Mass grave

Mass graves in Datong Coal Mine

synonym

Wanrenkeng (Shanxi Datong Meiyukou wanrenkeng) generally refers to Datong Coal Mine wanrenkeng

Datong coal mine is located in the south ditch of Meiyukou, Datong City, Shanxi Province. During the Japanese occupation of Datong, they ruthlessly plundered Datong's coal resources, from Shandong, Jiangsu, Henan, Anhui, Hebei and other places to cheat people and work as laborers in Datong coal mine. The miners worked hard for more than ten hours a day under extremely bad conditions, and countless workers died under Japanese fascist rule. After the death of the workers, they were thrown into the wilderness, resulting in a "mass grave" full of bones. Among them, more than 60000 miners died in Nangou mass grave, which is the largest mass grave in Datong.

Cause of formation

During the Japanese occupation of Datong Coal Mine for eight years, they carried out the policy of "exchanging coal with people", plundering 14 million tons of coal, resulting in the destruction and death of more than 60000 miners. On average, one person will die for every 230 tons of coal. There are 14 large "mass graves" in existence. The relatively complete "wanrenkeng" in Nangou of Meiyukou mine is composed of upper and lower tunnels, the upper tunnel is 6.7 meters wide and more than 40 meters deep, and the lower tunnel is 4.5 meters wide and more than 70 meters deep. Some cut off their legs, some broke their spines, some broke their heads, and some crawled toward the cave.

Under the supervision of the Japanese gendarmerie, the mine police, the spy team and the foreign dog team, the miners worked underground for 12-16 hours a day. When they were thirsty and hungry, they drank some dirty water. When the mine is abnormal, it is still forced to go down. When there is an accident, we just grab the machine, not save people. In 1938, the No.9 working face of Meiyukou mine was flooded, and the Japanese still drove the workers down the well. As a result, the underground water rushed out, trapping more than 120 people underground for 15 days. All but eight people died of starvation.

In June 1941, the West pit of Baidong without support was about to collapse, and more than 70 people were still driven down to dig for coal. As a result, Dading collapsed and all of them were crushed to death. In the spring of 1943, the face of No.4 coal mining face in the south of Xinzhou coal mine collapsed and held down eight workers. One of them showed half of his body, and one of them was still alive. The devil on the spot killed the worker with a knife and asked others to dig the machine.

The miner gets a meal card every day, which is only 15 yuan a month, and his salary is more than 100 yuan. Eat Wotou, black bean cake and moldy "Xingya noodles". More than 110 people sleep in a 30 meter long, four or five meter wide earth room, covered with sacks and cement paper bags. Sick do not give medicine, can't get up, let pull corpse team to carry into "mass grave". Those suspected to be infectious diseases were sent to the "burning field" and burned to death before they could catch their breath. Datong's wild wolves and wild dogs are so fat that they are fed by the "mass grave".

Textual research and commemoration

In the 1960s, the identity investigation and textual research of the victims in the "mass graves" in Datong coal mine have begun. In 1961, Datong coal mine opened the entrance of "mass grave" to educate the working class. In 1962, the memorial hall of the "mass grave" site of Datong coal mine was built. Since December 1966, experts from the Institute of culture and Museum of the State Administration of cultural relics of China, the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, and the Beijing Museum of natural history have formed an investigation team. Together with the Datong Mining Bureau, they have conducted a scientific investigation on the "mass grave" in Datong Coal Mine and arranged the remains. In the half year long investigation, experts focused on the research of 188 bones. Through anthropological identification, they determined the identity and cause of death of the dead. They came to the conclusion that "the bones in the mass grave were abandoned during the Japanese occupation of Datong coal mine, and most of them died abnormally". In addition to verifying the identity and cause of death, the investigation team also found the remains of the victims in the pile of bones. In 1969, the class education exhibition hall was built in Datong Coal Mine and opened to the public.

In 2002, Datong Coal Mine "wanrenkeng" was identified as a national AA tourist attraction by Shanxi Provincial Tourism Bureau. In 2004, Shanxi Provincial Bureau of cultural relics designated the "mass grave" as a provincial-level cultural relics protection unit in Shanxi Province. Since 2005, Shanxi provincial government and Tongmei group have jointly invested more than 50 million yuan to carry out large-scale expansion and maintenance of Datong Coal Mine "ten thousand people pit" site Memorial Hall. In 2010, Datong Coal Mine "mass grave" site Memorial Hall as a patriotic education base to open to the public again.

Diaominian, governor of Shanxi Province

On April 2, 2014, Li Xiaopeng, governor of Shanxi Province, went to the southern suburb of Datong City to investigate the treatment of coal mining subsidence area. During the investigation, Li Xiaopeng made a special trip to the memorial hall of Datong Coal Mine wanrenkeng ruins to hang the dead miners.

Address: Nangou, Meiyukou, Datong City

Longitude: 113.140797

Latitude: 40.026506

Tel: 0352-7804892

Chinese PinYin : Wan Ren Keng