The histories hidden in bones

Emotional stories

In June 1942, a crucial battle against the Japanese invaders took place in Xuecun village in Suning county, Hebei province. More than 1,000 Chinese soldiers and officers sacrificed their lives, including two top officers, Chang Deshan and Wang Yuanyin.

Villagers buried them in mass graves and have visited to pay their respects every April on Tomb Sweeping Day, ever since.

This April, Wen and his colleagues and students helped local officials move some of the remains for better preservation, collecting physical data in the process.

In June, they released the results of their preliminary analysis based on physical anthropology.

The remains belonged to at least 101 individuals. Four showed traces of comminuted fractures (where a bone is broken into multiple fragments), two of injury by sharp objects, and another had bullet wounds.

Wen speculates that the impact of weapons like machine guns caused the comminuted fractures, indicating the cruelty of war.

He says that it's worth noting that the young males — very likely soldiers — were buried with people of both genders of all ages.