Ruins of a Japanese Invading Army Airport

Ruins of a Japanese Invading Army Airport

The ruins of the Japanese invading army airport is a cultural tourism attraction.

Japanese aircraft bunkers are relatively concentrated in the Xing'an League area, with Haoren and Wuchagou being the most representative. On the open mountainous hills of Haoren Sumu in Horqin Right Front Banner, the slightly semi-elliptical Japanese aircraft bunkers follow the terrain and stand in a row. Their unique shape and sturdy construction attract the attention of passing tourists. Having withstood over half a century, these bunkers seem to silently recount that fierce battle.

On August 9, 1945, the Soviet Army launched a full-scale offensive against the Japanese Kwantung Army. By the 12th, Haoren had come under Soviet control. Air superiority was key to victory in the later stages of World War II. The Soviet Air Force formed composite formations to carry out targeted bombings on transportation routes and military facilities such as mountain roads, airports, runways, and ammunition depots. The aircraft bunkers were, of course, the first targets. Thanks to the timely and accurate bombings by the Soviet Air Force, most Japanese planes were trapped inside the bunkers; those that managed to reach the runway became immediate targets and were torn apart before they could even take off. With their planes destroyed, the Japanese retreated north of Haoren's Dajiazi using shelters and the bunkers for cover. Over 400 Japanese soldiers hastily built makeshift fortifications, equipped with more than 20 mountain guns, and used the high ground to make their final desperate stand in the spirit of Bushido.

Haoren was a strategically vital location that the Soviet 39th Army had to secure in order to open the Baicheng–Arxan corridor, making the battle extremely intense. The fight at Sanzijiazhi lasted four hours. Soviet forces that broke through from the northwest drove the Japanese off the high ground, turning the positional battle into a pursuit. Traces of the fierce fighting can be found in Jinshantun, Daiheyingzi, and Lianhe Tun within Haoren. By the 14th, this group of Japanese soldiers was completely annihilated.

The Japanese aircraft bunkers in Haoren were built in 1944, identical in specifications and structure to those in Wuchagou, with a rational layout and formidable formation. On the eve of the end of the Anti-Japanese War, though having lost air superiority, the Japanese were still unwilling to give up and continued to stubbornly strengthen their air force in a last-ditch effort. What the Japanese did not expect was that their small fighter planes never even got the chance to warm up—the only things left behind were the highly bomb-resistant bunkers, standing as ironclad evidence of Japanese fascist aggression in China.

The ruins of an airport used by the Japanese and puppet troops during World War II, with several abandoned hangars scattered across lush green grass. On the hillside ahead, cattle graze and herders ride horses, creating a pastoral scene that makes it hard to imagine what happened here in the last century.