Monument to the Workers Killed at Xiaguan Power Plant

Monument to the Workers Killed at Xiaguan Power Plant

The Monument to the Workers Killed at Xiaguan Power Plant is located in the compound of the Datang Nanjing Xiaguan Power Plant near Zhongshan Wharf. It commemorates 45 workers who were killed during the —— and is also the earliest memorial in Nanjing dedicated to compatriots who perished during the Japanese invasion of China.

Before the fall of Nanjing in December 1937, 54 employees of the capital power plant of the Nationalist Government, including Deputy Chief Engineer XU Shiying, were ordered to maintain power supply and remained at the plant. On December 13, after the Japanese army entered the city, the power station was crowded with refugees fleeing the chaos, creating a terrifying atmosphere. Considering the impossibility of normal production and the safety of the remaining staff, XU Shiying ordered the shutdown of operations and led the workers to take refuge in the egg factory of the British-owned Jardine Matheson & Co. On December 14, the Japanese army stormed into the egg factory and detained thousands of refugees, including the power plant workers, at the coal wharf along the river. In the early hours of December 18, the Japanese soldiers divided the refugees into groups and machine-gunned them. Two out of the 47 workers from Xiaguan Power Plant survived the gunfire, while the other 45 tragically died in this mass execution. According to the History of the Labor Movement of Xiaguan Power Plant Workers, among those captured by the Japanese, two workers managed to survive. One of them, named CUI Xingfu, recalled that on the night of December 15, they had gone without food or water for two days, suffering from hunger and cold, their feet numb from standing on the wet and muddy riverbank. Everyone huddled together for warmth. “Just then, we suddenly heard what sounded like countless machine guns firing at us. People started screaming. A bullet went through my armpit and came out my back. I felt a ringing in my ears and then lost consciousness. When I woke up, it was just getting light. I looked toward the shore and didn’t see a single Japanese soldier. So, despite the pain, I crawled past countless bodies and escaped.”

In 1946, the Nationalist Government erected a monument at the plant entrance to commemorate the 45 fallen workers. The monument was completed on April 17, 1947, during the 19th anniversary celebration of the capital power plant. The original site of the monument was in the flower bed at the entrance of Xiaguan Power Plant, “with the stone base of a tall commemorative flagpole also serving as the monument, engraved with the names of the 45 deceased workers and an inscription written by Lu Fazeng, the plant manager.” After the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1951, the monument was moved to the plant’s residential area and re-erected with a new inscription. The story of the Xiaguan Power Plant workers also appears in the famous Diary of John Rabe. After the Japanese occupied Nanjing, they still needed electricity and approached the German businessman Rabe in the safety zone. Rabe went to Xiaguan and found that most of the power plant workers had been killed, making it impossible to restore power. He recorded this incident in his diary, which also serves as indirect evidence of the atrocities committed by the Japanese army.