Dongning Fortress Complex

　　During World War II, after the Japanese imperialism invaded China, it built 17 massive secret military fortresses in strategic locations along the Sino-Soviet border in China's three northeastern provinces, with 10 of them located in Dongning. The purpose was to permanently occupy the Northeast and realize its dream of attacking the Soviet Union.

　　The Dongning Fortress is the largest military fortress complex in Asia. First, it is the largest in scale and longest in length. The Dongning Fortress stretches 110 kilometers from Ganhezigou in Dabuchuan Town in the south to Yanwangdian in Suiyang Town in the north, and extends over 50 kilometers in depth from Madashan in Sanchakou Town in the east to Laoheishan and Guangcun in the west. Hidden deep in the dense forests and in an extremely secretive state, it includes 45 field positions, over 400 permanent fortifications, 84 underground field ammunition depots, and multiple anti-tank ditches. Third, it housed the most troops. The Japanese invaders stationed as many as 130,000 troops in Dongning County, including 2 lieutenant generals and 11 major generals. The county hosted 3 divisions and one “border” garrison unit.

　　The Dongning Fortress was the last battlefield of World War II. During WWII, as the defeat of Nazi Germany on the European front became certain in 1945, Stalin signed an order on August 7 for the Soviet army to launch an offensive against Japanese forces along the Chinese border starting on August 9. After nearly 18 days of fierce fighting, on August 15, 1945, the Japanese Emperor announced unconditional surrender, marking the end of World War II. At that time, the Japanese forces were surrounded but had not yet received the surrender order. Later, the commander of the Kwantung Army who had already surrendered—Matsuno Sadahiko of Mudan—traveled to the Dongning Fortress to convey the Emperor’s “Imperial Rescript on the Termination of the War” and the orders to lay down arms and cease resistance. On August 30, 1945, 901 Japanese soldiers in the Dongning Fortress laid down their weapons and emerged from the fortress carrying 105 bodies, surrendering to the Soviet army. Thus, the final battle of World War II ended at Dongning Fortress on Shenghui Mountain.

　　The Dongning Fortress is the site where the largest number of Chinese laborers were collectively buried in China. During World War II, when constructing the Dongning Fortress, the Japanese Kwantung Army forcibly recruited 170,000 laborers from within China. Only a very small number of these laborers survived, while the vast majority were brutally killed and collectively buried. The Laborers’ Tomb site is located on a hill 1.5 kilometers north of Laochengzigou Village, Dabuchuan Town, Dongning, covering an area of more than 20,000 square meters. The remains of over 8,000 Chinese laborers are buried here. There are over 10 such laborers’ tombs in Dongning.

　　Given these remarkable characteristics, the Dongning Fortress has been approved by the National Tourism Administration as a AA-level scenic spot, a provincial-level patriotic education and national defense education base, and a provincial-level cultural relic protection unit. It serves as the most authentic and vivid educational tool to remind the Chinese people not to forget national humiliation, inspire patriotism nationwide, strengthen the fighting spirit of the people, and forever remember this tragic history. It ensures that the shameful history and the heinous crimes committed by Japanese militarism in China are never forgotten, and helps people recognize the aggressive nature and ugly face of Japanese militarism. The Dongning Fortress is irrefutable evidence of Japanese militarism’s expansionist ambitions, a living textbook exposing the current political expansion conspiracy of Japan, and a powerful rebuttal to Japanese right-wing forces.

　　The Dongning Fortress is located 9 kilometers south of Sanchakou Town, Dongning County, spanning approximately 119 kilometers in width and 50 kilometers in depth. It is the largest military fortress built by the Japanese invaders in Asia, known as the “Maginot Line of the East” and the foremost “Permanent Fortress of Northern Manchuria,” as well as the last battlefield of World War II. The Dongning Fortress is a military defensive facility built by the Japanese invaders in China and a historical crime they left behind. In recent years, the Dongning County Party Committee and County Government have placed great emphasis on it, continuously increasing investment to protectively develop and construct the Dongning Fortress, which had lain dormant for nearly 60 years, actively leveraging its role as a model educational base. Currently, the Dongning Fortress has been approved as a national AA-level scenic spot, a provincial-level patriotic, national defense, and youth education base, and a provincial-level cultural relic protection unit.