Russian-Japanese prison in Lushun, a hell on earth to look back on 186

Many people are reluctant to visit the Russian-Japanese prison in Lushun because it is a prison full of ghosts and spirits.
It is also a unique prison in China, built by two imperialist countries on Chinese soil, first by Tsarist Russia in 1902 and then expanded by Japan in 1907, before being dismantled in 1945 when Soviet troops entered Brigada. During the 43 years of its existence, according to complete statistics, the Russian-Japanese prison had imprisoned nearly 100,000 people, mostly Manchurian and Korean resistance groups and participants, but also Soviet, Egyptian and even Japanese anti-war activists. Between 1942 and August 1945 alone, more than 700 revolutionaries and rebels were hanged here.

Today the site of the Russian-Japanese prison is so peaceful and quaint that one would think it was a medieval building in an old European city, but who knows how many horrific events took place in this quaint building and how many ghosts of injustice still float in the quiet air.

In 1902, Lushun was leased by the Russians, who built the Lushun prison. In 1905, the Russians were defeated in the Russo-Japanese War, and the Japanese occupied Lushun, expanding the prison in 1907 to hold anti-Japanese prisoners until their defeat in World War II.

The first thing you see when you enter the prison are the tattered prison clothes, which vary in colour and grade.

The moment I entered the prison, I felt a heavy heart, as if there was a huge stone weighing on my heart, and my breathing was a little heavy.

The poems on the walls are copied from the prison, and the small hole in the corner is where food is served, and food and drink are served in the cells.

The prison was a tightly organised institution, where the detainees were not only imprisoned but also educated and worked.

The last warden, Tadoko Retro, served for 15 months, killing more than 100 people as a result of his indiscriminate torture and cruelty, and personally commanded the hanging of many people on 16 August 1945, the day after Japan announced its surrender, but such an executioner was pardoned by the Chinese government and returned to China in August 1956, where he lived for another 31 years, dying at the age of 83 in 1987.

In 1920, Lushun Prison has renamed the Kwantung Hall Prison and expanded again to include not only anti-Japanese prisoners but also many civilians.

The red-brick section was expanded by the Japanese in 1907, and after the expansion, there were 275 cells of various kinds, which could hold more than 2,000 people at the same time.

One of the most famous prisoners in the prison was the Korean vigilante An Chong-geun, who was arrested on the spot and hanged here in 1910 after successfully assassinating former Japanese Prime Minister Ito Hirobumi, the culprit of the invasion of Korea, at Harbin railway station in 1909.

After his arrest and 11 interrogations, An Shung-Geun insisted that his action was not a personal assassination but a battle against Ito Hirobumi as a lieutenant general on the staff of the Daehan Volunteer Army. Both South Korea and North Korea now regard him as a national hero, while Japan considers him a terrorist. Before his death, Ahn Chong-gun left the last message that he would be buried back in his home country after the restoration of Korean state power. Over the years, both Koreas have hoped to find Ahn's remains and have made several trips to the area of Lushun Prison to search for his bones, but have been unsuccessful due to a lack of more rigorous evidence.

In addition to the regular prison, there is an even scarier dark cell, which is dark except for a circular observation hole in the wall, and is used to hold "serious violators of prison rules".

A display of barrel hats worn by prisoners on their way to be transported.

The rice bowls were divided into seven classes, with those who behaved well having larger bowls and those who behaved badly having smaller bowls.

The torture chamber is full of all sorts of instruments of torture, but the most horrific is this human stool, which looks like a replica but still sends shivers down the spine.

Hanging on the wall are bamboo whips, which can beat people to the bone.

The tap is said to be the first of its kind in the whole of the north-east and even in China, but its role was really distressing, mainly to receive water to wake up prisoners who had passed out, to pour water on them in winter, to dip the bamboo whip in water and beat them harder, etc. In short, it was a high-tech aid to torture at the time.

There was also a Buddhist niche next to the horrific torture chamber, which was said to have been used by the prison authorities to chant Buddhist sutras in the teaching room in order to paralyse and sap the resistance of the prisoners.

The prison's guardhouse is located at a traffic node in the chamber, with three passageways at a glance, making it very difficult to escape.

The upper and lower levels are also visible, both for the benefit of light and to facilitate the monitoring of prisoners.

Prisoners were expected to work in the prison, forcing them to contribute to the pseudo-Manchukuo.

Stepping out of the interior feels a little more comfortable, but it is still gloomy. The green and grey buildings were built by the Russians and the red ones were extended by the Japanese.

The medical department in the prison, where prisoners with serious illnesses would receive simple medical treatment.

The former Lushun prison doctor, Chuichi Koga, visited here in 1999 and wrote a confession. I wonder why these executioners with blood on their hands lived so long.

A normal sick cell, with toilets and everything else inside.

The most shocking thing was the hanging room. Although I knew what hanging was all about, it was the first time I stepped into a hanging room where people had been hanged.

Why didn't you add Japanese to the story of the hanging?

Excerpts from the memoirs of the prison physician at the time, Chuichi Koga, "A Review of the Brigadoon Penal Colony".

The hemp rope mentioned in the memoirs, which sucked up all the human blood, is probably not the original rope, but it is still a great contrast to the bright sunshine outside the window, where hundreds of anti-Japanese people said goodbye to the last rays of sunshine back then.

This is basically how the gallows looked in their entirety, with the hemp rope around the neck and the hinges opening at the foot. Once a person was hanged, they were placed in the barrels that were lowered down, checked to confirm their death, and then carried out by other prisoners to be buried.

This is an actual barrel containing the bones of a hanged person, and there are rows and rows of these barrels in the Dongshan cemetery.

This is where the bodies of hanged anti-Japanese fighters were carried to the prison cemetery.

Looking up at the high walled barbed wire fence and the guardhouse gives you goosebumps.

Some of the barrels of bones were transplanted from the prison cemetery to the museum in 1971.

A few of the figurines give an idea of the burial process after the hanging.

Rows and rows of barrels of bones, whose first and last names can no longer be found, but each barrel contains a ghost.

A photograph and list of some of the people who were held in Lushun prison.

Walking outside, I felt a little more comfortable breathing, but there was still a feeling of pressure on my heart.

The prison seemed to have been used as a factory in the 1960s and 1970s, and the quotes from Chairman Mao are still on the walls.

Inside the prison, there is also a museum of the evidence of the Russian-Japanese invasion of Brigada, a microcosm of China's recent humiliating history, and the whole city is a museum.
Although many people are no longer aware of this anniversary, although the war has ended 73 years ago, and although the vast majority of the war's witnesses have passed away, the controversy over the war has continued. Wars are not won by hatred and curses, nor can national power be raised by parades and slogans. When we see the rapid development of post-war Japan, both in terms of technology and economy, which has left the huge China several blocks behind, and the order and rules of the Japanese people have shocked the whole world when we see the anti-Japanese march smashing the cars and robbing the shops of our own compatriots, and see the millions or even tens of millions of fans behind each of the "sissies", I It was as if we were seeing the numbed spectators of Lu Xun's writing again, spectators who would have watched, but now have lost the interest and courage to do so.
Lu Xun was right, healing the nation's spiritual wounds is more important than healing the sick, the strength of a country is not only in the economy but also in the nation's spirit, opening up the people's wisdom can save China. To be feverish in one's head, to call for the crushing of Japan is just another manifestation of militarism, and in an era of economic globalisation, to chant for the boycott of Japanese goods is just a mindless and retarded act. In this era, what we desperately need is not the accumulation of wealth and advanced weapons, but a system of rule of law, independent thinking and moral order. A hundred years ago, Lu Xun cried out, but unfortunately, now he has faded away. Two centuries ago we were wiped out in the Sino-Japanese War, and more than a century ago our great country was ravaged by iron hooves.