Yanwo Massacre Memorial Hall

Yanwo Massacre Memorial Hall

The Yanwo Massacre Memorial Hall serves as a patriotic education base.

The Yanwo Massacre Memorial Hall is one of the first youth patriotic education bases in Xuzhou. It commemorates the heinous crimes committed by Japanese invaders on May 20, 1938, when they brutally slaughtered over 670 innocent villagers in Yanwo, Tongshan County. To inspire future generations to remember national humiliation and promote patriotism, Tongshan County built this Yanwo Massacre Memorial Hall in August 1971 as a patriotic education site for millions of citizens and school students. Visitors flocked here to pay their respects. However, due to various reasons and years of neglect in maintenance, the memorial’s walls collapsed, roofs caved in, and weeds overran the site, leading to a gradual decline in visitors in recent years.

To ensure that people remember history and expose the atrocities of the Japanese invasion, the Publicity Department of Tongshan County Committee, the County Civilization Office, Zhangji Town Government, and Yanwo Village jointly organized the restoration of the memorial hall earlier this year. The Urban Morning Post also repeatedly called for public support through extensive coverage. Thanks to efforts and donations from all sectors of society, the first phase of the Yanwo Massacre Memorial Hall has recently been restored and is scheduled to open to the public for free during the National Day holiday. Yesterday morning, a reporter visited the site for an on-site interview. The over 10-acre memorial hall is no longer the quiet, deserted place it once was—landscaping is mostly complete, and one of the two wing buildings that house massacre relics has been renovated.

New exhibits include many precious materials

In the exhibition hall, all nine rooms have been fully renovated. The old photos and paintings that had hung on the walls for over 30 years have been replaced with many new and valuable materials. The Anti-Japanese War section now also features anti-war propaganda artwork by the master artist Li Keran. Reporters also learned that the second phase of the memorial hall’s restoration requires substantial funding. Over 4,000 villagers of Yanwo hope that people from all walks of life will continue to lend a helping hand, so that the fully restored memorial hall can truly become a patriotic education base that warns future generations and promotes national spirit.