[Video provided to gojilin.gov.cn]

The WWII Senior Allied Prisoners of War Camp Site Exhibition Center in Liaoyuan, Northeast China's Jilin province, stands as a solemn reminder of the past. Its weathered walls display yellowed documents and rusted personal items that tell the story of 34 Allied prisoners detained here between December 1944 and August 1945, including high-ranking officers subjected to forced labor and inhumane treatment.

Commentators receive visitors inside the WWII Senior Allied Prisoners of War Camp Site Exhibition Center, Liaoyuan, Jilin. [Photo provided to gojilin.gov.cn]

The nearby Liaoyuan Miners' Memorial Hall casts an even heavier shadow. Spanning 200,000 square meters, it documents the Japanese wartime policy of "coal for lives". Eight burial galleries hold the remains of 197 miners, many bearing marks of brutal violence. The West Slope "human furnace" site still contains thick layers of ash mixed with bone. Over 3,000 miners' graves stretch across the hills, testifying to the exploitation that extracted over 15 million metric tons of coal between 1931 and 1945.

With 233 artifacts – ranging from Japanese mining equipment to labor permits and archival documents – the memorial exposes both the scale of resource plunder and the cruelty of forced labor. Today, both sites are national patriotic education bases, having welcomed more than 7 million visitors.