Reclamation Corps = 270,000 enrolled (including 47,000 called up, 223,000 actual members) (History of Manchurian Settlement [S41]-P436)
Deaths = 78,500 (Deaths in battle, Suicide: 11,520, Deaths from illness: 66,980, Deaths: 15 or more: 77 groups)
(Reference) World War II fatalities (including Sino-Japanese War) (Ministry of Health and Welfare - "30 Years of Repatriation and Relief" [S52]-P311)
Total: approx. 3.1 million (including approx. 2.3 million soldiers, civilians, and paramilitaries, approx. 300,000 Japanese nationals in overseas locations, and approx. 500,000 war casualties)
(Including 245,400 in Manchuria and 34,600 in North Korea = soldiers, civilians, and Japanese in general)
Individual Incidents
Dongan Station bombing (Dongan Province)
On the morning of August 10, 1945, Japanese bombs and shells exploded at Dongan Station on the Hulin Line. (526 people were killed and 236 were missing in the Kurotsuko Settlement alone.)
Ma Mountain Incident (Hadalhe Pioneer Group) (鷄寧県, Dongan Province, mixed)
During evacuation (Soviet troops and bandits attacked), killed in battle and committed suicide421
Sado Settlement Site Incident (Dongan Province, Boryeong County, Nagano, Ibaraki)
In August 2008, 7 settlements (3,000 people) were attacked by Soviet troops and committed suicide.
☆ Kohachinami, Nakagawa Village Settlement (Kabagawa, Saitama, now Arakawa Village, Sanjiang Province)
On August 13, 1945, while evacuating the village, they were attacked by Soviet troops and rioters, and the old, infirm, and weak committed suicide, strangled infants, and drowned. Three hundred people were killed in the war or were missing in action. After arriving at Fangzheng about 20 days later, the devastation continued.
Koko-dong and Tateshina Settlement (Tonghe, Sanjiang Province, Nagano)
Women were raped daily by escaped workers from the Tsuruoka Coal Mine, and 254 women and children, including the leader, committed suicide with poison.
Wujiaxian Laimin Pioneer Group (Buye County, Jilin Province, Kumamoto, the only immigrant from a discriminated tribe)
All committed suicide by cyanide (275 people). Only one survivor escaped as a reporter.
☆ Dae Aoimori Township Settlement (Aomori, Benke County, Hebihe Province, Aomori)
On August 13, a group of 470 people lost their way at Xiaoxing'anling and were attacked by bandits, leaving 90 elderly, wounded, and sick in the mountains. After another difficult journey, they reached Harbin on the 75th day (176 survivors, 151 dead, 143 unknown).
☆ Ruisui Village Settlement Group Mass Suicide (Suiliang County, Beian Province, mixed)
On September 17, the aborigines attacked, and 495 of the 1,056 members committed suicide, most of them women and children. In May 2009, only 71 people were confirmed to be alive in Harbin (118 at the time of repatriation in August).
(Longjiang Province, Fuyu County, suburbs of Qiqihar, attacked by bandits) August 27: 365 people committed suicide, 64 people survived.
☆ Hadawan Settlement (Ning'an County, Peotan Jiang Province, Akita - Manchurian Insurrection) August 19, 1945: 247 people committed suicide, 77 people died in the war
Houou Settlement (Beian Province, Gifu - Soviet troops, local bandits): 216 people committed suicide on August 24.
Tong Hua Incident (Tong Hua Province)
On August 2, 1946, the CCPD arrested many unrelated people and shot 125 of them to death, claiming that former Japanese soldiers had conspired with the Nationalist army to plot an insurrection. The incident is famous for the large number of civilians involved.
Dunhua (Japan-Manchang Pulp) Incident (Jilin Province)
Soviet troops occupied the company housing of the factory, and the wives were assaulted day after day. The number of survivors, including five children, who did not die was five.
［Xing'an San Incident]
Ge Ge Temple Incident
On August 14, 1945, after 11:00 a.m., a group of more than 2,000 residents of the eastern part of Xing'an Street in Xing'an Province and refugees from the Sorun and Wujiaogou areas were heading south toward Baichengzi when they were overrun by Soviet tanks near Gegegeunmiao. Those who barely survived were starving and thirsty, and were attacked by aborigines, causing further casualties as they wandered through the wilderness.
(In addition, 1,500 members of the western group of Kouan-gai were able to return south safely.
Tokyo Ebara Settlement Group (Xing'an South Province, Xi Keqianqi)
People in the Musashikoyama shopping district in the former Ebara Ward of Tokyo changed their jobs in response to the national policy, and more than 1,000 people settled in a place 8 km northwest of Xing'an Town from 1943 to 1944. After the Soviet invasion, they were attacked by local residents, and without knowing the end of the war, they began their flight to Shirajoko on August 16, but were attacked by rioters and Soviet planes, and many of them committed suicide in the green hemp fields of Soumyouzi. The 200-odd escapees were also shot and dismembered by the mob, leaving many dead, and only a few were able to return home. Cenotaph: Roshinji Temple (Oyama, Tokyo)
Niyi Buddhist Pioneer Group (Xing'an South Province, Xiekeqianqi [Harakuro, west of Xing'an Street], Zaimoku-cho, Tokyo, Nyorisenji Temple congregation)
Soviet troops were overpowered 20 km west of Shuangmingzi and attacked by local bandits. 680 members died in battle, 469 committed suicide, and 20 survived.
Cenotaph at Nyorisenji Temple (Hachioji, Tokyo)
Examples of refugee camps
［Harbin: 200,000 people held, 5,000 died.
［Ajo: 9,000 detainees, 2,000 deaths,
［Changchun] The largest number was 150,000 inmates and 30,000 died,
［Changchun: 150,000 detainees and 30,000 deaths, Fushun: 40,000 detainees and 5,500 deaths,
［Fushun] 40,000 interned, 5,500 dead; Mukden] 100,000 interned, 5,000 dead (half of the infants and the elderly died).
(Wintering pioneer groups: 121 groups, 19.318 people, 4.640 people died)
<Example>The 9th Chang Wenfeng Pioneer Group (Tochigi): 580 inmates, 125 dead. The 9th Ma Renhe Kutami (Gifu): 180 inmates, 129 dead. A pioneer group: 125 children, 124 dead.
［Fang Zheng: internment 8640, suicide 2.360 (27%), abduction by the Soviet Union 460 (5%),
1.200 (14%), local wives 2.300 (27%), others. Public Tomb - Chinese side
