Fushun War Criminals Management Centre

The Fushun War Criminals Management Centre was established in 1950 in a former Japanese-built prison on the northern edge of Fushun city, Liaoning Province, in what was once the heartland of the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo. The original prison had been constructed in 1936 by the Japanese occupation authorities. After the Soviet Union overran Manchukuo at the end of World War II, it captured many Japanese military personnel and Manchukuo government officials, holding them in camps near Khabarovsk in the Soviet Far East until Chinese delegations led by Mao Zedong negotiated their transfer to China in 1949-1950.

The first trainload of prisoners arrived at Fushun station on July 21, 1950. The detainees comprised 969 Japanese war criminals and 71 members of the former Manchukuo puppet regime; later transfers from other centres such as Taiyuan brought the number of Japanese prisoners to 982. Among the most notable inmates were Puyi, the last Emperor of China and former puppet Emperor of Manchukuo, and his younger brother Pujie. Over the facility's operational life, more than 1,300 prisoners passed through its gates, including 354 Chinese Kuomintang prisoners transferred during the Chinese Civil War period.

The management centre became renowned for its "lenient policy" (寛大政策) approach to war criminal reform. Rather than harsh punishment, the program emphasized ideological reform through self-criticism sessions, manual labor, and Marxist-Leninist political education. No executions were carried out at the facility. Trials of the Japanese prisoners began in 1956, and over the period from 1956 to 1964, all Japanese war criminals were released and repatriated to Japan; the Manchukuo and Kuomintang prisoners were pardoned and released in stages between 1959 and 1975. Many returned home profoundly changed by their experience and became vocal advocates for Sino-Japanese friendship and peace.

In 1986, the Fushun War Criminals Management Centre was converted into a museum and opened to the public. The older section preserves the original prison architecture and depicts the history of the facility and the lives of those who worked or were interned there. The site gained international recognition when it was depicted in several scenes of Bernardo Bertolucci's 1987 film "The Last Emperor," which won nine Academy Awards. Today the museum serves as an important site of historical memory and Sino-Japanese reconciliation.

The facility stands as a unique monument in the history of postwar justice — a place where the Chinese approach to war criminal rehabilitation diverged significantly from the trials and executions carried out at Nuremberg and Tokyo. It remains a significant destination for researchers, peace activists, and visitors interested in the complex legacy of World War II in East Asia.