The Sacrifice of the Eight Hundred Heroes

This is a record of an interview with Yang Kun, one of the '800 Heroes' of the Defense of Sihang Warehouse, who sought Spiritual Deliverance at the Hsiang Kuang Pure Land Buddhist Centre in Australia. He now resides in the Western Land of Dharma Nature. This account reflects upon his life approximately eighty years ago. Recorded by the chief writer, Fa Ning, on March 29, 2026.

Yang Kun speaks:

"Namo Amituofo. I am Yang Kun. Right now, I feel an incredible sense of peace and stability—a feeling I have not known for decades. The Western Land of Dharma Nature is my home now, and it is where I shall remain.

As I look around this place, I see the presence of Namo Amituofo, and I also see the one everyone calls 'Practitioner Su.' To me, Practitioner Su appears like a kind, gentle grandmother; in her human form, she is a grandmother full of vitality and spirit. Yet, she possesses the miraculous ability of 'countless manifestations.' It is this extraordinary power that saved me, Yang Kun, and rescued so many of my brothers as well. Since arriving here, I have held Practitioner Su in the highest regard. I know deep in my heart that without her great vow and the compassionate intervention of Namo Amituofo, we would still be lost, wandering as poor, suffering souls trapped in a dark and misty world."

The Miracle of Deliverance

"Practitioner Su’s skills are truly miraculous. My brothers and I were absolutely dumbfounded when we witnessed them; we never imagined we could be saved in such a way. To be honest, we did not even fully understand what had happened to us. We had spent decades in a state of pain and confusion, though at least we had each other, which kept us from suffering in total isolation. It was only when Namo Amituofo spoke to me that I realised I had left the human world over eighty years ago. Eighty years—that could be the entire span of a person's life—yet it passed in the blink of an eye. I have no memory of what happened during those long years, but I know what kind of person I was in the past. The story of my life before I died, however, remains crystal clear. Perhaps that pain was so profound, so deeply etched into the depths of my soul, that whenever I recall it, it appears before my eyes as if it were yesterday.

Today, Namo Amituofo called upon us, the eight hundred warriors of the Defense of Sihang Warehouse, to come forward and speak. I was the first to jump out and say, 'I want to speak,' so it is my responsibility to report to the Buddha and to all of you on behalf of my brothers."

The Truth Behind the 'Eight Hundred'

"This name, which sounds so grand, represents the 'Eight Hundred Heroes,' though in reality, there were only about four hundred of us. We gathered at the Sihang Warehouse in Shanghai to defend the city. The Japanese army attacked us day and night, bombarding us with artillery, yet we held our ground in that fortress, which was easy to defend but difficult to attack. That is the short version of our story.

But the full story is long. I, Yang Kun, was merely a young peasant soldier from a village in Hunan. When the Japanese army launched their full-scale invasion of China, I was still just a nineteen-year-old boy, busy working the fields. Yet, I knew that when the nation was in peril, if I was needed to stand up, I was willing to train myself in the martial arts to protect my country and my family.

When I heard that a local militia was being recruited, I said goodbye to my parents and joined the team. We were all just young boys, lacking any rigorous training. We spent less than a month training in a hidden location in Hunan. In that month, I did learn quite a bit, and my body grew stronger. But before the month was even up, many of us were dispatched to distant locations to join the resistance against the Japanese army."

From the Fields to the Frontline

"At the time, I had no idea where I was going, only that those of us who were physically strong were to depart with a commanding officer. There were about a dozen of us from Hunan who joined up with larger units from other provinces, travelling all the way to the east. It was only later that I learned we were heading to the great city of Shanghai. Being young, I did not realise the sheer ferocity of the Japanese army; I thought it was just another training exercise, so I did not have a heavy heart about the upcoming battle.

However, when we arrived in Shanghai, we only had one day to look at the city. It was all very strange to us. We knew the area was under strict control and there were many places we were forbidden to go; we had to follow orders and move only within designated areas. I looked at that bustling city—it must have been one of the greatest cities in China at the time. For a boy from the countryside, it was an incredible sight. But we had no time for idle thoughts; we were quickly ushered into a secret base for underground discussions.

The officers watched us very closely, demanding that we report on our determination to resist the Japanese. We were all full of spirit, declaring that we would defend our country to the death and make our final stand for our homeland.

It turned out that the war had already been raging on this land for several months. The atmosphere, thick with the smoke of war, instantly made it hard for us to breathe. We had never experienced the fires of war; we did not know what it was really like.

Yet, the officers told us that we were to be a 'suicide squad.' When we heard this, our hearts turned cold. We knew this mission was incredibly dangerous, that we would likely not return alive. But we had long since resolved to die for our cause, so after the officers finished speaking, our determination to resist the Japanese only grew stronger. We understood that behind us were millions of civilians, waiting for us soldiers to stand up for the nation, to protect the elderly, the women, and the children. This mission was so important that we had no regrets. We followed orders, signed our last wills and testaments, wrote a few words to our families, and were then isolated once again."

The Siege of Sihang Warehouse

"This isolation was to keep us out of the public eye. Soon, we were notified that we were to be sent to a place called 'Sihang Warehouse.' It was in a very prominent location in Shanghai, and according to the information we received, we were to defend it against the Japanese advance. Although we lacked tactical experience, we possessed a heart determined to serve the country to the death. If our sacrifice could save countless others, we were more than willing to die.

After transferring from the secret base to the Sihang Warehouse, we were told that we would face constant attacks from the Japanese. As farm boys, none of us had any battlefield experience, so it was inevitable that we felt fear. Yet, we also knew that in the nation's time of crisis, being lucky enough to be sent to the front line to resist was perhaps our chance to repay our country, and so our hearts felt strangely calm and grateful. Furthermore, the commanders did an excellent job of comforting us; they knew we were inexperienced and carefully provided us with strength and guidance.

We were soon thrown into the reality of artillery bombardment, though we were protected within the sturdy walls of the Sihang Warehouse. At first, the attacks did not seem like much; the warehouse had layers of obstacles that were enough to block the shelling.

During this time, some of my brothers went out to engage the Japanese directly and soon lost their lives. I was not ordered to go out, so I remained inside. This waiting was actually quite agonising, as I did not know when the sturdy walls of the warehouse might fail and let the Japanese break through.

We did a lot of defensive and preparatory work inside. Although our skills were lacking, we were willing to spend time making up for our deficiencies. The officers taught us carefully, helping us understand the geography, the situation, and the routes we should take. Many things were just too foreign to us. We boys had never seen buildings more than two or three stories high, yet suddenly we were in the city of Shanghai, facing its former prosperity and the tragic ruins caused by the Japanese bombardment. These scenes of heavy casualties were truly shocking to us. Many of us had never seen death before, and suddenly we had to face tens of thousands of Japanese soldiers using brutal methods to shell us. It was a scene we had never imagined, and adapting to it was truly an agonising time.

We were not afraid of death, but we did not want to be a burden to the country; we did not want the people in the rear to suffer because of our ignorance and lack of experience. The hearts of us boys were simple; we understood the principle that 'the only way to repay the country is through loyalty.' Although we had not read many books and did not know many characters, we understood the stories of loyalty and righteousness from the dynasties of the past. We knew that in the nation's hour of survival, we had to rely on those willing to die for the country, those willing to sacrifice their own lives to protect the land and the people.

After holding the position for several days, we were suddenly told we could leave the Sihang Warehouse. We were all very surprised, thinking we were about to start a new life—that we would be retrained and continue to serve the country. So, we all walked out of the warehouse with the feeling of having survived a catastrophe, and were transferred to another location.

We truly did not know what was going to happen next. Not long after, we found ourselves under the control of a different group. By then, our commander, Xie Jinyuan, had been assassinated. Our hearts were heavy with grief, and we all looked at the figure of our former commander with great shock."

"The tragedy was that after our commander fell, we were quickly captured by the Japanese forces. Each of us had our hands and feet bound, and they even covered our heads with hoods. We had no idea what kind of world we were about to face. The Japanese soldiers forced us onto large trucks one by one. We were packed so tightly inside that we could barely breathe, and we had no idea what lay ahead in that absolute darkness. We spent many days trapped in that truck, without a single bite of food or a drop of water. The process of enduring that suffering was truly unbearable."

A Life of Forced Labour and Fear

"Later, we were taken to another location, which must have been quite a distance from Shanghai. We were suddenly thrown into a large building and told that this would be our home from then on. We were all terrified. The Japanese soldiers communicated with us using only the most basic Chinese, supplemented by hand gestures. We could not understand Japanese, and the Japanese military only knew a few words of Chinese, so we were forced into a life of back-breaking, secret labour without even knowing what was happening to us.

"If the Japanese soldiers told us to move something, we moved it. If they told us to do something, we had to obey; we could not utter a single word of complaint. Of course, there were some exceptionally brave brothers among us who dared to stand up to the Japanese commander, wanting to go on strike or escape. But whether they tried to escape openly or in secret, they were all executed. The Japanese military would display the scenes of their brutal deaths right before our eyes, ensuring we saw every detail clearly. We were so frightened that our souls seemed to fly away; no one ever dared to mention escaping again."

The Long, Silent Wait

"Everyone just stayed quietly in that place, continuing our forced labour. We had no idea what was happening in the outside world. At that moment, we had lost all contact with the outside, and we had lost contact with our Chinese commanders as well. We didn't know if any Chinese forces would come to rescue us because the place where we were held was a very secluded mountain forest. Although we were all deeply depressed, we still held onto a sense of fatalism, staying together with our brothers, swallowing our pride and suffering in silence for several years.

"My own willpower, Yang Kun, was relatively strong, so I managed to survive even after many of my brothers had sacrificed their lives one after another. However, by the day of our actual liberation, my body and mind had completely collapsed. The immense pressure and physical pain had lasted for far too long. On the very day I was liberated, I suddenly passed away. I never got to enjoy anything of the outside world, nor did I have the chance to return to my hometown. I died in a foreign land, remaining on that soil in the south of Shanghai."

A Glimpse of Light in the Darkness

"The world after death left me with such profound emotions. In the space after death, I indeed saw many of my brothers who had left the human world earlier than I did. They were all trapped in this space just like me, unable to leave. Everyone was still gnashing their teeth in sorrow and pain, but it seemed nothing could change the reality of our situation. Some of them had been there for one, two, or three years—perhaps even four or five years since we first arrived. Our spirits gathered in one place, living a miserable existence as ghosts. We didn't communicate much; we just knew of each other's presence and stayed quietly in that space for a very long time.

"Just when we were in the depths of despair, we suddenly felt our entire bodies become light. Above our heads, a beam of light was shining upon us, never wavering for a single moment. We opened our eyes in utter astonishment, looking at the scene before us, and everyone couldn't help but smile. We finally realised that someone had come to save us!"

The Compassion of Namo Amituofo

"What we saw before us was Namo Amituofo, along with an awakened being from the human world named Practitioner Su. His figure was greeting us. We immediately entered another world—a world that was incredibly bright and warm, vastly different from the space we had been trapped in for decades.

"Namo Amituofo and Practitioner Su were still before our eyes, but at this moment, we were no longer lonely, wandering spirits. We were quickly dressed in clean white robes and seated on lotus pedestals. Each of us had our own lotus flower, and we sat there very comfortably, being purified by the Buddha-light.

"It turned out that all these changes were happening because Practitioner Su was performing Chao Du on the land of China. Many suffering spirits like us were suddenly brought to the Western Land of Dharma Nature. What shocked us was that we had only been on that land in China for a few decades, but looking around, many of the Chinese spirits in the Western Land of Dharma Nature had been lingering on Chinese soil for hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands of years. The suffering they had endured was far more tragic than ours."

A Heart at Peace

"We were all filled with joy and gratitude. Everything that happened today was something we had never imagined possible. We wanted to share the good news with our families, but we knew they had long since left the human world, and we had no idea where they had gone.

"I also hope that my family can feel this bathing in Buddha-light on that land, just as I did, and come to the Western Land of Dharma Nature just like me. We are all filled with an incomparable sense of reverence and worship for the Buddha.

"Most of us did not know the Buddha, nor did we know that Namo Amituofo had come to the human world to save us. But now, we have learned so much. We know that the path we took to serve our country was actually something destined by the laws of karma and cause and effect. Therefore, we have finished paying what we owed. Now that the causal conditions have arrived, we have experienced a great transformation and can truly draw near to the Buddha. This, too, must be something destined by causal conditions.

"Everyone's heart is now very calm; we no longer even hold any resentment toward the Japanese military. We know that everything proceeds according to the laws of karma and cause and effect. The Japanese soldiers also have their own karmic retribution to face, and they are just as miserable as we were. Because no one received true Buddhist education, they ended up on that path. Many of them were just like us—innocent children pushed onto the battlefield at a very young age, not knowing what lay ahead, just marching straight into war. We hold a very compassionate heart toward them as well."

A Future of Light

"The Yang Kun of today is no longer the Yang Kun of that time. I am filled with joy on my lotus pedestal, loudly chanting 'Namo Amituofo'. I keep chanting, and my heart has become much more peaceful. Thinking back on all the events of the past, it was nothing more than a dream. We have let go of everything that happened. Now, there is only light before us, and a beautiful future awaits us.

"We know that only by holding firmly to the Buddha-name of 'Namo Amituofo' do we have the opportunity to follow the Buddha and attain rebirth in the Western Land of Ultimate Bliss. We do not want to be humans again, nor do we want to suffer the pain of reincarnation. All this suffering was too deeply etched into our hearts; we all have such profound impressions of it. No one wants to be a human again—this is the true reflection of our hearts.

"Gratitude to Namo Amituofo. Gratitude to Practitioner Su.

Namo Amituofo.

Yang Kun"