History of the Weihsien Concentration Camp

The 1930s was a turbulent time worldwide. In the East, the Japanese imperialists launched a war of aggression against China in 1931 and quickly occupied northeast China. In Europe, Germany attacked Poland flagrantly in 1939, marking the outbreak of the Second World War. In early 1938, the Japanese invaders occupied the Jiaodong Peninsula. After the outbreak of the Pacific War, in order to retaliate against the United States for restricting the activities of Japanese-Americans in that country, Japan set up a concentration camp for Western nationals in the Courtyard of the Happy Way in Weihsien County, Shandong, China in March 1942, and imprisoned 2008 Western nationals (500 were released later due to the exchange of prisoners of war).

The second floor of the “Cross Building” focuses on the history of the Weihsien Concentration camp. It details the tragic history of the Camp and the Communists’ revolutionary activities in the Courtyard of the Happy Way, starting from the Japanese imperialists’ launching of the war, including the history of the Japanese war of aggression against China, part of the history of the WWII, the history of the red revolution in the Courtyard of the Happy Way, the history of the Weihsien concentration camp, etc., through historical audiovisual exhibition, historical objects, historical scenes, etc.