On November 10, 1944, the traitor Wang Jingwei died of a deteriorating condition at the age of 61 at the Faculty of Medicine affiliated to Nagoya Imperial University in Japan. Opinions differ as to the cause of Wang Jingwei's death. One said that the bullet was embedded in the bone and could not be removed, and eventually died of ineffective healing; second, the Japanese tricked the ghost from it and poisoned him while treating him.
When Wang Jingwei was dying, he asked to be buried in Nanjing, and the Japanese side agreed to his request and transported the coffin back to Nanjing by plane. At that time, the Wang puppet government issued an obituary, which mentioned that everything at the funeral was simple, "The time is very important, in order to abide by the precepts of Mr. Wang not to work hard and not to hurt the money, it was decided to avoid all efforts to avoid the expenses and seek its simplicity." ”
Wang Jingwei's funeral was actually very large, and a solid cemetery was also built. Wang Jingwei was very fond of plum blossoms, and Wang's puppet government officials and his wife Chen Bijun decided to bury him at the top of Meihua Mountain in front of Zhu Yuanzhang's Ming Tomb. The feng shui here is excellent, and Wang Jingwei's cemetery is very large, modeled after the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum, in which the tomb is semi-circular and uses the best quality reinforced concrete structure.
Not far from the east side of the tomb, an altar was also built. After the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Nationalist government prepared to move back to Nanjing, and the whole country unanimously demanded the punishment of traitors. Chiang Kai-shek also hated Wang Jingwei very much, and he asked He Yingqin to secretly blow up and eliminate Wang Jingwei's cemetery. On January 15, 1946, He Yingqin held a meeting, which was attended by Ma Chaojun, mayor of Nanjing, Xiao Yisu, chief of staff of the Army Headquarters, Zhang Zhen, commander of the Nanjing Gendarmerie, Ma Chongliu, commander of the engineering corps of the Army Headquarters, and Qiu Weida, commander of the 74th Army.
At this meeting, everyone unanimously decided to blow up the Wang Jingwei cemetery, and finally decided that Qiu Weida's Seventy-fourth Army would send engineers to carry out this task, which was scheduled to be carried out late on the night of January 20. In any case, blowing up the tomb is a disgraceful thing. Three days before the official operation, the Nanjing City Gendarmerie imposed martial law near the Ming Tombs, claiming to be conducting exercises here.
In view of the fact that wang jingwei's cemetery was very strong, commander Qiu Weida came to the scene to command, and the person responsible for blowing up and blasting was Li Dongyang, commander of the engineering battalion directly under the 51st Division of the 74th Army. With a loud explosion, the grave was torn apart, and when the coffin was smashed, it was found that Wang Jingwei's body had not yet decayed, and anti-embalming measures must have been taken.
According to the information consulted, When Wang Jingwei was buried, he wore the civilian dress of the Wang puppet government, a top hat, and a large silk robe on his waist. There were no funerary items in the coffin, only a note in his pocket with the words "Return of the Soul" written on it. After Wang Jingwei's cemetery was destroyed, his body, along with the coffin, was sent to the Qingliangshan Crematorium in Nanjing to be burned, and the ashes were then thrown away and nowhere to be found.
Nowadays, when you go to Meihua Mountain in Nanjing, you will find a "Guan Mei Xuan", which is the site of Wang Jingwei's cemetery. In the 1990s, a kneeling statue of Wang Jingwei with his hands tied behind his back was erected on the site of Wang Jingwei, facing the direction of the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum, implying apology to Sun Yat-sen.
Reference: "Records of the Destruction of Wang Jingwei's Tomb"