All historic sites
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17 sites
Former Kwantung Army Headquarters (Hsinking/Changchun)
関東軍司令部跡（新京）
Site of the headquarters of the Kwantung Army (関東軍, Kantō-gun), the Imperial Japanese Army's most powerful overseas field army, located in Hsinking (新京, now Changchun), the capital of the puppet state of Manchukuo. Built between 1932 and 1934 at Xinfa Road No. 577, the imposing building served as the nerve center from which the Kwantung Army exercised de facto control over Manchuria. The army orchestrated the Mukden Incident of September 18, 1931 — the false-flag operation that provided the pretext for Japan's conquest of Manchuria — and subsequently administered the region through the puppet government of Manchukuo. At its peak strength of over 700,000 troops in 1941, the Kwantung Army was the largest single Japanese military formation. The building survives today as the office of the CPC Jilin Provincial Committee and is designated a Major Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the National Level.
Former Manchukuo State Council (Xinjing/Changchun)
満洲国国務院跡（新京/長春）
The State Council (国務院) of Manchukuo served as the executive administrative headquarters of the Japanese puppet state from 1932 to 1945. Designed by Japanese architect Tatsuro Ishii and completed in 1936, the imposing reinforced-concrete building with its distinctive pseudo-oriental roof stood at the northern end of Xinmin Avenue, at the head of the government quarter popularly known as the "Eight Grand Ministries" (八大部), in the purpose-built capital of Xinjing (modern-day Changchun). While Manchukuoan ministers nominally headed each department, Japanese vice-ministers appointed by the Kwantung Army wielded the real power. After Japan's defeat in 1945, the building passed through Soviet and Chinese Nationalist hands before becoming part of Jilin University. Designated a Major Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the National Level in 2013, the building now houses the College of Basic Medical Sciences of Jilin University and stands as one of Changchun's most prominent landmarks of the Manchukuo era.
Fushun War Criminals Management Centre
撫順戦犯管理所
A postwar Chinese facility in Fushun, Liaoning Province, used from 1950 to reform and re-educate Japanese war criminals transferred from Soviet custody. Originally built as a Japanese prison in 1936, it held approximately 1,000 Japanese detainees as well as Manchukuo prisoners including the former emperor Puyi. Known for its "lenient policy" approach, it released all its Japanese prisoners by 1964 and the remaining Manchukuo and Kuomintang prisoners by 1975. Converted into a museum in 1986.
Hsinking (Changchun) Urban Plan Remains
新京（長春）都市計画跡
Hsinking (新京, now Changchun) served as the capital of the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo from 1932 to 1945. Japanese urban planners designed an ambitious "Metropolitan Plan of Great Hsinking" covering 200 km², influenced by Parisian boulevards, the garden city movement, and 1920s American city planning. The central axis was Datong Avenue (大同大街, now Renmin Avenue/人民大街), a grand boulevard lined with government buildings and commercial facilities. With 47 km² of public land including parks and athletic grounds and 70.7 km² of greenery, Hsinking earned the nickname "Forest Capital" (森の都). Many Japanese-era buildings — including the Eight Grand Ministries (八大部), banks, hotels, and cultural institutions — survive in central Changchun and are now protected as historical sites.
Huludao Repatriation Port
葫芦島引揚港
The largest postwar Japanese repatriation port in Manchuria. Between May 1946 and August 1948, approximately 1.05 million Japanese civilians and prisoners of war were repatriated from Huludao to Japan, making it the single most significant embarkation point for the mass return of Japanese settlers from Northeast China after World War II.
Manchukuo Imperial Palace
満洲国皇宮
The Imperial Palace of Manchukuo in Hsinking (now Changchun), where Puyi, the last emperor of China, resided as the puppet emperor of the Japanese-controlled state of Manchukuo from 1932 to 1945. Now preserved as the Museum of the Imperial Palace of Manchukuo, it stands as a powerful symbol of Japanese imperialism in northeast China.
Mukden Incident Site (September 18th History Museum)
柳条湖事件跡（九・一八歴史博物館）
Site of the Mukden Incident (September 18, 1931), the staged railway bombing by the Kwantung Army that served as the pretext for Japan's invasion of Manchuria. Lieutenant Suemori Kawamoto detonated dynamite on the South Manchuria Railway near Mukden (modern Shenyang), blaming Chinese soldiers. This false flag operation led directly to the Japanese occupation of Manchuria and the creation of the puppet state Manchukuo, setting Japan on its path toward full-scale war in Asia.
Port Arthur Fortress & Naval Base
旅順要塞・旅順軍港
Port Arthur (Lüshun), situated at the tip of the Liaodong Peninsula in southern Manchuria, was one of the most strategically significant naval bases in East Asian history. The site of the epic Russo-Japanese War siege of 1904–1905, including the legendary battle for 203 Meter Hill, Port Arthur was held by Japan for four decades as part of the Kwantung Leased Territory; the Imperial Japanese Navy kept a naval district here until 1914 and a lesser guard station for most of the period afterwards. The fortress complex, naval port, and surrounding fortifications — originally built by Qing China, expanded by Imperial Russia, and operated by Japan from 1905 to 1945 — witnessed some of the most intense military engagements of the early 20th century. Soviet forces seized Port Arthur on 22 August 1945 during the Soviet invasion of Manchuria, ending Japanese control.
Port of Dalian (Dairen)
大連港
The largest commercial port in Manchuria during Japanese rule (1905–1945), operated by the South Manchuria Railway Company. Originally developed by Russia as the port of Dalny from 1899, it was expanded by Japan after the Russo-Japanese War into a major hub for exporting Manchurian resources—coal, steel, and soybeans—to the Japanese home islands. By 1932, approximately 75% of all Manchukuo trade flowed through Dalian. The port also served as the primary gateway for Japanese settlers entering Manchuria and the departure point for repatriation after 1945.
Showa Steel Works (Anshan Iron & Steel Works)
昭和製鋼所（鞍山製鉄所）
The largest steel works in Manchuria, operated by Showa Steel Works (昭和製鋼所), a subsidiary of the South Manchuria Railway and from 1938 of the Manchurian Industrial Development Company, in Anshan, Liaoning. By 1942 its annual capacity reached 3,600,000 tonnes, producing approximately 15% of pig iron and 6% of rolled steel across all Japanese-held territory. It was a primary strategic target of USAAF B-29 bombing raids from mid-1944, with reported losses of up to 30% of capacity, although Japanese accounts describe direct damage to the plant as limited. After Japan's defeat in 1945 the facility was dismantled by the Soviet Army; it was later rebuilt as the Anshan Iron & Steel Company (鞍鋼集團).
South Manchuria Railway Company Headquarters (Dalian)
南満洲鉄道株式会社本社
The headquarters of the South Manchuria Railway Company (満鉄/Mantetsu) in Dalian, the most powerful Japanese colonial enterprise in Manchuria. Established in 1906 and relocated to Dalian in 1907, Mantetsu was a semi-governmental conglomerate that controlled railways, coal mines, ports, hotels, hospitals, schools, and research institutes across Manchuria — effectively a state within a state. The building, originally a Russian-era commercial school, still stands in downtown Dalian as the offices of China Railway Shenyang Group Dalian Branch.
Unit 731 Site (Pingfang, Harbin)
731部隊跡（ハルビン平房区）
The former headquarters of Unit 731 (731部隊), the Imperial Japanese Army's covert biological and chemical warfare research unit, located in the Pingfang District of Harbin, Manchuria (now Heilongjiang Province, China). Operational from 1936 to 1945 and led by Surgeon Lieutenant General Shiro Ishii (with Masaji Kitano in command from 1942 to 1945), the facility conducted large-scale human experimentation and developed biological weapons including plague, anthrax, and cholera. At least 3,000 prisoners, and by some estimates 10,000 or more — referred to by the dehumanizing codename "maruta" (丸太, logs) — perished in experiments. The site is now preserved as the Unit 731 Museum (侵華日軍第七三一部隊罪証陳列館), a national-level memorial and war crimes evidence exhibition hall that opened in 1985 and was extensively renovated with a new main building in 2015.
Fushun Coal Mine
撫順炭鉱
One of the world's largest open-pit coal mines, located in Fushun, Liaoning Province, Manchuria. Seized by Japan after the Russo-Japanese War in 1905 and operated by the South Manchuria Railway Company (Mantetsu) from 1907, the mine became the financial backbone of Japanese colonial enterprise in Manchuria, producing up to 75% of total Manchurian coal output by 1930. During WWII, the mine relied heavily on Chinese and Korean forced laborers under brutal conditions, and a catastrophic dust explosion in 1917 killed 917 workers. The West Open Pit, measuring 6.6 km long, 2.0 km wide, and over 300 m deep, was the largest open-pit coal mine in Asia.
Harbin Yamato Hotel
哈爾浜ヤマトホテル
The Harbin Yamato Hotel (哈爾浜ヤマトホテル) was a luxury hotel operated by the South Manchuria Railway Company (Mantetsu) in Harbin, the largest city in northern Manchuria. Originally constructed in 1901–1903 as the Chinese Eastern Railway Hotel by the Russian-controlled CER administration opposite Harbin's main railway station, the building was extensively renovated and reopened on February 1, 1937 as a 56-room Yamato Hotel — Mantetsu's flagship property in the Harbin zone. It served as the social and diplomatic center for Japanese residents and officials in northern Manchuria throughout the Manchukuo era. The Art Nouveau building survives today as the Longmen Dasha VIP Hotel (龙门大厦贵宾楼) at 85 Hongjun Street, Nangang District, and is designated a Harbin Grade 1 Protected Building.
Mukden POW Camp (Hoten Camp)
奉天捕虜収容所（奉天俘虜収容所）
A major Japanese prisoner-of-war camp near Mukden (present-day Shenyang), Manchuria, operational from November 1942 to August 1945. The camp held approximately 2,000 Allied POWs in the main camp and its branch camps — including survivors of the Bataan Death March and, at a branch camp, senior commanders such as General Jonathan Wainwright — who were subjected to forced labor in Manchurian factories, starvation rations, brutal cold, and covert medical experiments linked to Unit 731. It is now the Shenyang WWII Allied POW Camp Site Museum, regarded as one of the most representative surviving Japanese POW camp sites.
South Manchuria Railway Dalian Yamato Hotel
満鉄大連ヤマトホテル
The flagship Yamato Hotel in Dalian (Dairen), built by the South Manchuria Railway Company (Mantetsu) and opened on August 1, 1914. Attributed to Mantetsu architect Ota Takeshi and built in Renaissance style with Ionic giant-order granite columns, the four-story steel-framed brick building with 115 rooms served as the premier luxury hotel in Manchuria, hosting Japanese officials, foreign dignitaries, and international travelers transiting between Europe and Asia. It was the equivalent of the Raffles Hotel in Singapore or the Astor House Hotel in Shanghai. After Japan's defeat in 1945, the Soviet Red Army briefly used it as a garrison command post before it was transferred to Chinese authorities. Renamed Dalian Hotel (大连宾馆) in 1956, the building is now a nationally protected cultural heritage site on Zhongshan Square in central Dalian.
Yalu River Broken Bridge
鴨緑江断橋
A truncated railway bridge in Dandong, Liaoning Province, China, originally constructed by the Empire of Japan in 1911 to connect Manchuria with Korea across the Yalu River. The bridge was part of the strategic rail network linking the Korean port of Busan all the way to Europe via the Trans-Siberian Railway. During the Korean War, United States Air Force B-29 bombers destroyed the North Korean spans in November 1950 and February 1951. The surviving four spans on the Chinese side were preserved in 1993 as a war memorial and national historical site, serving as a stark reminder of the conflicts that shaped Northeast Asia in the twentieth century.