The Pacific War Online Encyclopedia
|
| Previous: Anking | Table of Contents | Next: Antares, U.S. General Stores Ship |
Anshan (122.988E
41.099N) was the industrial center of Manchuria. Iron had been mined here
since the 10th
century, and wartime production was about 660,000 tons a year. The
Showa Steel Works, founded in 1916, was the center of
Japanese steel production outside Japan
proper. The Anshan coke ovens produced fully a third of Japan’s
metallurgical
coke
using coal from nearby mines,
particularly the enormous
mine at Fushun. The population was in the ballbark of 214,000 persons.
The city fell to the Japanese on 19 September 1931 during the Manchuria Incident. By the time war broke out in the Pacific, the city had an airfield and was garrisoned by 29 Division.
The coke works became an important strategic target later in the war, and were bombed on 29 July and 29 August 1944 by B-29s from XX Bomber Command. Captured by the Russians
in their August 1945 Manchurian offensive, the city was stripped of
most of its industrial equipment, but was rebuilt in the 1950s.
References
Hansell (1986; accessed 2010-11-12)
http://www.freeport-tech.com/WWII (accessed 2002; now defunct)
The Pacific War Online Encyclopedia © 2007, 2010, 2014 by Kent G. Budge. Index
