Benxihu Colliery

In the early 1930s, Japan invaded the northeast of China, and Liaoning province became part of the Japanese-controlled puppet state of Manchukuo.

During the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Japanese forced Chinese labourers—some of whom had been captured from local military organizations—to work the colliery under very poor conditions.

[2] Working conditions were harsh, and diseases such as typhoid and cholera flourished due to poor sanitation and water supplies.

Miners' relatives rushed to the site but were denied entry by a cordon of Japanese guards, who erected electric fences to keep them out.

[3] The Japanese continued to operate the mine until the end of World War II in 1945, when they were defeated and forced to withdraw from China.

Most deaths were from carbon monoxide poisoning produced when the Japanese closed the ventilation and sealed the pit head after the initial explosion.