The incident involved children being killed by being thrown from windows, over 100 Japanese women committing suicide by jumping from a nearby cliff, and a mob shooting anyone who tried to escape.
Tensions heightened in late August 1945 when groups of Soviet soldiers repeatedly raided Tonghua Girls' High School, raping, abducting, and killing both students and teachers.
The gang rapes reportedly happened even in broad daylight on the streets, and at least one Soviet officer was shot dead while trying to stop his fellow soldiers.
Japanese refugees responded mainly by shaving the women's heads bald, applying dirt and grease to their skin, and wearing storage bags instead of normal clothes.
From 17 November, CCP forces were arbitrarily raiding Japanese homes in search of weapons and drafting those they came across into labour teams, regardless of gender or age.
It was the part of ruse de guerre intended to transmit a false image of the Kuomintang still being in control of the city with the help of the former personnel of Kwantung Army.
On 2 February 1946, a phone call from Mitsushige Maeda [ja] was received by the CCP office in Tonghua, regarding the planned rebellion in a refugee camp.
Although it was initially planned to be assisted by Kuomintang forces in Shenyang, the radio message postponing the rebellion was not received due to equipment failure.
As a result, several hundred Japanese attackers, armed mostly with shovels and clubs, and a small number of swords or rifles, were decimated by machine gun fire from ambush positions, both inside and outside the CCP headquarters.
By the morning of 3 February 1946, all Japanese males aged 16 or older and suspected females, frequently wearing only pajamas, were chained and forced to march 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) in −20 °C (−4 °F) weather.
Sun Keng-hsiao [ja], a Kuomintang-appointed governor of the region, was publicly flogged to death by the CCP together with the Japanese rebellion leaders.