CRI听力:China Publishes Confession by Japanese War Criminials

Chinese authorities have begun publishing confessions made by Japanese war criminals who were convicted by military tribunals in China after the Second World War.

This comes days ahead of the 77th anniversary of the July 7th incident in 1937, which marked the beginning of China's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression.

CRI's Xiong Siqi has more.

Suzuki Keiku joined Japan's invasion of China in 1934.

He was a regimental commander of the 117th Division in 1945 and was ultimately captured by the Chinese army in Northeast China's Jilin Province.

In his confession, written in 1954, Suzuki recalled the atrocities carried out by Japanese troops.

This is just one short paragraph of the horrors he confessed to.

"In January 1942, I ordered Colonel Taura to burn down the houses of 800 families in Tangshan and kill over 1,000 farmers. In April 1942, we used poison gas and killed about 100 Chinese soldiers in Fengrun of Hebei province. Then we killed around 235 farmers who had fled from nearby counties and cut open the bowels of pregnant women. Over 800 households were burnt down, and hundreds of female villagers were raped."

The handwritten confession is the first among 44 others to be published by China's State Archives Administration on its website.

Li Minghua is the deputy director of the State Archives Administration.

"For a long time, there are political parties in Japan that deny Japan's invasion in China or try to sugar up the invasion. The confessions are published to record the history, take history as a mirror and cherish the peace. We stress that recalling history does not mean to recall the hatred, but to reflect on what happened and prevent similar tragedies from happening again."

According to Li, starting from Thursday, the State Archives will publish one confession of these 45 Japanese war criminals every day.

All of the documents will be available on the archives' official website, together with Chinese translation.

Chinese authorities held over 1,100 Japanese war criminals after 1949.

Investigations and trials lasted for five years, between 1951 and 1956.

Historical records show that at least 30 million Chinese people were killed during China's war against Japanese invasion.

For CRI, I'm Xiong Siqi.