In Chongqing, tombstones with QR codes make remembering Japanese war crimes easier than ever

By Ryan Kilpatrick, April 1, 2015

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In the city of Chongqing in southwest China, you can find gravestones that, instead of wasting wasting time trying to tell you about the deceased, simply link you to more information online.

The tombstones, whhich you can find in the city's charmingly named Foreigners Street, come equipped witha QR code where an epitath would normally be.

By scanning the QR code with your mobile phone, you'll be led to a website with more information on the victims of either the Nanking Massacre or Japan's bombing of the inland megacity, which served as Chiang Kai-shek's wartime capital during the Japanese invasion.

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Visitors to the website can then take part in a virtual vigil by lighting candles, presenting flowers, ringing bells and planting memorial trees for the over 10,000 Chongqing residents killed by the 11,5000 bombs dropped on the city from February 18, 1938, to August 23, 1943.

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In Chinese, the word for scanning contains the character "to sweep." As Qingming - also known as Town Sweeping Day - falls on April 5 this year, the innovative headstones plays on the dual meaning of sweeping a grave.

Some may pooh-pooh the mourning-on-the-go tactic as tacky and lacking in solemnity but hey, convenience is king. Plus you can never really be reminded of Japan's wartime atrocities too much.

RELATED: 'Japanese killed my grandpa when he was 9' and other absurd lines from Chinese war dramas

[Images via SouthCN]

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