The September 18th History Museum commemorates the night of 18 September 1931, when Japanese Kwantung Army officers staged a false-flag explosion on the South Manchuria Railway and used it as a pretext to invade Manchuria. The incident, known in Japan as the Manchurian Incident and in China as the September 18th Incident, began fourteen years of occupation and is considered the opening act of World War II in Asia.
The museum is large and well-produced, covering the occupation from the initial attack through the establishment of the puppet state of Manchukuo, the resistance, and the eventual liberation in 1945. The building is designed in the shape of a calendar open at September 18, and the grounds include a memorial site near where the original explosion occurred. The exhibits are primarily in Chinese with limited English translation, but the photographic record is powerful regardless of language. It takes two to three hours to visit properly.