Site where the Japanese army buried Wenzhou residents alive

Site where the Japanese army buried Wenzhou residents alive

The site where the Japanese army buried Wenzhou residents alive is a cultural tourism attraction.

During the War of Resistance Against Japan, the Japanese army occupied Lucheng District in Wenzhou three times, for a total of over 330 days. They committed numerous atrocities in Lucheng, one of which was the live burial of Wenzhou residents on Cuiwei Mountain.

In one night in September 1944 (during the third occupation of Lucheng by the Japanese), Lin Yinyu, Xu Yuandi, Chen Yongquan, Zheng Jinsheng, Lin Maoyuan, and others living near Cuiwei Mountain in Wenzhou saw the Japanese army escorting around seventeen or eighteen captured soldiers of the Nationalist Government to the sweet potato field at the foot of the northern side of Baiyun An (now known as Baiyun Guan) on Cuiwei Mountain. The captives were forced to dig a large pit, after which they were stabbed half to death with bayonets and then buried alive in the pit. Later, residents living near the foot of Cuiwei Mountain could still hear the faint cries of those being buried. The next day, when people passed by the site, they saw the upper bodies of the victims exposed, with wild dogs and vultures pecking at their corpses — a truly gruesome sight.

The site where the Japanese army buried Wenzhou residents alive is located southwest of the Women and Children’s Activity Center at the northern foot of present-day Cuiwei Park, on the upper side of the southeast corner of the square.

Source: Party History Research Office of the CPC Wenzhou Municipal Committee