Located at the suburb of Ayer Itam, the memorial commemorates the local Chinese who lost their lives during the Second Sino-Japanese War and the subsequent Japanese occupation of Malaya.

As tensions between China and Japan intensified, Penang's Chinese engaged in civil unrest and imposed a unilateral embargo on Japanese trade.

[2] As Japanese forces blockaded China's maritime trade and advanced inland, the Chinese government expedited the construction of the Burma Road, which ultimately required around 200,000 labourers.

Japanese military police initiated the Sook Ching purges, ostensibly aimed at suppressing political opposition and individuals they deemed subversive.

Between 1950 and 1951, about 800 incomplete skeletons of the Sook Ching victims were exhumed at several locations across Penang Island – namely Ayer Itam, Gelugor, Tanjong Bungah and Batu Ferringhi.