Remains of Chinese soldiers found in gasoline cans in Yunnan

Remains believed to belong to two young soldiers who died in the War of Chinese People's Resistance Against Japanese Aggression have recently been evacuated in southwest China’s Yunnan province.

The human remains, including teeth, skulls, foot, and leg bones, as well as shirt buttons, were kept in two separate gasoline cans, said a person who participated in the evacuation. The two soldiers were buried in one tomb.

Judging from the teeth that were not fully developed, the age of the soldiers is estimated to be between 18 and 22.

 

A person who took part in the evacuation said it was the first time they found bodies of the dead in gasoline cans. Usually they were put in coffins or placed on wooden boards.

Hundreds of thousands of Chinese soldiers lost their lives to recapture western Yunnan from Japanese occupation in 1942. Some of them died and were buried on the way to hospitals.

A campaign to survey and discover soldiers’ remains was jointly launched on July 7 by a charity foundation in Shenzhen and an anti-Japanese War research institute in Yunnan.

  

The campaign has discovered the remains of five soldiers and has placed them in the former site of an army command in a county in western Yunnan.

The remains of the two soldiers will be sent for DNA identification next month in a bid to help scientists find the birth place of the dead.