Dongka Japanese Pillbox

　　The Dongka Japanese Pillbox is situated in the Dongka Anti-Japanese War Cultural Square in Longling urban area. It was one of the military checkpoints established by the Japanese army during their occupation of Longling. Originally there were four pillboxes, placed on both the north and south sides of the intersection, primarily controlling the access routes to and from the urban area. In early November 1944, when the Chinese Expeditionary Force besieged Longling, three of them were destroyed, leaving only one that remains today.

　　The pillbox is hexagonal in shape, cast from reinforced concrete, covering an area of 10 square meters, standing 1.8 meters high, with walls 0.2 meters thick. The southwest side serves as the turning entrance, while the other sides are equipped with three sets of slotted firing holes. A squad of soldiers was usually stationed there. In October 1944, three columns of the Chinese Expeditionary Force encircled Longling. The thousands of soldiers from the Honorable First Division, responsible for the eastern offensive, encountered fierce resistance from the Japanese defenders here. After multiple failed attempts by suicide squads to charge and blast through, flamethrowers were brought in from reinforcement troops to conduct a systematic fire assault. Eventually, all the defending enemies were burned to death, and the Dongka position was captured. The Battle of Dongka was the bloodiest fortress battle in the entire struggle for Longling. In just a few days of intense fighting, over 460 enemy soldiers were killed, and the Chinese Expeditionary Force also paid a heavy price with several thousand casualties.

　　As the only surviving witness to this bloody battle, the pillbox was designated as a county-level cultural relics protection unit in 1986, and as a provincial-level cultural relics protection unit in 2003, receiving good preservation. In 2006, it was announced by the municipal government as a “Municipal Patriotic Education Base.”

　　Address: Within the Dongka Anti-Japanese War Cultural Square in Longling urban area