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The war memorial at Longling

The Japanese occupied town in Western China.

The war memorial at Longling

The Japanese occupied town in Western China.

Longling

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Longling

The market town Longling is located just passed the Gaoligong mountain range on the Burma Road's approach to the vital Huitong bridge spanning the Nujiang (Salween) river. It is located higher up and was therefore more free of malaria then the towns further west on the Burma Road.

Longling is as well the starting place of our tour "In the footsteps of Grace Liddle Cox". She and her husband were missionaries based in this town.

Occupation

Japanese invading forces, travelling up the Burma Road, occupied the town on the 4th of May 1942 and used the town as their headquarters during their occupation of western Yunnan. Longling was liberated on the 3rd of November 1944. On the 20th of January 1945 the last occupying forces were driven out of Yunnan.

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Bunker at the central square.
Located at the central square there is still a Japanese bunker.
Memorial hall at the central square.
At the same square there is the Longling WW-II memorial hall.
Remembrance wall in Longling.
The remembrance walls in the centre of Longling. The brown wall in the back is to commemorate WW-II, the white wall in front the Chinese revolution a few years later.
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Detail commemorative wall.
Detail on commemorative wall: Chinese forces crossing the Nujiang river in American supplied inflatable rafts at the start of the campaign to liberate western Yunnan.

The battle for Longling

The Chinese army could only move to Longling after the capture of the Songshan Mountain. After Songshan fell it still took nearly two months to recapture the heavily defended Japanese headquarter town of Longling.

The campaigns in western Yunnan where costly in human lives. 67,000 Chinese and 21,000 Japanese troops lost their life together with some 19 American military advisors.

Bunker at the central square.
The Japanese bunker is now protected as a monument.
Memorial hall at the central square.
An American field gun found in a shop in Longling.
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The four liberated comfort women.
One Chinese army soldier posing with the four liberated "Comfort Women" after their flight.

The Museum of the Crime of the Japanese "Comfort Women" system

Just off the main road through Longling is the museum dedicated to the Crime of the Japanese "Comfort Women" External link system.

The museum is located in the original house named Dongjiaguo that was used as military brothel by the Japanese army. The place was a "training centre" for the women forced into this system and from which the system was administrated in western Yunnan.

At the museum one can watch a documentary about the fate of one of the Korean woman forced to work here. A Japanese officer made pictures of her and these pictures later on started an investigation.

The woman in question got pregnant and was helped by a local farm boy to escape at the end of the war in Longling when the Japanese army killed nearly all of the comfort women in western Yunnan on their withdrawal.

The documentary describes the plight of the women and the pregnant Korean woman and her reunification with the farm boy that saved her.

The museum is located in the actual old Comfort Women station. The house was regarded as haunted and the original owners abandoned it and the local population avoided it. This situation led in the end to the preservation of this building and now it is the only old building still standing in Longling.

Rules and regulations.
Rules and regulations for use of the Dongjiaguo "Comfort Women" station in Longling. Below the name tags, with the given names of the "Comfort Women" on duty.
Entrance to the museum.
Entrance to the museum.
Memorial tree.
Memorial tree at the museum courtyard.
Display at the museum.
Display of objects found at the Comfort Women station.
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Related pages:

Both pages relate to articles about the 'Comfort Women' captured/liberated at Songshan.

Web information source suggestion:

More general information on the "Comfort Women" system can be found in the digital museum of the Asian Women's Fund External link and University of Regina External link page on this topic that refers specifically to the "Comfort Women" at Songshan.

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©1 Signal Corps US Army.