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Over 1,000 Chinese Forced Laborers in World War II Traced
More than 1,000 Chinese captured by invading Japanese troops during World War II and put into forced labor have been tracked down, an investigation launched by a museum on the anti-Japanese war shows.
The 1,000 people now live in 12 cities and provinces in China such as Beijing, Shanghai, central China's Hebei Province and east China's Zhejiang Province, said Chen Qigang, curator of the Museum in Memory of the Chinese People's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression.
Most of the laborers worked in mines, factories or construction sites which were in great need of able-bodied workers as most Japanese men were sent abroad to fight, Chen said.
Some of the laborers were sent to Southeast Asia and the Pacific islands, he added.
The investigation team interviewed about 400 people and collected a number of stories, pictures and items revealing their painful experiences some 60 years ago.
More than 150 photos and 70 related items are on display in a three-month exhibition in the museum, located next to Lugou Bridge in southwest Beijing.
Official statistics released by the Japanese Government show that at least 41,000 Chinese laborers were sent to Japan after it invaded northeast China in 1931. By August 1945, 6,834 laborers had died.
"We believe that the total number of Chinese forced laborers was much higher" than the 40,000 total given by the Japanese, Chen said.
This year is the 70th anniversary of Japan's aggression into three provinces in northeast China.
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