Gegenmiao massacre
Part of the Soviet invasion of Manchuria
LocationGegenmiao lamasery
DateAugust 14, 1945 (1945-08-14)
TargetJapanese women and children
Attack type
War crime, massacre, mass rape
DeathsOver 1,000
PerpetratorsSoviet Union Red Army and local Chinese civilians
MotiveAnti-Japanese racism
Revenge for Japanese war crimes

The Gegenmiao massacre or the Gegenmiao incident[1] was a war crime by the Red Army and a part of the local Chinese population against over half of a group of 1,800 Japanese women and children who had taken refuge in the lamasery Gegenmiao/Koken-miao (葛根廟) on August 14, 1945, during the Soviet invasion of Manchuria.[1][2]

Soviet soldiers committed the massacre in Gegenmiao/Koken-miao (present day: Gegenmiao zhen; 葛根廟鎭), a town in the Horqin Right Front Banner of the Hinggan League of Inner Mongolia. The Red Army shot refugees, ran them over with tanks or trucks, and bayoneted them after they raised a white flag. After two hours, Red Army soldiers had murdered well over one thousand Japanese refugees, mostly women and children.[3] Angry Chinese chased a group of Japanese refugees into a river, where many drowned. Soldiers raped several women and children, sometimes after murdering them.[4] Chinese civilians raped and murdered a Japanese woman after Red Army soldiers murdered her child.[5] The Red Army pursued and murdered a Japanese family that tried to hide in the trenches.[6] The Red Army also beat mothers into submission[4] in order to kidnap their children.[4] In the market, a Japanese boy could sell for 300 yen, and a girl for 500 yen.[7]

The Red Army murdered over 1,000 Japanese refugees by the end of the massacre.[8]

Aftermath

Survivors and their families designated August 14 as a day of memorial for the event. The ceremony occurs in the temple of Gohyakurakan-ji in Tokyo.[6]

In 2017, a documentary named Witness to the Gegenmiao Massacre was released, directed by a survivor whose mother and little siblings were murdered by Red Army soldiers in the massacre.[9][6]

References

Citations

  1. 1 2 Mayumi Itoh, Japanese War Orphans in Manchuria: Forgotten Victims of World War II, Palgrave Macmillan, April 2010, ISBN 978-0-230-62281-4, p. 34.
  2. ↑ Ealey, Mark. "An August Storm: the Soviet-Japan Endgame in the Pacific War". Japan Focus. Retrieved 21 February 2014.
  3. ↑ Fujiwara, 1995 p.323
  4. 1 2 3 Okushi, 1996 pp.163-165
  5. ↑ Okushi, 1996 pp.158-164
  6. 1 2 3 "Survivor of 1945 'Gegenmiao' massacre continues to tell tale". Mainichi Daily News. 2017-08-11. Retrieved 2022-01-08.
  7. ↑ Hando, 2002 p.317
  8. ↑ "As World War II entered its final stages the belligerent powers committed one heinous act after another". History News Network. Retrieved 2022-01-08.
  9. ↑ "Witness to the Gegenmiao Massacre". The Japan Times. 2019-12-21. Retrieved 2022-01-08.

Sources


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