The former headquarters of the Kwantung Army of the Sinful Division 185

Unit 731, Fake Manchukuo, September 18 Incident, Kenji Tojihara, Hideki Tojo and Ningji Okamura ...... These ugly words are all directly related to the Guantung Army, the sinister division, which was the Japanese force stationed in northeast China from 1919 to 1945. At its maximum strength it had 31 infantry divisions, 11 infantry and tank brigades, a death squad brigade and two aviation armies, totalling some 850,000 men. The Kwantung Army was an important part of the Japanese Army and was known as the "flower of the Imperial Army" in the early years of the Second World War because of its excellent equipment and combat power, but it was also the vanguard of the invasion of China, the chief culprit in supporting the pseudo-Manchukuo and the cannon fodder for the Pacific War, committing numerous crimes in China and the world.
As this sinful division was stationed in northeast China from start to finish, the best place to learn about the Kwantung Army is in the northeast. The Kwantung Army Command, the highest military organ, was stationed in three successive places. In the spring of 1919, when the Japanese government adjusted its colonial rule in north-eastern China and introduced a system of military and political separation, the Kwantung Office and the Kwantung Army Command were established respectively, and the former Kwantung Capital Army Department was changed to the Kwantung Army Command. "On the night of the September 18 Incident, the Kwantung Army Headquarters was moved to Fengtian (now Shenyang), and in March 1932, Japan supported the establishment of "Manchukuo", and in October of the same year, the Kwantung Army Headquarters was moved to Xinjing (now Changchun). The former headquarters of the Kwantung Army in Shenyang is now the Shenyang General Workers' Union building, the one in Changchun is now the seat of the Jilin Provincial Committee, and only the one in Lushun has been established as the Museum of the former headquarters of the Kwantung Army.

The former site of the Kwantung Army Command in Lushun is a century-old Russian-style building, and the building itself is a national key cultural relic protection unit. Before the Russo-Japanese War, it was the artillery department of the Russian Kwantung State Army, and after the Russo-Japanese War, it became the army department of the Japanese Kwantung Governorate, and in 1919 it was changed to the Kwantung Army Command. The September 18 Incident, which shocked China and abroad, was planned and carried out in this small building.

Why was it called the Kwantung Army? In 1898 the Russians leased Dalian and Lushun and called the leased land Kwantungju. In 1905 Japan, the winner of the Russo-Japanese War took the leased land and the South Manchurian Railway from the Russians and continued to call it Kwantungju.

Japan later stationed an army in the Lend-Lease, initially to protect the railway and Japanese expatriates, and this army became the Kwantung Army.

The museum at the former headquarters of the Kwantung Army is very cold compared to the Lushun museum across the street, and although the history is heavy, I think it's important to come here as a Chinese to learn about it.

The drawings on the staircase show the crimes of this sinful division, many of which are based on historical photographs.

After the victory in the Russo-Japanese War, Japan acquired the privileges of the Russian Lend-Lease and the South Manchurian Railway in China, and it was customary to set up a railway guard with 15 soldiers per kilometre, nominally to prevent bandits from destroying the railway.

In May 1928, the Kwantung Army caused the Jinan tragedy. Fearing that China's unification would not allow them to invade at will, they tried their best to obstruct the Second Northern Expedition, captured the city of Jinan and carried out a massacre, shooting people on sight, cutting off women's breasts and stabbing them to death.

In June 1928, the same Kwantung Army killed Zhang Zuolin, who refused to cooperate with Japan, in the Huanggutun Incident.

On 18 September 1931, the Kwantung Army staged the Liuzhu Lake Incident, which was used as a pretext to shell the Northeast Army camp and launch the September 18 Incident, a criminal army that sounded the trumpet of the 14-year war against China.

Among the main generals of the Kwantung Army, we can find the names of many notorious Class A war criminals, such as Kenji Toihara, Hideki Tojo and Ningji Okamura, who all started their careers in the Kwantung Army.

The restored office of the Kwantung Army Command, with two sun flags standing out, shows Meijiro Umezu, one of the 28 fascist war criminals tried in Tokyo, who was the longest-serving Kwantung Army commander.

A map of the office of the Kwantung Army Command, at a time when Taiwan and Korea were part of Japan and the pseudo-Manchukuo was outside of China.

A restored map of the office of the Chief of Staff of the Kwantung Army, where Hideki Tojo, the head of the Japanese Fascists, was known as the "Razor General" for his dictatorship and brutality in the Kwantung Army.

The weapons of the Kwantung Army, all of them stained with Chinese blood.

The uniform of the Guantung Army, a criminal army.

Military swords and blankets of the Kwantung Army.

Historical information about the Kwantung Army.

Clothing of the Kwantung Army, an army mainly based in the northeast, whose main force was transferred to the Pacific after 1942 and was wiped out by the American forces, and the remnants was destroyed by the Soviet Red Army in the north-east.

Medical supplies of the Kwantung Army, which were supposed to be used to treat the sick and save lives, but look particularly horrific as they are reminiscent of "731".

The 731st was also part of the Kwantung Army and was known as the 731st Anti-epidemic Water Supply Unit of the Japanese Kwantung Army in Manchuria, known as the Ishii Unit or Kamo Unit.

Unit 731 also became synonymous with Japan's secret military medical unit engaged in biological and germ warfare research and research related to human experimentation and was the demonic unit of the sinful division.

Many of you will remember the 1980s film called Black Sun 731, in which some researchers believe that over 10,000 Chinese, Koreans, and allied prisoners of war were killed in experiments conducted by Unit 731.

In addition to research on germ warfare and biological weapons, Unit 731's more heinous experiments were vivisection, gunshot penetration, frostbite experiments, syphilis, plague tests, human limb swapping, human and horse blood swapping, the effects of germs on foetuses, and human-animal crossbreeding.

The Kwantung Army did all sorts of bad things in the Northeast and in China. Japanese militarism was hated, and so was the Chinese nation.

After more than 2,000 years of slavery, the bloodlust of the Chinese people has long been worn out, and whenever I see pictures like this, I always mourn their misfortune and rage at their injustice.

After the outbreak of the Pacific War in 1942, the main force of the Kwantung Army, the flower of the Imperial Army, was gradually drawn to the Pacific front, and in 1943, when the situation was reversed, the elite of the Kwantung Army was wiped out by the American forces on the Pacific islands of Midway, Saipan and Iwo Jima.

On 9 August 1945, the Soviet Red Army marched back to the northeast and the Kwantung Army was killed by 83,000 men and captured by 594,000. After the war, the remaining Kwantung Army officers and men were sent as prisoners to Siberia for forced labour.

In front of the Museum of the former headquarters of the Kwantung Army is another national key cultural relic protection unit, the Sino-Soviet Friendship Memorial Tower, built-in 1955.

In fact, there has never been any friendship between Russia and China, only the interests of the country.

Just past the Friendship Tower is the Lushun Museum, another key national cultural heritage site.
The history of the Kwantung Army is essentially the history of Japanese militarism. For 27 years, from 1919 to 1945, this army acted as the vanguard of the war of aggression against China, supported the military backing of the pseudo-Manchukuo, caused untold tragedies and massacres, and set up the infamous Unit 731, but in the end, it could not escape the fate of being cannon fodder for the Pacific islands and a martyr for Japanese militarism. One man's work is worth a thousand bones, whether he wins or loses, and it is always the sons and daughters of civilians who suffer. The fate of the millions of Japanese expatriates abandoned in north-eastern China after the surrender of Japan was equally tragic, whether they committed mass suicide, froze to death and starved to death, or were massacred by Soviet troops or had their women raped. The vast majority of them were civilians who had set out into the foreign wilderness for the so-called "glorious imperial dream", only to wake up to a nightmare in which their loved ones had already been buried by war and their fate was in turmoil. The Chinese side, not to mention the Chinese side, suffered civilian casualties in every war, with some 18 million soldiers and civilians dying in World War II. Most of the time war is a game for politicians, but it is always wrapped up in the noble appearance of national interest and national righteousness. I think that other than wars for the defence of home and freedom, other wars for this doctrine, that religion, defence of the leader, opening up the country, and so on, in various names, are unjust.
In feudal societies, there were various non-forceful methods such as peacemaking, tribute and messenger exchanges, although these were still only auxiliary methods of warfare. In modern times, more and more disputes are settled through good offices, negotiations and international arbitration, and war is becoming a last resort. Remembering history is the only way to prevent its repetition, and it is to be hoped that such ugly history as that of the Kwantung Army will never happen again.