CRI听力:Japanese Veteran Slams Politicians for Denying Aggression History

Nakajima Goro was only 12 years old when the July 7 Incident happened in 1937, but he and his friends took it for granted that they should fight for the Emperor in the future, because they were taught so since they were very little.

"The system Japan used to manipulate its people centered on the Emperor, and was guided by strong outward expansion with 'prosperous country with a powerful army' as a slogan. Japan was actively building its military forces in order to expand its power. Since Japan itself has few resources, it wanted to invade China. We were growing up under such militaristic education..."

He joined in the Japanese army in March 1945, and participated in the looting in east China's Shandong Province.

"The locals ran away as soon as we started looting the village, without even one person left. We could only grab the cattle and rice, something edible like that. We were not aware of the bad deeds we were doing. We did everything the leaders ordered, just like robots."

Nakajima was seriously wounded in a fight with the Eighth Route Army. He thought he was going to die, but medical staff with the Eighth saved his life.

He returned to Japan in September 1946, and has been living a normal life since then.

However, he could not forget the experience in China, and felt concerned about the current leadership in Japan not apologizing for the aggression, and not being able to face up to the facts.

"Most Japanese soldiers who joined the war of aggression against China, just like me, mentioned nothing of what they had done because they had done really bad things to China. However, some politicians like Shinzo Abe knew the atrocity Japanese troops did in the war, but put up an innocent face, saying something like it was nonsense like 'talking that equals humiliating ourselves' about Japan's wrongdoing in the past."

Nakajima Goro started to deliver speeches about the aggression at the age of 80 to let more Japanese people know the history and reflect on the war.

For CRI, I am Niu Honglin.