Chinese civilization has a long history of five thousand years and has never stopped, which is the result of countless Chinese heroes and unsung heroes who have thrown their heads and spilled their blood, and many of them have remained in distant foreign countries forever. In the island nation thousands of miles below, there is a Chinese cemetery with 656 Chinese soldiers buried, the real reason is infuriating, and now its mausoleum has been forgotten for decades and destroyed by volcanic eruptions.
This island nation is now Papua New Guinea in the South Pacific, which is adjacent to the Solomon Islands, because of its economic backwardness, so the country is not expected to know much about the country. In its capital, Rabaul, there is a Chinese military cemetery, which is indiscriminately buried with 656 Chinese soldiers, and many of them have no remains and names, and many are incomplete. So why are so many Chinese soldiers buried in a foreign country?
This goes back to World War II, when Japan continued to march into Southeast Asia and the South Pacific. In December 1941, war was declared on the United States, Great Britain, Australia, etc., and quickly moved south to capture what was then Papua New Guinea, directly into its capital, Rabaul, and prepared to build it into a forward position against the United States and Britain. Therefore, the construction of various military installations on the peninsula began, which required a large amount of labor.
As a result, Japan escorted thousands of people, including the New Fourth Army and the Nationalist Army captured on the battlefields of China, to Papua New Guinea. Due to the small size and harsh environment of Japanese transport ships, a large number of Chinese soldiers died in transit, and finally managed to reach Rabaul, the capital of Papua New Guinea, with only 1600 people. Among these 1,600 people were not only the expeditionary force that was captured in the Burmese battlefield, but also 16 survivors of 800 heroes who held out in the Sihang warehouse in Shanghai.
These people were divided by Japan, formed one labor team after another, and also named it "Chinese Soldiers' Industrious Team" as a sign of insult. Japan treated these Chinese laborers cruelly, not only whipping them arbitrarily, but also doing everything possible to force these soldiers to work intensively for more than 18 hours a day. And there is no food at all, only wild grass bark, and local cassava, sleeping dozens of people at night in a cave.
Under such harsh conditions, many weak soldiers could not stand it at all and fell down one after another. In the end, 656 soldiers died of overwork, malnutrition, or being beaten, and the Japanese army ignored these dead Chinese soldiers and let them die in the wilderness. According to a later survivor, a labor force of 50 people died, and 16 died in succession, and only 34 survived. You can see how harsh, cruel, and bloody the conditions are.
After Japan announced its surrender in August 1945, these oppressed officers and troops in Rabaul revolted and liberated the city of Rabaul. These surviving Chinese soldiers, together with the local overseas Chinese, contributed money to build a cemetery for their comrades-in-arms and buried 656 comrades-in-arms inside. Due to the span of several years, the remains of many people can no longer be found, and the most critical thing is that the names of many people cannot be accurately recorded, and can only be buried haphazardly. Surviving comrades often come to worship to comfort the undead who died tragically.
But beginning in 1975, most of the surviving soldiers and overseas Chinese began to migrate to nearby Australia to settle down, and the Chinese military cemetery was gradually forgotten and no one worshipped. And because it fell into disrepair, it became unusually broken. In 1999, there was also a serious volcanic eruption in Rabaul, which basically destroyed the cemetery and was very desolate. Under the attention and appeal of domestic netizens, the local government is now repairing the mausoleum, carrying out detailed registration and inventory, and one day, sending these remains back to China.