The Written Confessions Of The Japanese War Criminals

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July 3, One Of Japan's Asahi Shimbun Reporters At A News Conference Before Filming The Content On The Panel.

 

China Publicizes Confessions By Japanese War Criminals

 

Confessions made by 45 Japanese war criminals tried and convicted by military tribunals in China after World War II (WWII) will be published online from Thursday.

Handwritten confessions, along with Chinese translations and abstracts in both Chinese and English, will be published on the website of the State Archives Administration.

The administration will publish the confessions by one each day over a 45-day period.

These archives are hard evidence of the heinous crimes committed by Japanese imperialism against the Chinese.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, disregarding historical justice and human conscience, has been openly talking black into white, misleading the public, and beautifying Japanese aggression and its colonial history since he took office.

This challenges WWII achievements and the post-WWII international order.

The July 7 incident, or the Lugouqiao Incident, in 1937 marked the beginning of China's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, which lasted eight years.

A 38-page confession by Suzuki Keiku, who served as assistant commander of the 28th Infantry Regiment and later as lieutenant general and commander of the 117th Division in the Japanese army, was the first to be published.

He ordered Colonel Taisuke to "burn down the houses of about 800 households and slaughter 1,000 Chinese peasants in a mop-up operation" in the Tangshan area in January 1942. He "murdered 1,280 peasants in Daizhuang Village, Panjia, Luanxian County by shooting, bayoneting, slashing and burying them alive, and burned down the houses of all 800 households in the village" in October 1942. He also "ordered to set up comfort stations in regions occupied by Japanese troops, and lured about 60 Chinese and Korean women to serve as comfort women" in 1945.

Which were signed by the war criminals, are scans of the originals.

There were 1,109 Japanese war criminals in custody in China between 1950 and 1956.

Among them, 1,017 with minor offenses were exempted from prosecution and released in 1956 and 45 received open trials in special military tribunals under the Supreme People's Court that year.

The 45 were charged with planning and implementing an aggression policy, making germ weapons, releasing poisonous gas, conducting experiments on living human beings, killing, stealing property, forcible recruitment of "comfort women", raping and driving out locals from their homes.

The 45 war criminals were sentenced to imprisonment from eight to 20 years.

The administration is sorting out archives of confessions made by the 1,017 with minor offenses and will make them public in the future.

 

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Introduction

　　On August 14 1945, Emperor Hirohito of Japan issued an imperial edict on armistice, announcing Japan's unconditional surrender. In accordance with the Potsdam Proclamation, the International Military Tribunal for the Far East was formed by 11 countries, including China, the United States, the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union, and had trials on Hideki Tojo and other Japanese war criminals responsible for launching the Japanese War of Aggression against China and the Pacific War.

　　After the birth of New China, a total of 1,109 Japanese war criminals were taken over and held in custody in the two places of Fushun and Taiyuan. In 1954, the Supreme People's Procuratorate Office of the Central People's Government (later renamed the Supreme People's Procuratorate of the People's Republic of China) was responsible for the investigation and prosecution of the Japanese war criminals. It had trials on their crimes committed during the Japanese War of Aggression against China, including violating China's sovereignty, planning and implementing the policy of aggression, conducting spy and espionage activities, manufacturing bacteria weapons, releasing poison gas, killing, arresting, enslaving and poisoning the Chinese people, raping women, plundering money and materials, destroying towns and villages, expelling peaceful inhabitants, and violating international norms and humanitarian principles.

　　According to the Decision on the Handling of the Criminals in Custody from the Japanese War of Aggression against China adopted by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) on 25 April 1956, the Supreme People's Procuratorate of the People's Republic of China announced the decision to exempt from prosecution and immediately release, in three batches in 1956, a total of 1,017 Japanese war criminals in custody, who had relatively minor offenses and good behaviors of repentance. Meanwhile, a public prosecution was initiated to the Special Military Tribunal of the Supreme People's Court of the People's Republic of China on 45 Japanese war criminals, who were of higher positions and heavier offenses (the other 47 war criminals died in custody).

　　From June to July 1956, the Special Military Tribunal of the Supreme People's Court of the People's Republic of China publicly tried in Shenyang and Taiyuan the 45 war criminals including Suzuki Keiku, and, based on the defendants' criminal facts, circumstances of the crimes, repentance, etc., treated them with leniency in accordance with the decision of the NPC Standing Committee, sentencing them to from twenty years to eight years in prison respectively.

　　Archives related to the trials of the war criminals of the Japanese War of Aggression against China, such as documents issued by the NPC Standing Committee, the Supreme People's Procuratorate and the Special Military Tribunal of the Supreme People's Court, are stored in the Central Archives. The confessions written by all the war criminals and the detailed trial records contained in the archive files are irrefutable evidence of the heinous crimes committed by the Japanese militarist aggressors against the Chinese people.

　　Since the Abe cabinet came into power in Japan, it has openly confused right and wrong to mislead the public, in an attempt to whitewash the history of external aggression and colonialism. This is a total disregard of the historical justice and human conscience, as well as a challenge to the outcome of World War II and the post-war international order. On the occasion of the 77th anniversary of the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, we at the Central Archives have selected from the archive files the written confessions of the 45 Japanese war criminals tried by the Supreme People's Court, including the original texts of the written confessions, supplements, corrections, postscripts, etc. as well as the then Chinese translations with abstracts, to release to the general public, in order to expose the anti-humanitarianism, anti-humanity, and anti-civilization atrocities during the Japanese invasion of China.

　　The past, if not forgotten, can serve as a guide for the future. Only by truly remembering the history and learning from the history, can we avoid a repeat of the tragedy of war and achieve real and lasting peace and stability in the world.