Benxihu Colliery

The Benxihu Colliery, operating in the Xihu District north of the city centre, was the site of the worst coal mining disaster in history on April 26, 1942. A gas and coal dust explosion killed 1,549 miners — Chinese labourers working under Japanese occupation conditions. The disaster was concealed by Japanese authorities at the time and only fully documented in the decades after the war.

The mine operated into more recent times and the site is visible in the northern part of the city. For visitors interested in the industrial and occupational history of Manchuria under Japanese control, this is a site of genuine historical weight — one of the most extreme examples of the human cost of the Japanese resource extraction economy in northeast China. A memorial has been established to commemorate the victims.

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A story
On April 26, 1942, a gas and coal dust explosion in the Benxihu Colliery killed 1,549 miners in what remains the deadliest coal mining disaster in recorded history. The mine was operated under Japanese occupation, with Chinese and Korean labourers working under brutal conditions. The Japanese authorities initially suppressed news of the disaster entirely; the death toll only became known decades later when researchers began piecing together the full scale of what had happened.

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