2015-09-10

The Written Confessions By Goro Nakamura

Windwing - The Japanese War Criminals * Goro Nakamura
     Goro Nakamura
Abstract Of The Written Confessions In English  
Goro Nakamura(中村五郎)

Using poison gas against captives, bayoneting people for training purposes and burning civilians alive -- a Japanese war criminal confession published on Thursday reveals how Chinese people were treated "like animals" by Japanese invaders in World War II.

Goro Nakamura from the Aichi Prefecture, who joined the war of aggression in 1942, wrote in a confession that they "used Chinese people to test the effectiveness" of poison gas. At one point, a Chinese war captive "became unconscious five minutes later" after he was pushed into a room full of "Type-98" poison gas cannisters.

Goro said he "felt it was like using animals for experiments."

The confession, which was written in 1954, is part of the State Archives Administration's efforts to commemorate the 70th anniversary of China's victory in WWII.

He also wrote that while at a village in north China's Hebei Province, after finding a tunnel under an old woman's house, he "dragged her to the entrance, pushed her into the hole, ... filling it with straw, I lit it myself with a match and burnt the old woman alive."

The Japanese soldier also confessed to raping Chinese women.

 

The Original Text Of The Written Confessions

Translation Of The Written Confessions (Chinese)

 

2015-09-09

The Written Confessions By Kazuto Tsukamoto

Windwing - The Japanese War Criminals * Kazuto Tsukamoto
   Kazuto Tsukamoto
Abstract Of The Written Confessions In English  
Kazuto Tsukamoto(塚本一登)

A Japanese soldier admitted to a massacring and raping innocent civilians in China during World War II, according to a written confession released Wednesday.

The State Archives Administration (SAA) published the hand-written confession by Kazuto Tsukamoto, who was born in 1919, joined the Japanese army in 1939 and was captured in China in August 1945.

In the document, Tsukamoto wrote that he and other soldiers descended on Dangyang County in Hubei on Dec. 25, 1943 and carried out murder, arson and looting.

About 100 villagers, including newborns, children, the elderly and pregnant women, were set on fire, bayoneted, shot and their heads "broken in two with stone," he wrote.

About 100 houses were razed and the Japanese pillaged a temple on Jinfeng Mountain, destroying many artifacts, it added.

Tsukamoto also detailed how he raped a Chinese woman and tortured anti-Japanese underground operatives during interrogation.

In July 1942, Tsukamoto raped a woman while holding her at knife point, after he found the 20-year-old hiding under a bed in Jiangshan County, Zhejiang Province.

The war criminal also said he "bloated 12 underground operatives with water during interrogation, trampled on their bodies and dripped hot wax oil over their naked bodies", in Dangyang County, Hubei, in November 1944.

"Japanese soldiers slashed to death 11 operatives and shot the other in the chest with a handgun before beheading him with a katana," he said in the confession.

The shocking admission is the 30th in a series of 31 handwritten confessions from Japanese war criminals being released online by the archives as China marks the 70th anniversary of the end of WWII.

 

The Original Text Of The Written Confessions

Translation Of The Written Confessions (Chinese)

 

2015-09-08

The Written Confessions By Kesao Nogami

Windwing - The Japanese War Criminals * Kesao Nogami
      Kesao Nogami
Abstract Of The Written Confessions In English  
Kesao Nogami(野上今朝雄)

A Japanese World War II soldier mutilated a Chinese woman's corpse by ramming a bamboo batten up her vagina "until it reached her intestines," according to his confession published by the State Archives Administration on Tuesday.

The shocking admission from Kesao Nogami, who served in east China from 1937 until his capture in August 1945, comes in the 29th of a series of 31 handwritten confessions from Japanese war criminals being released online by the archives as China marks the 70th anniversary of the end of WWII.

In the confession, Nogami also detailed how he slaughtered civilians, deployed poison gas against Chinese troops and raped seven women.

His mutilation of the corpse of a half-naked 50-year-old peasant came in Anhui Province in February 1938.

Three months later, Nogami wrote, he used a rifle to beat unconscious a man who was then trampled to death by other Japanese soldiers.

The war criminal also confessed to "spreading poison gas toward 500 Kuomintang troops" in Jiangxi Province in March 1939, and to participating along with other Japanese troops in murdering "40 peaceful peasants, including women, men in their 30s and 40s, old people and three children aged about 10" in Shandong Province in February 1945.

In Beijing, between January 1941 and February 1944, Nogami raped five Chinese women eight times and two Korean women 10 times, he confessed.

 

The Original Text Of The Written Confessions

Translation Of The Written Confessions (Chinese)

 

The Written Confessions By Sakujiro Noguchi

Windwing - The Japanese War Criminals * Sakujiro Noguchi
     Sakujiro Noguchi
Abstract Of The Written Confessions In English  

Sakujiro Noguchi(野口作次郎)

A World War II Japanese soldier kicked a new-born infant to death in north China in 1943, according to a written confession published Monday.

The document, published by China's State Archives Administration (SAA), was written by Sakujiro Noguchi in 1954. Noguchi was born in Tokyo in 1921, joined the army in 1942 and was captured in China in August 1945.

Noguchi said he came across a crying baby at a train station in Hebei Province in February 1943. The baby had just been delivered by its mother in a toilet on a train, which had stopped at the station, according to his account. He admitted he had kicked the child to death.

He also confessed to raping and torturing Chinese women. One particularly cruel incident occurred in March 1944 in Boshan County in Shandong Province, east China.

Noguchi captured three woman, stripped one of them naked, whipped her with a bandolier and then "jumped onto her crotch ten times in his leather shoes [and killed her by] trampling on it four times". He ordered his subordinates to kill the other two, who were 13 and 16, in the same way.

The document is the 28th in a series of 31 written statements by Japanese war criminals published on the SAA website to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of WWII.

 

The Original Text Of The Written Confessions

Translation Of The Written Confessions (Chinese)

 

2015-09-07

The Written Confessions By Bunpei Nozawa

Windwing - The Japanese War Criminals * Bunpei Nozawa
     Bunpei Nozawa
Abstract Of The Written Confessions In English  

Bunpei Nozawa(野泽文平)

A handwritten confession by a Japanese soldier from World War II describes troops setting fire to about 100 homes in East China's Shandong province in September 1941, burning some 50 Chinese civilians to death inside their homes.

The State Archives Administration (SAA) of China published the confession by Bunpei Nozawa on Sunday.

Nozawa, born in 1920, joined the Japanese invasion in 1940 and was captured in China in August 1945.

Nozawa recalled that the civilians killed in the fires included the elderly and children.

He wrote he burned down two homes himself with one old woman lying in bed inside one of the rooms.

Nozawa also confessed to multiple cases of rape and murder from September 1941 to May 1945.

In one of the worst cases, which occurred in January 1945, the battalion commander ordered troops to attack peasants and they killed 20, he wrote. Two of them were killed under his direct command.

Nozawa's confession is the 27th in a series of 31 written statements by Japanese war criminals published on the SAA website in commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the end of WWII.

 

The Original Text Of The Written Confessions

Translation Of The Written Confessions (Chinese)

 

2015-09-05

The Written Confessions By Kihachiro Sibayama

Windwing - The Japanese War Criminals * Kihachiro Sibayama
   Kihachiro Sibayama
Abstract Of The Written Confessions In English  

Kihachiro Sibayama(柴山喜八郎)

A handwritten confession by a Japanese World War II soldier confessed to brutal killing of innocent Chinese people to test weapon.

According to the confession by Kihachiro Sibayama, which was published by the State Archives Administration (SAA) of China on Saturday, in May 1940 in Shandong Province, the Japanese soldier "shot 30 bullets" "at Chinese people of about 40 to 50 years old who were carrying shoulder poles and walking," in order to test the effectiveness of the heavy machine gun, thus "brutally killed five Chinese."

Also, he confessed that in June 1943, Japanese soldiers did not give any medical treatment to the captured Kuomintang soldiers who suffered from colitis. They gave the patients nothing to eat and therefore tortured 12 men (of around 25 years old) to death. He also ordered Japanese guards to kill five other patients.

Sibayama said that in July 1943 he delivered 60 small red canisters of poison gas and 20 small cyan ones as well as a secret documents of using such weapons to a commander of a squadron. Later that month, the commander ordered the use of poison during the fight against the Eighth Route Army and "six red and cyan canisters of poison gas were fired."

He also confessed to breaking dikes to submerge the liberated areas in water, which has affected one million people. Due to lack of food and an outbreak of epidemic, 20,000 people starved to death.

He said he raped a total of 30 "comfort women"-- wartime forced sexual slaves, including Chinese and Korean, from September 1940 to May 1945.

Born in Japan in 1922, Sibayama joined the the Japanese invasion in 1940 and was captured in August 1945.

His confession is the 26th in a series of written statements by Japanese war criminals published on the SAA website in commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the end of WWII. 

 

The Original Text Of The Written Confessions

Translation Of The Written Confessions (Chinese)

 

2015-09-04

The Written Confessions By Shozo Noto

Windwing - The Japanese War Criminals * Shozo Noto
       Shozo Noto
Abstract Of The Written Confessions In English  

Shozo Noto(能登圣造)

A handwritten confession by a Japanese World War II soldier confessed to raping a woman who gave birth to a baby less than a week prior in east Shandong Province in May 1945.

The State Archives Administration (SAA) of China published the confession of Shozo Noto on Friday.

The man, born in 1920, joined the Japanese invasion in 1940 and was captured in China in August 1945.

He raped another woman in the province in March 1944 by threatening to kill her with his bayonet.

A group of 48 Japanese soldiers were divided into 4 teams and took turns bayoneting 4 Chinese patriots as training in March 1941, he wrote, adding the four were stabbed to death.

Noto also recalled that he tortured peasants imprisoned in the province by beating them with clubs and forcing them to drink pots of water in February 1945. He also confessed to killing a peasant with a Japanese sword.

His confession is the 25th in a series of 31 written statements by Japanese war criminals published on the SAA website in commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the end of WWII.

 

The Original Text Of The Written Confessions

Translation Of The Written Confessions (Chinese)

 

2015-09-03

The Written Confessions By Saburo Miyagawa

Windwing - The Japanese War Criminals * Saburo Miyagawa
    Saburo Miyagawa
Abstract Of The Written Confessions In English  

Saburo Miyagawa(宫川三郎)

A handwritten confession by a Japanese World War II soldier describes Japanese troops' killing of 12 Chinese civilians collectively using hand grenades in east China's Shandong Province in August 1942.

The State Archives Administration (SAA) of China published the confession of Saburo Miyagawa on Thursday.

The man, born in 1920, joined the Japanese invasion troops in 1942 and was captured in China in August 1945.

Miyagawa also recalled that he murdered two peasants with a bayonet in the village after the 12 were killed.

Japanese troops employed toxic gas against Chinese and burned down about 100 homes in Shandong in June 1943, according to Miyagawa's confession.

He wrote that the invading Japanese troops shot dead 20 peasants and 10 soldiers of the Eighth Route Army, led by the Communist Party of China, who were stripped of their clothes after being captured, in Shandong.

Miyagawa also confessed to several rape cases from 1942 to 1945 in the province.

His confession is the 24th in a series of 31 written statements by Japanese war criminals published on the SAA website in commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the end of WWII.

 

The Original Text Of The Written Confessions

Translation Of The Written Confessions (Chinese)

 

2015-09-02

The Written Confessions By Noboru Miyamoto

Windwing - The Japanese War Criminals * Noboru Miyamoto
   Noboru Miyamoto
Abstract Of The Written Confessions In English  

Noboru Miyamoto(宫本昇)

A Japanese war criminal confessed to raping 17 Chinese women during World War II, including new mothers, according to an account of the crimes that he wrote.

Noboru Miyamoto also raped, tortured and killed a new mother in east China's Shandong Province in 1943, just because his trousers had been splattered by the woman's blood, he wrote in the 1954 confession, which was released by the State Archives Administration on Wednesday.

The archives has been releasing a document every day since the middle of last month as China marks the 70th anniversary of the end of WWII.

Miyamoto, who was born in Tokyo in 1920 and came to China in 1940, killed four Chinese civilians in 1944 by setting them on fire, including a two-year-old baby and a boy aged about five or six. His fellows also "threw a children into a well and smashed him over his head."

He also participated in the gang-rape of four Chinese women and killed another four Chinese men, all civilians, according to his confession. 

 

The Original Text Of The Written Confessions

Translation Of The Written Confessions (Chinese)

 

The Written Confessions By Kingo Okano

Windwing - The Japanese War Criminals * Kingo Okano
       Kingo Okano
Abstract Of The Written Confessions In English  

Kingo Okano(冈野金吾)

A Japanese war criminal confession released Tuesday details the killing of Chinese civilians during Japan's War of Aggression against China.

The State Archives Administration (SAA) published the hand-written confession by Kingo Okano, who was born in 1912 and joined the invasion army in 1937. He was captured in August 1945.

According to the document, Okano said he killed two captured anti-Japanese soldiers in north China's Hebei Province in 1937. He also captured a man and woman and "forced them to have sexual intercourse in front of us and beat them," the confession said.

He confessed that in May 1938 he "beat and tortured" a captured man for two weeks and "beheaded him with a katana" in Chengde, where he also broke into a Chinese house, "threatened the wife with my own power, sexually assaulted her in the inner room, and infected her with gonorrhea."

Okano said that in May 1939, he was ordered to transport 250 POWs of the Eighth Route Army and "hand them over to the headquarters of the Fourth Army," who "enslaved them and later killed them all, with some used in a bacterial experiment."

Okana confessed that in October 1940 in northeast China's Jilin Province, he worked with puppet police to assist 200 military doctors in conducting so-called "epidemic prevention." He "had 5,000 people in town injected, broke into houses to force disinfection and dissected 50 people to conduct experiments to prepare for bacterial warfare," the confession stated.

Okana also confessed he provided intelligence in August 1945, the result of which was that a squadron "fired at about 2,000 rioting Chinese with machine guns and shot dead 150 of them."

This was the 22nd of 31 written confessions by Japanese war criminals to be published on the SAA website to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of WWII.

The Original Text Of The Written Confessions

Translation Of The Written Confessions (Chinese)

 

2015-08-31

The Written Confessions By Tomokichi Nagata

Windwing - The Japanese War Criminals * Tomokichi Nagata
    Tomokichi Nagata
Abstract Of The Written Confessions In English  

Tomokichi Nagata(长田友及)

A Japanese war criminal confessed to torturing and performing vivisections on Chinese people during Japan's War of Aggression against China, according to a written archive released Monday.

The State Archives Administration (SAA) published the hand-written confession by Tokokichi Nagata, who was born in 1920 and joined the invasion of China as a medic in 1942. He was captured in August 1945.

According to the document, Nagata said when he was learning anatomy at the Training Team for Medical Recruits of Jinan Army Hospital in east China, he witnessed the surgeon "dissect two Chinese peasants with a scalpel and kill them in a brutal way." A medic sergeant then "took out the internal organs, such as the liver, spleen, pancreas and kidneys, to use as teaching materials."

Nagata confessed that, after breaking into a civilian house in Beijing in 1943, "I found a Chinese man aged around 50 suffering serious cholera. When he reached out his hand for help, I grabbed his hand, threw him to the ground, kicked him and locked the door from outside with a hemp rope, thus locking the man inside his home and killing him".

In April 1944, Nagata said he "tied a Chinese peasant to a door plank, beat him with club and force-fed him ten liters of cold water during interrogation." He then told his companions to bayonet him to death. In the same month, he arrested two Chinese soldiers, tortured them and ordered the companions to "bayonet them to death".

Nagata also confessed to raping four young Korean women and one Chinese woman several times during 1944.

This was the 21st of 31 written confessions by Japanese war criminals to be published on the SAA website to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of WWII.

 

The Original Text Of The Written Confessions

Translation Of The Written Confessions (Chinese)

 

2015-08-30

The Written Confessions By Hoichi Matsui

Windwing - The Japanese War Criminals * Hoichi Matsui
     Hoichi Matsui
Abstract Of The Written Confessions In English  

Hoichi Matsui(松井芳一)

Japanese World War II soldiers burned Chinese civilians to death and raped numerous women during their invasion of China, according to a war criminal's confession published by the State Archives Administration on Sunday.

Hoichi Matsui and his fellows set light to 100 houses in a village in Laiwu County, east China's Shandong Province, in 1941 and burned 50 men, women and children, to death, he wrote in the 1954 confession, part of a series of such documents being released by the archives as China marks the 70th anniversary of the end of WWII.

Matsui, stationed in Shandong from 1940 until his capture in August 1945, also brutally tortured and buried Chinese soldiers alive. He confessed to ordering troops to stab five Chinese as a part of a sword skills training exercise.

He raped at least five Chinese women and asked his subordinates to gang-rape another two Chinese women. He also raped seven women from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, according to his confession.

 

The Original Text Of The Written Confessions

Translation Of The Written Confessions (Chinese)

 

The Written Confessions By Masao Kanazawa

Windwing - The Japanese War Criminals * Masao Kanazawa
    Masao Kanazawa
Abstract Of The Written Confessions In English  

Masao Kanazawa(金泽正夫)

A Japanese World War II soldier killed Chinese citizens through fiendish methods of torture that included shoving a sweet potato up a woman's vagina, according to his confession published by the State Archives Administration on Saturday.

Masao Kanazawa was stationed in Shandong Province from 1943 until his capture in August 1945.

Kanazawa confessed how he broke into a house in Rizhao County and "forced an old woman aged around 60 who was sick in bed to bare her bottom.

"I stuck a whole sweet potato about six cm in diameter and 20 cm in length into her vulva, and she finally bled to death."

In another incident, Kanazawa force-fed an arrested peasant a large amount of water. "When his belly was bulging, I stepped on it. He lost consciousness and was dead within an hour."

In May 1945, Kanazawa gave instructions to "capture a man aged around 50" in Mengyin County. He forced the man to step on land mines, which seriously wounded the captive. Kanazawa then covered him in burning hay and burned him to death, he confessed.

His war crimes were not limited to torture and murder. Kanazawa admitted to gang-raping a Chinese woman along with three companions, and to sexually assaulting another woman.

 

The Original Text Of The Written Confessions

Translation Of The Written Confessions (Chinese)

The Written Confessions By Kazue Kanazawa

Windwing - The Japanese War Criminals * Kazue Kanazawa
    Kazue Kanazawa
Abstract Of The Written Confessions In English  

Kazue Kanazawa(金泽一江)

Japanese World War II soldiers systematically gang-raped Chinese women, according to a war criminal's confession published by the State Archives Administration on Friday.

Kazue Kanazawa raped at least three Chinese women himself, and established a "rape station" where around 15 of his fellow soldiers gang-raped another two Chinese women, he wrote in the 1954 confession, part of a series of such documents being released by the archives as China marks the 70th anniversary of the end of WWII.

Kanazawa, stationed in central China's Henan Province from 1943 until his capture in August 1945, also brutally tortured three Chinese civilians, eventually stabbing them to death after superiors ordered him to do so as a display of sword skills to troops in training.

During an interrogation of the two men and a woman in 1944, Kanazawa burned the men's noses with a candle flame and pressed burning incense sticks against the woman's bared bottom, according to the confession.

He stabbed them to death two days later.

The Original Text Of The Written Confessions

Translation Of The Written Confessions (Chinese)

2015-08-28

The Written Confessions By Yasuji Kaneko

Windwing - The Japanese War Criminals * Yasuji Kaneko
      Yasuji Kaneko
Abstract Of The Written Confessions In English  

Yasuji Kaneko(金子安次)

A Japanese war criminal confessed to being part of a group that killed more than 200 Chinese civilians during Japan's war of aggression against China, according to a confession released Thursday.

The State Archives Administration (SAA) published the hand-written confession by Yasuji Kaneko who was born in 1920 and joined the Japanese war of aggression against China in 1940. He was captured in August 1945.

According to the document, in September 1941, Kaneko and his companions arrested two Chinese peasants in Laiwu County of Shandong Province, "tied their hands behind the back and hung them on wooden stakes, and then lit straw below the stakes, thus burning them to death."

Kaneko also confessed to the purge of a village in Xintai County of Shandong in October 1941, with 150 people being killed by his squad.

"I launched one canister of tear gas and lit a pile of straw beside the wall to set fire in the village. I also shot seven bullets from a rifle, killing three peaceful peasants running out from the village," he said in the confession.

In August 1942, together with two companions, Kaneko sexually assaulted one woman aged around 30 in Yanggu County of Shandong.

"I forcedly held her down, sat on her and pressed down her hands," Kaneko said, adding one companion "separated her legs" and the other "stuck a rod into her vulva and stabbed it down violently, thus brutally killing her."

Kaneko also confessed to shooting around 31 people, including old people, children and women, who tried to seek refuge, in Guantao County in May 1943.

This was the 17th of 31 written confessions by Japanese war criminals to be published on the SAA website to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of WWII.

 

The Original Text Of The Written Confessions

Translation Of The Written Confessions (Chinese)

2015-08-26

The Written Confessions By Tadashi Hayashi

Windwing - The Japanese War Criminals * Tadashi Hayashi
    Tadashi Hayashi
Abstract Of The Written Confessions In English  

Tadashi Hayashi(林正)

A Japanese World War II medical soldier said his "field training" involved watching a doctor put a prisoner into a "trance" before conducting a vivisection, according to a confession released Wednesday.

The State Archives Administration (SAA) published the hand-written confession by Tadashi Hayashi. Hayashi was born in 1920 and joined the Japanese War of Aggression against China in 1941. He was captured in August 1945.

Hayashi wrote that during one anatomy lesson for medical trainees, a military doctor injected a prisoner to put him into a "trance". The doctor then "dissected [the man] from chest to belly [...] while he discussed the major organs of the body."

Hayashi also confessed to fatally shooting a Chinese escapee, aged around 30, in Hubei's Zhongxiang County, in May 1941.

In November 1942, Hayashi watched another soldier inject water into the stomach of a Chinese prisoner and then broil him by fire. To prevent him from regaining consciousness, Hayashi stabbed the prisoner in the neck with a bayonet and another soldier stabbed him in the heart.

This was the 16th of 31 written confessions by Japanese war criminals to be published on the SAA website to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of WWII.

 

The Original Text Of The Written Confessions

Translation Of The Written Confessions (Chinese)

2015-08-25

The Written Confessions By Kiyokazu Hiranaka

Windwing - The Japanese War Criminals * Kiyokazu Hiranaka
    Kiyokazu Hiranaka
Abstract Of The Written Confessions In English  

Kiyokazu Hiranaka(平中清一)

The Japanese army performed bacterial and poison gas experiments on Chinese people during World War II, a confession by a Japanese war criminal released Tuesday revealed.

The State Archives Administration (SAA) published the confession of Kiyokazu Hiranaka, born in Japan in 1895, joined the war against China in 1933 and was captured in August 1945.

Hiranaka ordered the Kwantung Army to spread bacteria in northeast China's Jilin Province, killing about 1,000 Chinese people in October 1934.

According to the confession, from September to October 1935, the Kwantung Army conducted poison gas exercises in Jilin, during which about 20 Chinese people detained in prisons in northeastern China, were "used for poison gas testing."

In October 1943, Hiranaka arrested, tortured and sent four Chinese people to the Ishii Unit in Harbin, Heilongjiang Province for to be the subject of bacteriological experiments.

Hiranaka also admitted his participation in arresting over 100 Chinese people. He tortured or executed dozens of them.

Tuesday's confession was the 15th of a series of 31 written statements by Japanese war criminals published on the SAA website in commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the end of WWII.

 

The Original Text Of The Written Confessions

Translation Of The Written Confessions (Chinese)

 

2015-08-24

The Written Confessions By Gisaburo Ikeda

Windwing - The Japanese War Criminals * Gisaburo Ikeda
     Gisaburo Ikeda
Abstract Of The Written Confessions In English  

Gisaburo Ikeda(池田义三郎)

A handwritten confession by a Japanese World War II veteran, released Monday, describes the killing of about 1,000 Chinese in central China's Henan Province.

The State Archives Administration (SAA) published the confession of Gisaburo Ikeda, who was born in 1913, joined the Japanese invasion troops in 1933 and was captured in China in August 1945.

Ikeda's troops drove some 1,000 Chinese residents out of the town Zhongmou, and into the Yellow River, killing them all on 19 June, 1938.

In May 1938 in Hebei Province, where 100 Chinese people, including civilians and soldiers, were massacred, according to the confession.

He also confessed to the rape of a woman, in addition to the murder of 3 Chinese civilians and one soldier from September 1937 to May 1938.

Ikeda's confession is the 14th in a series of 31 written statements by Japanese war criminals published on the SAA website in commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the end of WWII.

 

The Original Text Of The Written Confessions

Translation Of The Written Confessions (Chinese)

2015-08-23

The Written Confessions By Isamu Shirasu

      Isamu Shirasu
Abstract Of The Written Confessions In English  

Isamu Shirasu(白须勇)

A written confession from a Japanese soldier from World War II, released Sunday, revealed the purge of a village in central China's Hubei Province.

The State Archives Administration (SAA) published the hand-written confession from Isamu Shirasu, who was born in 1919, joined the Japanese army in 1940 and was captured in China in August 1945.

In the document, Shirasu wrote that he and other soldiers from an army battalion were ordered to kill all residents of Baiyangsi village in Yuan'an county, central China's Hubei Province, in Dec. 25, 1943.

About 100 villagers, including children, women and the elderly, were slaughtered and more than 70 of their houses were burned down, he wrote.

Shirasu also confessed to raping a number of Chinese and Korean women and torturing civilians.

One of the most brutal cases occurred in April 1945 in Xiangyang County of Hubei. He wrote that he "raped a 12-year-old girl with the threat of bayonet, and resulted in the rupture of her vulva".

According to the confession, in May 1944, Shirasu and two other Japanese soldiers tied a Chinese civilian and submerged him in a pool upside down for about 2 minutes three times during an interrogation, killing him.

Shirasu's confession was the 13th of a series of 31 written statements by Japanese war criminals published on the SAA website in commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the end of WWII.

 

The Original Text Of The Written Confessions

Translation Of The Written Confessions (Chinese)

 

The Written Confessions By Seizaburo Katagiri

Windwing - The Japanese War Criminals * Seizaburo Katagiri
   Seizaburo Katagiri
Abstract Of The Written Confessions In English  

Seizaburo Katagiri(片桐济三郎)

The Japanese army performed medical experiments on civilians in China during World War II, a confession by a Japanese war criminal released Saturday revealed.

According to the written confession of Seizaburo Katagiri, published by the State Archives Administration (SAA), he was part of a team that performed a vivisection on a Chinese man "to study human anatomy".

Seizaburo, who was captured in 1945, confessed that at Harbin Army Hospital in 1936 he was tasked with removing the man's organs, a procedure that resulted in his death on the operating table.

In another experiment at Mudanjiang Army Hospital, his colleagues exposed three restrained men to poison gas "to test its effectiveness". The experiment resulted in the death of all three captives.

Seizaburo also participated in a mission to spread the cholera bacteria in 1943, he was complicit in the death of more than 20,000 people.

The Japanese soldier also raped and murdered people during the war, according to his confessions.

Saturday's confession was the 11th of a series of 31 written statements by Japanese war criminals published on the SAA website in commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the end of WWII.

 

The Original Text Of The Written Confessions

Translation Of The Written Confessions (Chinese)

The Written Confessions By Soichi Nakajima

Windwing - The Japanese War Criminals * Soichi Nakajima
      Soichi Nakajima
Abstract Of The Written Confessions In English  

Soichi Nakajima(中岛宗一)

Confessions by Japanese war criminals released Friday reveal soldiers tortured civilians for pleasure during the invasion in World War II.

According to the written confession of Soichi Nakajima published by the State Archives Administration (SAA), he tortured a Russian woman and found joy in doing so.

Soichi Nakajima joined the Japanese War of Aggression against China in 1932, stationed in today's Heilongjiang province, and was captured in October 1945.

While assisting the foreign affairs director in interrogating the Russian woman they captured, he tied the captive to a bench and force fed her dirty bath water. After the woman's belly was full, he pressed her stomach until she threw up the water and repeated the process several times.

"I even went to her cell, watched the woman holding her bloated belly in pain and felt pleased," the confession read.

Soichi Nakajima was on guard when a captured Chinese man was beheaded, and he took out the brain of the victim to burn, and ate it as medicine for venereal disease. He also gave part of it to others.

Friday's release was the 11th of a series of 31 confessions from Japanese war criminals published on the SAA website in commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the end of WWII.

 

The Original Text Of The Written Confessions

Translation Of The Written Confessions (Chinese)

 

2015-08-20

The Written Confessions By Kunihiro Nakao

Windwing - The Japanese War Criminals * Kunihiro Nakao
      Kunihiro Nakao
Abstract Of The Written Confessions In English  

Kunihiro Nakao(中尾邦广)

Japanese soldiers fried the flesh of a Chinese civilian and ate it during WWII, according to a war criminal who confessed to scores of murders and rapes in a document published by the State Archives Administration (SAA) on Thursday.

In the 10th of a series of 31 confessions from Japanese war criminals published on the SAA website in commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the end of WWII, Kunihiro Nakao detailed his brutality in China between 1940 and his capture in August 1945.

Nakao, who was born in Yamaguchi Prefecture in Japan in 1921, "cruelly killed two anti-Japanese captives, both male, aged between 20 to 22" on 10 April 1940 in Huanggang County, Hubei Province, according to his confession written in 1954.

He said one was "beheaded with a sword" by an army cook and the other was "bayoneted at the same time" by several soldiers and "fell into a pit."

Nakao then "shoveled soil into the pit to bury the man who was still alive, beat him with a round shovel and trampled him to death."

From October to November 1940, in Jingmen county, Hubei province, he "used Chinese people as targets for shooting exercises and shot dead three Chinese" with the companions.

"I ... fired 15 rounds with a light machine gun and a rifle at five or six Chinese, and shot a Chinese person with the light machine gun," he wrote.

According to Nakao's confession, in June 1942 in Jiangling county, Hubei province, his companion "captured a 30-year-old Chinese man, bayoneted him to death, cut off about 1.5 kg of flesh from his thigh, wrapped the flesh in cloth and brought it to me."

"After the flesh was fried with pork, chicken, fish and vegetables, all members of the squad of 40 soldiers and I ate the dish," Nakao wrote.

In July 1942 in Hubei's Dangyang county, his subordinates captured two Chinese female passers-by and raped them. "Fukuoka went so far as to insert a pear into their vaginas, causing great pain to them," he said.

Nakao also confessed to tying two captured Chinese to a tree in June 1944 in Jingmen county and ordered new recruits to "bayonet one in the chest 50 times, making him look like a honeycomb."

"The other was beheaded and I ordered Sergeant Yamane to dissect his chest with a sword," he wrote.

He confessed to raping Chinese and Korean women, who were captured, enslaved and tortured by Japanese imperialists. Nakao raped 25 Chinese women 30 times and 12 Korean women 14 times from June 1941 to May 1945.

From December 1944 to early May 1945 in Jingmen, he had a sentry rape four Chinese women, according to the confession.

The SAA is publishing a confession a day in the run-up to commemorations of the end of the war on Sept. 3. The handwritten documents come complete with translations and abstracts in both Chinese and English.

The confessions detail crimes including murder, enslavement and poisoning Chinese people, as well as the use of biological and chemical weapons on live human subjects.

 

The Original Text Of The Written Confessions

Translation Of The Written Confessions (Chinese)

 

2015-08-19

The Written Confessions By Kiyoshi Shimosaka

Windwing - The Japanese War Criminals * Kiyoshi Shimosaka
    Kiyoshi Shimosaka
Abstract Of The Written Confessions In English  

Kiyoshi Shimosaka(下坂清)

Japanese World War II soldiers burned Chinese civilians, including women and children, to death, according to a war criminal whose confession to scores of murders and rapes was published by the State Archives Administration (SAA) on Wednesday.

In the ninth of a series of 31 confessions from Japanese war criminals published on the SAA website as China marks the 70th anniversary of the end of WWII, Kiyoshi Shimosaka detailed his brutality in China between 1940 and his capture in August 1945.

According to the 1954 confession, Shimosaka, born in Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan in 1919, together with one companion, barricaded a 30-year-old Chinese woman and her two sons, aged seven and four, in a house and lit straw with a match in May 1940 in Suixian county, Hubei province. They burned down the house, killing the mother and sons.

According to Shimosaka, his companions killed three captives "in order to see how sharp the katana was".

He also confessed to arresting a peasant aged around 30 and a woman of similar age in July 1940 in Hubei's Jingmen county. Together with companions, Shimosaka threatened them with a bayonet and forced them to have sexual intercourse, and "during the sexual intercourse, a companion bayoneted them at the back and killed them."

Shimosaka captured one peasant and used a 6-inch knife to stab him in the chest three times, thus cruelly killing him in August 1941 in Hubei's Jiangling county, according to the confessions.

From July 1941 to March 1942 in Jingmen county, he abused two Korean women aged around 20, 15 times each, he wrote.

Shimosaka and companions also "gang-raped" two Chinese women at a sentry post in Jiangling county in July 1942.

He wrote, in May 1943 in Yichang county, Hubei Province, together with one companion, he took a resident aged around 35 to the fields and used a katana to "behead him, then split his head in two."

His companion "took the victim' s brains" and "ordered another soldier to scorch the brains to make medicine from it," according to the confession.

In August 1944 in Yichang county, companions used eight residents as "live targets" in shooting and bayoneting training of 50 cadets of the regiment, thus brutally killing them all, he wrote.

The SAA is publishing a confession a day in the run-up to commemorations of the end of the war on Sept 3. The handwritten documents come complete with translations and abstracts in both Chinese and English.

The confessions detail crimes including murder, enslavement and poisoning of Chinese people, as well as the use of biological and chemical weapons on live human subjects.

 

The Original Text Of The Written Confessions

Translation Of The Written Confessions (Chinese)

 

The Written Confessions By Fukuo Uezono

Windwing - The Japanese War Criminals * Fukuo Uezono
    Fukuo Uezono
Abstract Of The Written Confessions In English  

Fukuo Uezono(上园福夫)

Japanese World War II soldiers conducted bayonet training on live Chinese civilians, according to a war criminal whose confession to scores of murders and rapes was published by the State Archives Administration (SAA) on Tuesday.

In the eighth of a series of 31 confessions from Japanese war criminals being published on the SAA website as China marks the 70th anniversary of the end of WWII, Fukuo Uezono detailed his brutality in China between 1939 and his capture in August 1945.

According to the 1954 confession, Uezono bayoneted a Chinese peasant to death during training in September 1940 in Pinglu County, Shanxi Province. Another nine Chinese civilians were also murdered by Japanese troops during the exercise, Uezono wrote.

He also confessed to assisting an interpreter and other personnel in torturing two peasants in Anyi County, Shanxi, in July 1939 by hanging them, bloating them with water, beating and burning them, eventually killing both captives.

Uezono arrested a peasant and gave the instruction to suffocate him to death in April 1943 in Henan Province, and he was involved in the murder of at least four more peasants at other times, according to the confession.

Between December 1942 and June 1945, Uezono committed 18 rapes in Shandong. One of the women was killed afterwards, he wrote.

The SAA is publishing a confession a day in the run-up to commemorations of the end of the war on Sept. 3. The handwritten documents come complete with translations and abstracts in both Chinese and English.

The confessions detail crimes including murder, enslavement and poisoning of Chinese people, as well as the use of biological and chemical weapons on live human subjects.

 

 

 

The Original Text Of The Written Confessions

Translation Of The Written Confessions (Chinese)

 

2015-08-18

The Written Confessions By Ikuma Yamamura

Windwing - The Japanese War Criminals * Ikuma Yamamura
    Ikuma Yamamura
Abstract Of The Written Confessions In English  

Ikuma Yamamura(山村幾马)

A Japanese war criminal confessed that he raped dozens of Chinese women during Japan's war of aggression in China, according to archives released Monday.

The State Archives Administration (SAA) published the seventh of a series of 31 handwritten confessions from Japanese war criminals online. Ikuma Yamamura, born in Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan in 1919 confessed how he raped Chinese women and killed Chinese civilians from 1940 to 1945.

He raped at least 21 women aged between 13 and 50 while invading Hubei and Hunan province and Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region. He also raped another 27 women 43 times in so-called "comfort stations," according to a confession he made in 1954.

He recounted that in August 1944, he saw four Chinese women taking refuge in a tea grove in Leiyang County, Hunan Province. He chased one of them towards the valley and she fell from a 30-meter cliff and died. He caught another woman aged around 23, threatened her with handgun and raped her, according to his confession.

He took part in killing four Chinese peasants in Jingmen County, Hubei Province in June 1940 and shot dead another four peasants with a rifle in Hengyang County, Hunan Province in late August 1944, according to the confession.

A total of 31 confessions, one each day, from Japanese war criminals are being published online in the run up to commemorations of the end of the war on Sept. 3.

The handwritten confessions, translations and abstracts in both Chinese and English, are published on the website of the SAA.

The confessions detail crimes perpetrated by the Japanese, including killing, enslavement and poisoning of Chinese people, as well as the use of biological and chemical weapons on live human subjects.

 

The Original Text Of The Written Confessions

Translation Of The Written Confessions (Chinese)


 

2015-08-17

The Written Confessions By Sadakichi Yamaguchi

Windwing - The Japanese War Criminals * Sadakichi Yamaguchi
  Sadakichi Yamaguchi
 
Abstract Of The Written Confessions In English  

Sadakichi Yamaguchi(山口定吉)

The State Archives Administration on Sunday published the confession of a Japanese war criminal, who participated in Japan's invasion of China from 1940 to 1945.

In the sixth of a series of 31 handwritten confessions from Japanese war criminals published online, Sadakichi Yamaguchi, born in Chiba Prefecture, Japan in 1920 confessed how he raped Chinese women and killed Chinese civilians.

In the 1954 confession he detailed how he and a friend raped a 30-year-old woman in Shandong Province in October 1942.

He recounted that in February 1943, he saw a soldier named Matsui "hack a Chinese woman to death from overhead" and then stabbed her crying child to death also in Shandong Province.

When entering a civilian house, he "saw Sergeant Matsui, commander of the third squad, and private first class Otani inserting a stick into the vagina of a woman aged about 40." "When I heard Otani say the longer, the better, I gave him a shoulder pole, and he exerted himself to insert the pole into the woman's vagina, brutally killing her," said the confession.

He also confessed that in September 1944, he "bloated" a Chinese peasant aged about 35 in Tai'an county "with cold water." The peasant died two days afterwards.

A total of 31 confessions, one each day, from Japanese war criminals are being published online in the run up to commemorations of the end of the war on Sept. 3.

The handwritten confessions, translations and abstracts in both Chinese and English, are published on the website of the State Archives Administration.

The confessions, which have never been released before, detail crimes perpetrated by the Japanese, including killing, enslavement and poisoning of Chinese people, as well as the use of biological and chemical weapons on live human subjects.

 

The Original Text Of The Written Confessions

Translation Of The Written Confessions (Chinese)

The Written Confessions By Narumi Mitsui

Windwing - The Japanese War Criminals * Narumi Mitsui
      Narumi Mitsui
Abstract Of The Written Confessions In English  

Narumi Mitsui(三井成美)

In the fifth of a series of 31 handwritten confessions from Japanese war criminals published online, Narumi Mitsui, born in Japan in 1920, joined the war against China in 1941.

In the 1954 confession he detailed how he slaughtered and raped prisoners and civilians, killing seven captives in Hubei Province in January 1943, beheading at least one of them.

He raped a woman four times a month later. In March, he broke into a civilian house, threatened a 16-year-old woman with a pistol, raped her, then invited his compatriot to rape her too.

Later that month, while giving new recruits bayonet training he had them bayonet a Chinese to death. In September 1943, he drugged a Chinese man, before his companions dissected his chest and belly and cut off his legs.

He also ordered his subordinates to behead a 60-year-old male Chinese refugee in the east of Nanzhang County seat in April 1945, shortly before his capture.

Mitsui raped Chinese and Korean women in "comfort stations" over 60 times in various parts of China between May 1942 and July 1945.

A total of 31 confessions, one each day, from Japanese war criminals are being published online in the run up to commemorations of the end of the war on Sept. 3.

The handwritten confessions, translations and abstracts in both Chinese and English, are published on the website of the State Archives Administration.

The confessions, which have never been released before, detail crimes perpetrated by the Japanese, including killing, enslavement and poisoning of Chinese people, as well as the use of biological and chemical weapons on live human subjects.

 

The Original Text Of The Written Confessions

Translation Of The Written Confessions (Chinese)

The Written Confessions By Takashi Mikami

Windwing - The Japanese War Criminals * Takashi Mikami
    Takashi Mikami
Abstract Of The Written Confessions In English
 

Takashi Mikami(三神高)

A Japanese World War II war criminal helped harvest brains from live Chinese captives for a sergeant who believed eating them would treat his venereal disease, according to a confession published by the State Archives Administration on Friday.

The shocking admission from Corporal Takashi Mikami, who served in east China's Shandong Province from 1942 until his capture in August 1945, comes in the fourth of a series of 31 handwritten confessions from Japanese war criminals being released online by the archives as China marks the 70th anniversary of the end of WWII.

In the confession signed on August 1, 1954, Mikami also detailed how he slaughtered civilians and raped scores of women.

He explained that while stationed in Linqing County, Sergeant Getsuji "often ordered platoon members to collect living people's brains." In June 1942, Mikami asked Lance Corporal Yokokura to "get some brains during mopping up."

According to Mikami, Yokokura brought him the brain of a Chinese peasant. "I cooked it, kept it in a kettle and gave it to Sergeant Getsuji as medicine for his venereal disease," he wrote.

In Guantao County in August 1942, Mikami interrogated two Chinese peasants using torture. As one of the captives refused to talk, Second Lieutenant Oyagi said, "'Let the new recruits test their courage,' so along with five others, I bayoneted the peasant in the chest, killing him, and then buried him in a pit," according to the confession.

Mikami then told how he participated in a February 1943 attack on a village in Linqing in which the Japanese fired shells and tear gas and strafed those fleeing the village with machine gun fire.

"As a result, 370 Chinese soldiers and civilians were slaughtered. I entered the village and saw the situation in person. Dead soldiers and residents piled up. Most of them were holding towels over their mouths, with water coming out of their noses and their faces turning purplish."

Around August 27, 1943 in Tangyi County, Mikami "threw five grenades" at the walls of a village, "killing 15 civilians."

The war criminal also confessed to raping at least eight young Korean women in Shandong, many of them multiple times.

 

The Original Text Of The Written Confessions

Translation Of The Written Confessions (Chinese)
 

The Written Confessions By Yoshio Miura

Windwing -  The Japanese War Criminals*Yoshio Miura
      Yoshio Miura
Abstract Of The Written Confessions In English
 

Yoshio Miura(三浦芳男)

According to the written confession of Yoshio Miura on 16 August 1954, he was born in Chiba Prefecture, Japan in 1920. He joined the Japanese War of Aggression against China in 1940 and was captured in August 1945.

Major offences:

In August 1941: In Tai'an County, Shandong Province, the gas-canister training team for recruits "captured eight peasants doing farm work in the high fields nearby, had them kneel down on a depression of the highland"; and "ignited two middle-sized Type-95 red canisters on the windward side and smoke emerged"; "dragged up five or six of those bending down on the ground and forced the victims to breathe in the gas".

In September 1941: In Laiwu County, Shandong Province, "together with others, killed two peasants" "to seize concealed weapons".

In April 1942: In Xintai County, Shandong Province, "broke into a civilian house in a village, threatened a Chinese woman aged 27 to 28 with a bayonet and raped her".

In June 1942: In Zhangqiu County, Shandong Province, "broke into a civilian house in a village, saw a Chinese woman aged 27 to 28, pushed her down on the kang and raped her". "Together with others, beheaded nine peaceful peasants" "to seize concealed weapons." In late August, for the purpose of seizing concealed weapons, "beat and interrogated 74 peasants with torture", "11 of them were interrogated and killed by myself".

In July 1942: In Zhangqiu County, three of his companions "pushed a captured peasant into a 20-feet-deep dry well, and I threw down a rock of around 50 kilograms to kill him". Near Xianggong Village, Zhangqiu County, captured a peasant, "covered his mouth with a towel, bloated his belly with about 20 liters of cold water, making it hard for him to breathe, and then fed him with dung, beat him on the belly, private parts, head and feet with a shoulder pole...and killed him after an hour of interrogation and torture".

In August 1942: In mopping up Zhangqiu County, "after interrogating a captured female peasant, I bayoneted her to death on the spot". In addition, "while searching the village, I saw a Chinese woman aged around 30 (pregnant for about six months) in a room and raped her".

In November 1942: In Fushan County, Shandong Province, "together with Private First Class Tatsuo Ohashi, saw a woman aged around 20 in a nearby house and gang-raped her". "Invaded a place with about 14 to15 women inside at night and threatened them with bayonets", "raped one of them aged 27 to 28" in front of others.

In December 1942: In Huangxian County, Shandong Province, "raped a Chinese woman aged about 20 at the bayonet point in a house".

In February 1943: In Guantao County, captured a male peasant aged around 30 and "I bayoneted him to death".

In early October 1944: In Tai'an County, ordered his subordinates "to shoot dead 13 Chinese, ... claiming that they colluded with the Eighth Route Army". In mid-October, together with a companion, "shot dead a Chinese", "on the ground that he colluded with the Eighth Route Army".

 

The Original Text Of The Written Confessions

Translation Of The Written Confessions (Chinese)

2015-08-12

The Written Confessions By Ken Yuasa

Windwing - Japanese War Criminals * Ken Yuasa

Ken Yuasa

Abstract Of The Written Confessions In English
 

Ken Yuasa(汤浅谦)

A Japanese war criminal confessed that he and fellow military surgeons "conducted live-body operations" on captives and performed "operation demonstrations by killing" two captives, according to the State Archives Administration on Wednesday.

The second in a series of 31 handwritten confessions from Japanese war criminals published online features one by Ken Yuasa, who was born in Tokyo Prefecture, Japan in 1916. He joined the Japanese War of Aggression against China in January 1942.

According to the written confession of Ken Yuasa on Nov 20 1954, he "carried out vivisection demonstration" on captives, "forced down a large dose of anesthetic into the live body of a captive in order to check the symptoms when the victim was alive or dead" in late March 1942 in Lu'an Army Hospital in north China's Shanxi Province.

"I practiced a 'tracheotomy' on another captive," he confessed, adding that after the experiment, "I, together with another military surgeon, strangled him with a belt."

On 14 April 1942, in the First Army Engineering Team (POW internment camp) in Taiyuan, Shanxi province, Yuasa "let about 30 military surgeons living in all army hospitals and field hospitals in Shanxi province perform surgical demonstrations on live bodies of four captives."

In late August 1942, in the dissection room of the hospital, more than ten surgeons "conducted live-body operations on and killed" two captives, according to the confession.

"I cut open the trachea of a captive with field tracheotomy apparatus for practice," he said, adding "another captive was subject to intravenous injection of anesthetic and chloroform, in order to test how these drugs can cause people to choke to death."

In late March 1943 in the same hospital, more than ten surgeons performed "operation demonstrations by killing" two captives, he added.

From February 1942 to November 1943, he "got the inpatients' fresh bacteria of typhoid, Type-A paratyphoid and Type-B paratyphoid, and gave them to the Field Epidemic Prevention and Water Supply Department of the 36th Division stationed in the south side of Lu'an City," he said.

"It was provided regularly at least four times a year, and I supplied this unit with bacterin for bacterial warfare as many as eight times," Yuasa said.

In early April 1944, Yuasa used two captives as "materials for operation practice" for over 10 military surgeons.

In late September 1944, after two captives were sent to the hospital under escort, "I provided one of them as material for operation demonstration to about 10 military surgeons of the dissection room. The other one was given to the Hospital Director, who beheaded the captive," he confessed.

In late January 1945, Yuasa "provided" a captive "as material for live-body operation demonstration to the military surgeons of the dissection room of the hospital and about ten military surgeons of the 14th Independent Infantry Brigade."

In mid-March 1945, about 10 military surgeons used two captives in custody as "materials for operation demonstration in the dissection room," he said

A total of 31 confessions from Japanese war criminals will be published online starting Tuesday to expose crimes committed by Japan in China during World War II.

The handwritten confessions, along with Chinese translations and abstracts in both Chinese and English, have been published on the website of the State Archives Administration.

"These archives are hard evidence of the heinous crimes committed by Japanese imperialists against the Chinese," a State Archives official said.

The confessions, which have never been released before, detail crimes perpetrated by the Japanese, including killing, enslavement and poisoning of Chinese people, as well as the use of biological and chemical weapons on live human subjects.

The Original Text Of The Written Confessions

Translation Of The Written Confessions (Chinese)
 

The Written Confessions By Kenzo Sugishita

Windwing - Japanese War Criminals *   Kenzo Sugishita
Kenzo Sugishita
Abstract Of The Written Confessions In English
 

Kenzo Sugishita(杉下兼藏) 

Kenzo Sugishita was born in 1901 and joined the Japanese War of Aggression against China in 1932.

On Feb 3, 1932, at a village about eight kilometers south of Tianle Temple in Shanghai, the squadron gave the instruction to shoot all on sight, resulting in the killing of an estimated 30 Chinese people, Kenzo Sugishita said in the confession.

"On Feb 19, 1932, I caught a child of about six years old escaping from the fire at Lujia Bridge, laid him on a stone in front of the door, beat him to death with stones, and threw the dead body into the burning house," he added.

The Original Text Of The Written Confessions

Translation Of The Written Confessions (Chinese)

 

Rice Vs. Wheat

Windwing - Rice Vs. Wheat

Rice Vs. Wheat

Saturday, August 8, 2015 | By:

It's sunset, somewhere in the American Midwest. Amid the rustling wheat fields, a solitary farmer drives a gargantuan machine through the rows. Meanwhile, as the sun rises on the other side of the planet, Chinese rice farmers are moving along shallow pools of water in lines, gathering the crops in groups. Once collected, they will enjoy breakfast as a group.

Scenes like these have been handy stereotypes for generations. The rugged individualism of the American farmer has long been a staple of film and literature, not to mention a defining trait of the American self-image. Likewise, Chinese have defined themselves by their familial ties and collectivist culture. But is there a rice grain of truth in any of these stereotypes? And can they be scientifically proven?

Thomas Talhelm, now a PhD candidate at the University of Virginia, is exploring the idea that the culture and psychology of people in various regions are affected in a measurable way by the methods of farming they use—his hypothesis being that rice farming leads to a more collectivist culture, while wheat farming breeds individualism.

As his study outlined in the May 2014 edition of Science magazine notes, the easiest way to test whether rice and wheat lead to different cultures would be to show that the rice areas of East Asia foster cultures that are interdependent, and that wheat areas in the West are independent.

Windwing - Rice Vs. Wheat

In Guangxi, one of China's southernmost provinces, a group of farmers work together to transplant rice

But as soon as the idea is put out there, it gets shot down. "That logic is obviously flawed. We cannot just compare East and West because they differ on many factors besides rice and wheat—religion, politics, and technology—to name a few."

What is needed, is a country with a shared government, language, history, and religion that farms rice in some areas and wheat in other areas.

Basically, China. With the country split between rice farming in the south and wheat farming in the north, with the dividing line being a zone stretching from the Yangtze River north to the Huaihe River, China itself holds the literal and figurative seeds necessary for this research.

The idea came to Talhelm when he was living in Guangzhou after spending some time in Beijing. "I got a sense that people living there were pretty different," he says. "That got the seed in my mind, north and south are different. For the longest time I didn't have an explanation for why this was. I knew I wanted to study it systematically and see if it was true."

Differences between North and South China have long been themes in Chinese tales, idioms and commentary. "It's not as if I told China that people from the North and South are different, people knew about it, but I had never seen people actually test it."

One popular saying is not far from the hypothesis of Talhelm's study: "一方水土养一方人" which loosely translates to, "The water and soil of an area shape the people."

Another story, revolving around Yan Zi, a Prime Minister of the State of Qi during the Spring and Autumn Period around 2,500 years ago, cites Yan telling foreign functionaries: "They say orange trees have sour and dry fruit in the north, but sweet fruit in the south. Their leaves are similar but the taste is different. Why? Because the environment is different." He then continues: "People in Qi don't steal. But when they come to Chu, they become thieves. The environment of Chu is probably conducive to that kind of behavior."

Yan Zi was most likely directing a not-so-veiled insult toward his hosts, but it's obvious to anyone with a passing interest in China that there are indeed vast cultural differences between regions. It was this that piqued Talhelm's interest. "This question was always on my mind. Why does this difference exist?"

Windwing - Rice Vs. Wheat

A farmer rides a tractor to sow wheat in Northern Anhui Province on a 13-square-kilometer piece of farmland

It began with language. "I was in this class on dialects and they would show us maps of different words. One of them was the word 手 ( shǒu ). I had always learned that to mean hand, but in certain parts of China it can also refer to the whole arm…They were showing us this map of where it means hand and where it can also mean arm, and I thought it would not be random…But it was almost evenly divided along the Yangtze River."

"My first thought was that it was a barrier, or a border. But it's not, people can just get in a boat and cross, it's not like a mountain."

"I don't know at what point it hit me, at some point I learned that that is the dividing line between rice and wheat…There is some background in psychology and anthropology, they call it subsistence theory, the idea that what you do to make a living historically and culturally influences your culture today."

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

To cut to the chase: yes, the study concluded that there were cultural differences and that they were delineated by the borders between areas that traditionally grew rice and those that grew wheat. The reason for this basically boils down to labor.

Rice paddies require standing water, thus people in rice-growing regions traditionally needed to build large, elaborate irrigation systems that required the cooperation of all the farmers in the village. Water use had to be carefully calculated, because one farmer's water use would affect their neighbors. Entire villages were required to build, dredge and drain these irrigation networks, rather than lone individuals.

A Chinese farming guide, cited in the study, from the 1600s states that "if one is short of labor power, it is best to grow wheat," and said that Chinese anthropologists, as far back as the 1930s, had found that a Chinese husband and wife would not be able to farm a large enough plot of rice to feed a family if they relied solely upon their own labor. Or, as Talhelm states, "It wasn't cooperation with other people for warm fuzzy things—you literally needed to work with these people to get food on the table…This raises the cost of conflict—if I am a jerk to you today, we still have to work together tomorrow. That makes it a lot more awkward and potentially threatens my livelihood if I create conflict. Compare that to wheat farmers who don't really need to have these labor exchange customs."

…….

"Rice Vs. Wheat" is a feature story from our latest issue, " Law ". To continue reading, become a  subscriber  and receive the  full magazine . Alternatively, you can purchase the digital version from the  iTunes Store .

 

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>>>[Windwing]:The 2 Cultures China

 

Chinese Teachers Take Over

Windwing - Chinese Teachers Take Over

Chinese Teachers Take Over

Being educated in a Chinese school is not something many foreigners have had the pleasure of experiencing—though most Chinese students would say that their education was anything but pleasurable.

A group of 50 students from a comprehensive school in the UK are trying out first-hand this Chinese style of education in a BBC documentary, Are Our Kids Tough Enough? Chinese School .

This, combined with the invasion soundtrack used, may be trying to suggest something

In the show, five Chinese teachers go to Bohunt School in Liphook, UK, to dish out a plate of Chinese education . From the tracksuit uniforms to the gregariously large classes, the lucky—or unlucky—students, aged 13 or 14, are spending almost a month under the tutelage of these Middle Kingdom educators. At the end of this very special program, they will be pitted against students who are learning the Blighty way in math, science, and Mandarin.

And we're off to a great start

Unsurprisingly, the physical changes made to their daily lives have been received with a smile and laughter. The morning exercises are enjoyable and misbehaving children sent to stand in the corner regard the punishment as a hilarious novelty. Learning-wise, some seem to relish the method of delivery—information seemingly force-fed to students, with the majority of class time occupied with note taking. Others are unable to comprehend the dictatorial rule that a Chinese teacher apparently wields.

There's always one

It is commonly known that Chinese schooling is much tougher than many of their western contemporaries. Students spend half the day at school and then go home to continue their homework. The university entrance exam, Gaokao (高考) , is famous for being one of the most stressful times in a student's life.

But the role teachers play in school may be one of the more unfamiliar aspects. They demand the utmost respect and pupils have no option other than to oblige. Standing to attention, showering them with gifts on special occasions , and not questioning orders are all normal happenings. There have been cases of teachers abusing their authority , and the more progressive ones have tried to implement new teaching ideas, but deviations from this norm have been few and far between.

At the end of this BBC documentary series, it will be interesting to see how the British students have progressed and whether they will show better improvements under Chinese teachers. On the other hand, this may all just be clever marketing ploy by the school and the [insert winning country here] education style.

Which method do you prefer?

Teachers are a big part of our lives and sometimes it is nice to show appreciation. For gift ideas, maybe take a leaf out of this student's book .

Cover image from 30edu.com

2015-07-16

Five Ancient Chinese Idioms That Explain the Modern Tongue

Five Ancient Chinese Idioms With Modern Cachet

Why you should care
Because you probably don't know as much as you should about one of the biggest countries on the planet. Yet.
What do you think when you think of China? A repressive government, human rights abuse, corruption scandals, terrible pollution? Admit it, I'm right.
Here's what you probably don't know: China is as rich in language as it is in engineers.
Many modern, everyday Chinese idioms have their roots in ancient poetry. These idioms, which are each composed of four Chinese characters, are totally unique to the language. Chinese has 20,000 such idioms in total; only one or two thousand are commonly used. But Chinese schoolkids often spend their days reciting them in class.
Chinese poetry "is a window to a world that is very foreign and advanced," says Ron Egan, a professor of Chinese literature at Stanford University. "By the 7th and 8th century, the Chinese [had] mastered the art of expressing themselves, which didn't happen in any other place in the world."
This is no esoteric idea. There's even a hot television program called China Idiom Convention. This show, which aired Sundays from April to June, tested competitors' knowledge of idioms. More than 30,000 people signed up to compete. Videos netted nearly 2 million clicks on Youku, one of China's biggest online video sites.
So if you're trying to understand the Asian giant, boning up on your Chinese idioms might help. 
Windwing - Five Ancient Chinese Idioms That Explain the Modern Tongue
A Shade of a Willow and Bright Flowers
Hillary Clinton quoted the Chinese poem "A Trip to Mountain West Village" by Lu You at the Shanghai 2010 World Expo to celebrate the hard work in building the USA pavilion, which Clinton financed by raising $60 million in private cash.
"There is a poem from the Southern Song dynasty that reads: 'After endless mountains and rivers that leave doubt whether there is a path out, suddenly one encounters the shade of a willow, bright flowers and a lovely village.'"
The original meaning? "A favorable turn of fortune will often appear just when there seems to be no way out of trouble."
Clinton implied that difficulties came with establishing the U.S. pavilion. The Chinese use the same idiom in less vaunted settings, such as: "My new job is a lot of hard work; I haven't found that feeling of 'the shade of a willow and bright flowers.'"
Hearts With Magical Rhinoceros
Rhinoceros horns are powerful, supernatural objects in old Chinese sayings.
"Even though my body is not a colorful phoenix with two wings to fly [to my lover], we have hearts that understand each other immediately as though connected with a magical rhinoceros."
So wrote Li Shangyin, a famous male poet from the Tang dynasty (7th–10th B.C.) in an untitled poem.
Today in China, people often say, "You get me — we really [have] hearts with 'magical rhinoceros.'"
Windwing - Five Ancient Chinese Idioms That Explain the Modern Tongue
Figure of a rhinoceros, Zhou Dynasty, China.

Leaving [Your] Name on Light-Green History
Sure, you want to make your mark on history — but why "light-green" history? Before paper was invented in 105 B.C. in China, events were recorded on light-green bamboo slips, which involved "sweating" bamboo over a fire to get the moisture out.
In the 13th century, ages after Sun-Tzu penned The Art of War, Chinese poets were using literature to document military ambitions.
This idiom comes from the poem "Passing by Lingdingyang" (also known as "Crossing the Lonely Ocean") by the great politician and poet Wen Tianxiang. The poem, which Tianxiang wrote while leading an army to fight for the fate of the Song dynasty, reads:
"In history, what man does not die? [I'd rather] leave my red heart to shine on light-green sweat."
Windwing - Five Ancient Chinese Idioms That Explain the Modern Tongue
"Apricot Blossoms" by Qi Baishi
 
A Red Apricot Blossom Peeks Over the Yard Fence
A pretty plant, but so much more.
"[The] whole garden can no longer confine the lively energy of spring; a spray of red apricot blossom [already] peeks over the fence."
So wrote Song dynasty poet Ye Shaoweng in "On Visiting a Garden, When Its Master Is Absent."
Modern readers see this as symbolizing a woman's infidelity to her husband. The "red apricot blossom" symbolizes a young and attractive woman, while "peeking over the fence" shows her sneaking out.
Even today, Chinese people will say, behind gossipy hands: "Behind her husband's back, she [is like] 'a red apricot blossom peeking over the yard fence.'"
Windwing - Five Ancient Chinese Idioms That Explain the Modern Tongue
 
Reach a Higher Level on the Tower
The idiom comes from the poem "On the Yellow Crane Tower" by Wang Zhihuan of the Tang dynasty. After climbing the famous tower, Zhihuan writes:
"[I] desire to see thousands of miles [from this tower], [so I need to] climb to a higher level."
To see farther, you need to stand higher. This poem is often used to encourage students and workers alike to set higher goals.
Now you know why Chinese students work so hard. You would, too, if you had to memorize idioms like this from a young age.
Windwing - Five Ancient Chinese Idioms That Explain the Modern Tongue