Yang Yufen, one of the few who survived the Pingdingshan Massacre committed by Japanese troops in 1932, died on Tuesday at the age of 93 in the northeastern city of Fushun, Liaoning Province, where the atrocity took place.
On Sept. 16, 1932, Japanese troops rounded up about 3,000 people, including the elderly, women and children, from Pingdingshan, a village close to Fushun City and shot them, accusing them of having cooperated with guerrillas fighting the occupying forces.
Yang was eight years old at the time. She survived the incident but lost 18 members of her family.
Yang went to Japan in 2010 to participate in the 6th International Symposium on the Pingdingshan Massacre to share her experiences of the tragedy and its aftermath.
Zhou Maoqin is now the sole "survivor" of the Pingdingshan Massacre, according to Zhou Xueliang, curator of the Pingdingshan Massacre Memorial in Fushun. Zhou Maoqin's mother was pregnant with Zhou at the time of the incident and gave birth to him three months later.
