Issues: Museums and Memorials

The Chinese People's Resistance Against Japanese Aggression War Memorial

On September 18, 1931, in what came to be known as the Manchurian Incident, Japanese troops detonated explosives in a section of railway near Mukden (today’s Shenyang, the capital of Liaoning Province) and blamed Chinese soldiers for the incident.  The Japanese military then used this as a pretext for occupying the city of Mukden.  The Japanese troops then established the puppet state of Manchukuo.  Japan’s efforts during the 1930s to gain further control over northeast China led eventually to full-scale war following the escalation of conflict in 1937 as a result of the Marco Polo Bridge Incident.

The Chinese People’s Resistance Against Japanese Aggression War Memorial is, according to the director of the memorial, the only national comprehensive war memorial dedicated to the history of China’s resistance against Japanese aggression during WWII. Sponsored by the Beijing Municipal Government, it is located in the city of Wanping and offers exhibits and descriptions of wartime events from the Manchurian Incident in 1931 to the end of the war in 1945.

The first part of the memorial was completed and opened to the public on July 6, 1987, one day before the fiftieth anniversary of the Marco Polo Bridge incident on July 7, 1937.  Under the direction of then-Chinese president Jiang Zemin, the second part of the memorial was completed and opened to the public on July 7, 1997.  The third section of the memorial is under construction and is scheduled to be completed in 2005.

The Chinese People’s Resistance Against Japanese Aggression War Memorial
(Chinese only)