CRI听力:V-Day Series: To Record and Reflect on History

Did Japan "invade" China in the 1930's and 40's or their troops merely "entered" China? Did the Nanjing Massacre really happen, followed by rampant rapes? Did Japan colonize some countries they occupied or just liberate them from colonial rule? Did they force women to be "sex slaves" for their troops? Did the Japanese army conduct germ warfare in World War Two?

There's a long list of questions like these, and almost each of them has a so-called "neutralized term", such as "enter" instead of “invade" and "comfort women" versus "military sex slaves", all with hidden intent.

Hence the counter measures to collect ironclad evidence; a tough job.

Shanghai Jiaotong University has just published evidence from the Tokyo Trial held by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East nearly 70 years ago. This collection, including 50 volumes in Japanese and 3 volumes of indexes in Chinese, serves as proof of Japan's WWII atrocities. The book is the second published by the University after its previous work on the proceedings of the Tokyo Trial published two years ago. Both of them are regarded as precious basic files detailing Japan's war crimes. The Tokyo Trial from 1946 to 1948 charged 28 Japanese military and political leaders with Class A war crimes.

Professor Liu Tong, from the Center for the Tokyo Trial Studies of Jiaotong University, says it's a meticulous work that requires a high degree of specificity.

"In order to fight against Japanese right-wing groups, you have to present something more convincing to refute them. Those academic results must derive from original historical data."

In July, over 1000 privately-owned historical documents recording Japanese war crimes went on display in Beijing. These include books, newspapers, military currencies, wartime savings bonds, photos and archives, mostly in Japanese language. They are part of personal collections from Hsu Po Yih, a Taiwan artist and philanthropist.

The donation is also a response to All-China Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese, which started soliciting evidence from around the world since last year.

Federation Vice Chairman, Qiao Wei says those collections are of great significance.

"Through these documents, we could see that Chinese mainland and Taiwan are working together fighting against Japanese aggression. This means that we could overcome any problems as long as we unite together."

Down south in Fujian Province, a recent exhibition features coastal defense in Fujian and Taiwan. One item is a pictorial made by Japanese Intelligence Department during the war, recording Japanese troops' killing, looting and raping in detail.

Fujian has also released an original video footage about the invasion of the province. The footage, shot by Japanese war correspondents back in 1941, encloses details of the attacks on Zhejiang and Fujian provinces and the Japanese troops' atrocities, such as raping and looting after they took the city of Fuzhou. It also reveals how Japanese troops looted fortunes in the two provinces to cut off the channel of assistance given by overseas Chinese.

The exhibition's co-organizer Jiang Binjian says the collections present irrefutable facts of history.

"Since Japanese right wing forces have been denying their history of invasion, I try to gather evidence of Japanese troops' atrocities especially coming from Japanese side, so as to truly unveil the historical facts, by using their own historical records."

Japanese fighter jets bombed Fujian in more than 3100 sorties. 2.5 million people were displaced, that's nearly 20 percent of the then provincial population.

But Japanese right-ring politicians continue their denial of their history of war and atrocities, such as sex slaves of the army, the Nanjing Massacre and germ warfare.

In October last year, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga rejected his predecessor, Yohei Kono's admission of coercion of “comfort women" during the war.

Lyu Yaodong, an expert with the Japanese Studies Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, explains Japan's motivations.

"He's making attempt to set up a so-called 'correct view of history' via his own explanations on the international community. Such a 'view of history' is actually full of historical revisionism, meaning the denial of their history of aggression."

Back in 1993, Kono made a statement acknowledging Japan's forceful recruitment of over 200 thousand young women from China, the Korean Peninsula and Southeast Asia and forced them to serve in military brothels during the War.

As counter measures against denial, China's State Archives Administration has publicized a series of 31 hand-written confessions from Japanese war criminals, about what they did in China. Up north, the City of Harbin has opened a new museum, exhibiting more than 5,000 pieces of evidence of Japan's secret chemical and biological warfare research conducted by its Army Unit 731. Between 1939 and 1943, the unit produced about 640 kilograms of bacteria, enough to destroy the entire human race if used.

New findings and new research results are on display in many other cities, including Nanjing. The message –China's willing to look forward and foster partnership with old adversaries, as in the case of Germany and its former enemies, but only when history is truly reflected upon as a mirror.

CRI's Xiao Yi with with our final report in our series on athe Chinese People's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression.