history

The Japanese imperialists occupied Korea by force of arms in the last century and were hell-bent on suppression and massacre of the Korean people not only in Korea but also in Northeast China.

At that time, many Koreans were living in Northeast China, and their anti-Japanese consciousness was very high.

The Japanese imperialists hatched a plot to massively kill Koreans in the area by mobilizing large armed forces.

One day in October 1920, a group of “mounted bandits” launched a “raid” on Hunchun where a Japanese consulate was located. The Japanese imperialists spread a rumour that the incident was attributable to the units of the Korean Independence Army. But, in truth, the “mounted bandits” who “raided” Hunchun were the riff-raff bribed by the Japanese imperialists.

Taking advantage of this incident, the Japanese imperialists staged a large-scale “punitive” operations in the Jiandao area on the pretext of “protecting the lives and property of the Japanese resident in Jiandao”.

A regiment of the 19th Division stationing in Korea, police forces in South Hamgyong Province, expedition troops to Siberia and Manchurian railway garrison forces were rallied in the area of Jiandao. Their targets of attack were innocent Koreans and villages where they lived, rather than any military facilities or armed forces.

They killed Koreans everywhere they lived, be they men or women, young or old, without discrimination: they pulled eyeballs out of living persons, skinned them, tore their limbs apart and buried dozens of them alive at once; they also tied their limbs and killed them by cutting the limbs into several pieces, threw children into burning houses after snatching them from their parents, and slaughtered other Koreans in such a cruel way as passing rings through their noses and disembowelling them.

In a village in Yanji County alone, they killed 255 out of 300 inhabitants by throwing them into fire after removing their face skins.

In another county, they burnt down more than 1 600 houses and killed everyone there. They even shot children to death or buried them alive.

A foreigner who witnessed the atrocities of the Japanese imperialists on the spot wrote: “They took everyone out of the houses, irrespective of sex or age, and shot all of them to death and threw those who had not died yet into the fire.… There were many corpses among the piles of ashes. I shoved the ashes and found cut hands and feet, so I gathered them and took pictures of them. I was so frightened that my hands trembled and I had to take photographs of them four times.”

The group of barbarians who found pleasure in human killing for their purpose of aggression dyed the whole of Jiandao with the civilians’ blood and celebrated the “victory” of the “punitive operations” and even held a ceremony of commendation.

A century has passed since then, but the Korean people never forget the past crimes of Japan and will surely make it pay dearly for them.