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China publicizes Japanese war criminal's confessions
Last Updated: 2014-07-07 07:10 | Xinhua
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China's State Archives Administration on Sunday publicized the confession of Japanese war criminal Nosuke Sasaki, the latest in a series of similar publications.

A 141-page confession signed by Lieutenant General Sasaki, commander of the 39rd Division of the Third Front Army of the Kwantung Army, on May 9, 1956, details the murder of thousands of Chinese and civilians and captives from 1932 to 1945.

A section on events in October 1932 includes the passage, "During my garrison duty in Jiamusi... about 30 Chinese people were arrested as spy suspects... Among them, 15 soldiers and six civilians were killed after interrogation with torture."

Other sections see Sasaki confess to having his soldiers use poison gas and forcing Indonesian women into sex slavery for Japanese troops.

The release includes scans of the original manuscript in Japanese, with Chinese and English translations.

On Thursday, the State Archives Administration began releasing full texts of confessions by 45 Japanese war criminals. One will be released online per day.

The move follows Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and right-wing politicians' stubborn denial of war crimes in China.

Some 1,109 Japanese war criminals were held in custody in China between 1950 and 1956, according to the administration. Of them, 1,017 with minor offenses were exempted from prosecution and released in 1956 and 45 received military trials under the Supreme People's Court that year.

The administration said it is sorting archives of confessions made by the 1,017 with minor offenses to make them public as well.

Website launched to promote Nanjing Massacre memorial

Li Gaoshan, a 90-year-old survivor of the Nanjing Massacre in World War II, on Sunday pressed a button to launch cngongji.cn, a website designed to promote commemoration of the tragedy.

In February, China's top legislature set December 13 as a national memorial day for Nanjing Massacre victims. Previously, memorial services were mostly limited to the province of Jiangsu, where Nanjing is located.

The launch of the website will lead a series of commemoration activities preluding the first national memorial later this year.

The website in three languages -- Chinese, Japanese and English -- is sponsored by the Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall and Xinhua News Agency.

Russian, French, German and Korean-language editions will be added to the site by the Dec. 13 memorial service, said the sponsors.

"The site was built to popularize China's national memorial activities, helping people understand the history and commemorate those killed by Japanese invaders during World War II," said Zhu Chengshan, curator of the Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall.

He said that interaction is one of the main characteristics of the website, which has an area that lets netizens virtually light candles, present flowers, plant trees and ring bells for mourning war victims.

The website also introduces memorial activities in other countries.

Monday will coincide with the 77th anniversary of the July 7 Incident which marked the beginning of China's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression.

Seven decades after the brutal war (1937-1945), survivors of it are dying of old age. During the Nanjing Massacre, Li Gaoshan was only 13-year-old. He witnessed Japanese soldiers using machine guns to slaughter unarmed civilians after the city of Nanjing fell into the enemy's hands.

Li is among about 100 such eyewitnesses. The memorial hall on Sunday invited relatives and friends of the victims to share information on those killed in the massacre.

According to China's official records, more than 300,000 civilians and soldiers died in the massacre, which began on Dec. 13, 1937 and lasted for six weeks.

While Japanese historians and politicians call that number into question, the Chinese data was confirmed by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East and the Nanjing War Crimes Tribunal, according to Zhu.

Also on Sunday, the first album of documents relating to the National Memorial Day including the legislation bill, its referred historical data and media reports was published in Nanjing.

77 years on, Japan still fails to introspect

July 7 is an anniversary that should be remembered by both Chinese and Japanese.

Seventy-seven years ago, at Lugou Bridge, known as Marco Polo Bridge to the Western people, Japanese troops attacked Chinese defenders in the nearby fortress town of Wanping, marking the beginning of the eight-year Anti-Japanese War.

Civilians were killed by gunfire, bombs, gas and biological weapons; women were raped; forced laborers were tortured to death.

It was a devastating tragedy not only for China, but also for Japanese people.

Ignoring objections from peace lovers at home, warmongering fascists initiated the war, leaving Japanese soldiers to shed their blood away from their motherland and women and children deserted back home. Those people who provoked the war marked their own country with humiliation in history.

What's more, 77 years later, the Japanese government still fails to introspect on what it did in the past and cherish the current peace.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's cabinet endorsed a reinterpretation of its pacifist Constitution on Tuesday for the right to collective self-defense, the latest move in challenging the international bottom line. A Japanese person even set himself alight in protest.

From the slapstick of the "nationalization" of China's Diaoyu Islands by the former Japanese government, to Abe's ridiculous visit to the Yasukuni Shrine and to the pacifist Constitution reinterpretation, right-wingers in Japan have initiated a series of provocations.

War is hell, but there are always devils who try to spark war and trample peace under foot.

Born in an island country with limited natural resources, Japanese people are respected for their diligence and energy-saving awareness. However, there are always a small number of people who attempt to loot the resources of other countries by way of invasion, bringing catastrophe to neighbors including the Korean Peninsula, India, Vietnam, the Philippines and China.

Decades have passed. With the common efforts of government leaders and civilians who cherish peace, China and Japan have greatly strengthened economic ties and cultural exchanges by putting hatred behind them. But some in Japan are now always trying to disturb the international postwar order by ignoring history, something no peace lover in either country wants to see.

China has a deep-rooted culture of seeking peace and expects the Abe government to stop its provocations. Otherwise, they will have to take their medicine.

(Editor:富博)

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China publicizes Japanese war criminal's confessions
Source:Xinhua | 2014-07-07 07:10
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