The Gegenmiao massacre, also known as the Gegenmiao incident,Mayumi Itoh, ''Japanese War Orphans in Manchuria: Forgotten Victims of World War II'', Palgrave Macmillan, April 2010,
p. 34.
/ref> was perpetrated by the Soviet Union's

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, after ...

and a part of the local Chinese population against over half of a group of 1,800

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

women and children who had taken refuge in the

lamasery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of Monasticism, monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in Cenobitic monasticism, communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes ...

Gegenmiao/Koken-miao (葛根廟) on August 14, 1945, during the

Soviet invasion of Manchuria The Soviet invasion of Manchuria, formally known as the Manchurian strategic offensive operation (russian: Манчжурская стратегическая наступательная операция, Manchzhurskaya Strategicheskaya Nastu ...

. The massacre was committed in Gegenmiao/Koken-miao (present day: Gegenmiao zhen; 葛根廟鎭), a town in the

Horqin Right Front Banner Horqin Right Front Banner ( Mongolian: ; ) is a banner in the east of Inner Mongolia, China, bordering Jilin province to the southeast. It is under the administration of Hinggan League. The local Mongolian dialect is Khorchin Mongolian The K ...

of the

Hinggan League The Hinggan League (; mn, tr. ''Hinggan Aimag'', Mongol Cyrillic: Хянган аймаг) is a prefecture-level subdivision of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China. It borders Hulun Buir to the north, ...

Inner Mongolia Inner Mongolia, officially the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. Its border includes most of the length of China's border with the country of Mongolia. Inner Mongolia also accounts for a ...

. The Red Army shot refugees, ran them over with tanks or trucks, and bayoneted them after they raised a

white flag White flags have had different meanings throughout history and depending on the locale. Contemporary use The white flag is an internationally recognized protective sign of truce or ceasefire, and for negotiation. It is also used to symbolize ...

. After two hours, Red Army soldiers had murdered well over one thousand Japanese refugees, mostly women and children. Angry Chinese chased a group of Japanese refugees into a river, where many drowned. Soldiers raped several women and children, sometimes after murdering them. Okushi, 1996 pp.163-165 Chinese civilians raped and murdered a Japanese woman after Red Army soldiers murdered her child. The Red Army pursued and murdered a Japanese family that tried to hide in the trenches. The Red Army also beat mothers into submission in order to kidnap their children. In the market, a Japanese boy could sell for 300 yen, and a girl for 500 yen. The Red Army murdered over 1,000 Japanese refugees by the end of the massacre.

Aftermath

Survivors and their families designated August 14 as a day of memorial for the event. The ceremony occurs in the temple of in Tokyo. In 2017, a documentary named ''Witness to the Gegenmiao Massacre'' was released, directed by a survivor whose mother and little siblings were murdered by Red Army soldiers in the massacre.

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External links

"私の8・15＜1＞葛根廟事件戦争はもうたくさん母は頭に銃弾を浴びていました川内光雄さん"

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