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The Jilin Provincial Archives in north- east China recently made public 89 documents on Japanese troops’ wartime crimes in China. The documents， which include official reports and personal letters， once belonged to the invading Japanese army in Changchun， capital of Jilin Province. During Japan’s occupation of northeast China between 1931 and 1945， Changchun functioned as the capital city of the puppet Manchurian regime installed by Japanese forces and also the headquarters of the Japanese Kwantung Army.
The documents in the Jilin Provincial Archives provide details of the Nanjing Massacre， in which more than 300，000 Chinese people were killed by Japanese soldiers after they occupied Nanjing in east China’s Jiangsu Province， the then Chinese capital， in December 1937. They also reveal other atrocities committed by Japanese troops in China during World War II （WWII）， including the exploitation of “comfort women”in sexual servitude， testing of chemical and biological weapons on humans by Unit 731， and the maltreatment of U.S. and British prisoners of war.
According to researchers at the Jilin Provincial Archives， the 89 documents are only the tip of the iceberg. In total， there are nearly 100，000 volumes and files within the archives， 90 percent of which are written in Japanese and reveal many of the atrocities of Japanese troops.
Shortly after the Japanese surrender in August 1945， the Japanese army set fire to a large amount of its wartime archives before their retreat and buried what they did not manage to destroy. Fortunately， in the 1950s， some of the documents were excavated from a construction site and it became possible to bring the travesties of the era to light. Although many of the documents are fragmented or incomplete， experts from the Jilin Provincial Archives have managed to restore and translate large numbers of them.
Tangible evidence
For a long time， the Nanjing Massacre has been denied outright on many occasions by Japan’s right-wing forces， who use excuses such as claiming the population in Nanjing before Japanese occupation was no more than 300，000.
Six of the newly released documents directly and indirectly portray the Nanjing Massacre， during which Japanese troops rampaged through the city for six weeks， killing， raping and looting.
Two reports on an investigation into “restoration of public order” by Commander Ooki Sigeru of Japan’s Central China Dispatched Kempeitai on February 19 and 28， 1938， suggest that the population of Nanjing fell from about 1 million to 335，000 during a 10-week period that included the massacre. The population figures provided by the Japanese commander provide strong evidence for the massacre， said Jiang Lifeng， a senior research fellow at the Institute of Japanese Studies under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
Among the six files is a letter dated January 1， 1938， from a person surnamed Zhi in Rokunerusutaaru， Germany， to a person surnamed Yuan whose address was 27 Oxford Road in the British settlement in north China’s Tianjin. Recorded in the February 12-18， 1938 issue of the Japanese military-owned Postal Review Weekly， the letter reads， “A British newspaper that published a letter written by a UK priest living in Nanjing saying that the brutal acts of the enemy soldiers （the Japanese army） in Nanjing made one’s hair stand on end. All the women aged 14 or above were raped， including Buddhist nuns. The priest tried many times to persuade the commander of the enemy troops not to do so but it was of no avail.”
“As the facts of the shocking crimes committed by Japanese troops have emerged， those who were working on restoring the files found the work to take a very heavy toll on them emotionally and psychologically，” said Yin Huai， Curator of the Jilin Provincial Archives. “Despite this， we have managed to remain professional and not let any negative feelings get in the way of revealing the truth.”
Yin said that the documents have filled the gaps in studies on Japan’s aggression in China and have restored a truthful perception of that period of time. “They also provide an irrefutable rebuttal to denials of Japan’s wartime crimes in China，” he added.
In recent years， there has been a growing tendency for Japan’s right-wing forces to deny and distort history to achieve their political ends or mislead the international community.
In 2012， Takashi Kawamura， Mayor of Nagoya， told a visiting delegation from Nanjing that the Nanjing Massacre was unlikely to have taken place.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said that “the definition of what constitutes aggression has yet to be established in academia or in the international community” while at a parliamentary meeting in April 2013.
On February 16， Sankei Shimbun， a leading Japanese newspaper， published an article titled It is True that the Nanjing Massacre Never Happened.
Zhang Dejiang， Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress， China’s top legislature， called on the Japanese Government to take a correct view of history， reality and the future. Zhang made the plea during a meeting in Beijing with a delegation of Japanese lawmakers led by Masahiko Komura， Vice President of Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party， on May 5. “Remembering history is not about nursing hatred， only that human kind should have the ability to reflect on past mistakes，” Yin said.
State crime
According to the newly released documents， forcing women into sex slavery and setting up comfort stations in Asian countries were official actions undertaken by the Japanese army during WWII.
The Jilin Provincial Archives has published 25 files about “comfort women”—sex slaves kept for Japanese soldiers. They tell in detail how“comfort stations” were operated by Japanese troops in northeast and central China， as well as in Indonesia.
One file records that 532，000 yen was transferred by the central bank of the Manchurian regime from November 1944 to March 1945 for comfort women for a military branch， under an account described as “public spending for military use.” The records show that the expenditure was approved by the Kwantung Army.
Su Zhiliang， a professor at Shanghai Normal University， who has studied the comfort women issue for more than 20 years， said that the files， along with the large amount of money， once again prove that the sex slavery system was enforced officially， rather than being a private commercial operation as has been claimed by Japan’s right-wing politicians. “Wherever there were Japanese troops， there were comfort stations. The stations appeared in at least 20 to 30 counties across northeast China，” Su said.
The archives reveal conditions at comfort stations， including the number of comfort women needed to serve the soldiers and details of gruesome rapes. One document shows that the Japanese army allocated women proportionally. From February 1 to 10， 1938， there was one comfort women for every 200 soldiers in Xiaguan District in Nanjing. After February 20， 11 more comfort women were added. In Zhenjiang， a city near Nanjing， 8，929 Japanese soldiers visited the comfort stations there in only 10 days， according to the same document.
In one issue of the Japanese army’s Postal Review Monthly published in 1941， a letter written by a Japanese soldier named Takeda Bunirou stationed in Heihe， northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province， was recorded. He wrote that a comfort station was open in a corner of the camp of the local Japanese army. All 20 of the comfort women were from Korea and they were forced to come to China under Japan’s National General Mobilization Act while Korea was still under occupation by the Japanese， according to the soldier.
“Japan’s system of sex slavery during WWII was unprecedented，” Su said. “However， all the victims’ claims for compensation were rejected by Japanese authorities even though international laws dictate that war crimes are not subject to time constraints.”
Human experimentation
According to sources with the Jilin Provincial Archives， there are up to 200 files in the archives that document the transfer of prisoners to the notorious Unit 731， where human experimentation with biological and chemical weapons were carried out.
Unit 731 was a top-secret biological and chemical warfare research base established in Harbin of Heilongjiang in 1933， serving as the nerve center of Japan’s biological warfare in China and Southeast Asia during WWII.
The documents show in detail that Unit 731 used human beings for experiments when developing biological weapons. More than 100 such experiments on live humans were carried out including those on the effects of frostbite， vivisection， anthrax and syphilis.
Among the documents， some record 372 people that were sent to Unit 731， for “special transfer，” including Chinese， Russians and Koreans. Special transfer referred to sending prisoners who were no longer at any use in experiments for the development of biological weapons.
Professor Jin Chengmin， Curator of the Museum of War Crime Evidence by Japanese Army Unit 731 （731 Museum）， said that according to the confessions of a former army official of Unit 731， at least 3，000 people were used for human experimentation with biological and chemical weapons.
Documents in the Jilin Provincial Archives show that Japanese army units used biological warfare in more than 20 provinces and cities in China on 161 occasions， claiming more than 270，000 lives and causing more than 2.37 million people to be infected by diseases.
Even today， a large number of Chinese people still suffer because of chemical weapons abandoned by Japanese troops within China and the environment is still contaminated. Statistics from the 731 Museum show that about 2 million gas bombs and 100 tons of toxi- cants abandoned by Japanese troops have been discovered across dozen of provinces in China and more than 2，000 people have suffered from injuries as a result. One prominent case was in Qiqihar in Heilongjiang， where 43 people were injured by five containers of contaminants unearthed at a construction site in 2003， leaving one person dead. However， no Unit 731 members were found guilty after WWII. Files made public by the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration on January 12， 2007 show that Ishii Shiro， head of Unit 731， provided several trucks’ worth of their research results to the United States in exchange for safety and freedom for himself and other army officers. The deal was kept secret for a long time.
“The research reports are invaluable， but they were made from human blood and human lives，” said Jin with the 731 Museum. Jin has researched the war crimes of Unit 731 for 24 years.
In addition， among the newly published files， there are 14 that detail Japanese troops torturing Chinese and foreign laborers， including teenagers as well as U.S. and British prisoners. Files show that the laborers were under close watch， suffered inhumane treatment and many of them became ill and died as a result. “Bodies of Chinese workers were strewn everywhere and dogs were eating their corpses，” one file says.
The documents in the Jilin Provincial Archives provide details of the Nanjing Massacre， in which more than 300，000 Chinese people were killed by Japanese soldiers after they occupied Nanjing in east China’s Jiangsu Province， the then Chinese capital， in December 1937. They also reveal other atrocities committed by Japanese troops in China during World War II （WWII）， including the exploitation of “comfort women”in sexual servitude， testing of chemical and biological weapons on humans by Unit 731， and the maltreatment of U.S. and British prisoners of war.
According to researchers at the Jilin Provincial Archives， the 89 documents are only the tip of the iceberg. In total， there are nearly 100，000 volumes and files within the archives， 90 percent of which are written in Japanese and reveal many of the atrocities of Japanese troops.
Shortly after the Japanese surrender in August 1945， the Japanese army set fire to a large amount of its wartime archives before their retreat and buried what they did not manage to destroy. Fortunately， in the 1950s， some of the documents were excavated from a construction site and it became possible to bring the travesties of the era to light. Although many of the documents are fragmented or incomplete， experts from the Jilin Provincial Archives have managed to restore and translate large numbers of them.
Tangible evidence
For a long time， the Nanjing Massacre has been denied outright on many occasions by Japan’s right-wing forces， who use excuses such as claiming the population in Nanjing before Japanese occupation was no more than 300，000.
Six of the newly released documents directly and indirectly portray the Nanjing Massacre， during which Japanese troops rampaged through the city for six weeks， killing， raping and looting.
Two reports on an investigation into “restoration of public order” by Commander Ooki Sigeru of Japan’s Central China Dispatched Kempeitai on February 19 and 28， 1938， suggest that the population of Nanjing fell from about 1 million to 335，000 during a 10-week period that included the massacre. The population figures provided by the Japanese commander provide strong evidence for the massacre， said Jiang Lifeng， a senior research fellow at the Institute of Japanese Studies under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
Among the six files is a letter dated January 1， 1938， from a person surnamed Zhi in Rokunerusutaaru， Germany， to a person surnamed Yuan whose address was 27 Oxford Road in the British settlement in north China’s Tianjin. Recorded in the February 12-18， 1938 issue of the Japanese military-owned Postal Review Weekly， the letter reads， “A British newspaper that published a letter written by a UK priest living in Nanjing saying that the brutal acts of the enemy soldiers （the Japanese army） in Nanjing made one’s hair stand on end. All the women aged 14 or above were raped， including Buddhist nuns. The priest tried many times to persuade the commander of the enemy troops not to do so but it was of no avail.”
“As the facts of the shocking crimes committed by Japanese troops have emerged， those who were working on restoring the files found the work to take a very heavy toll on them emotionally and psychologically，” said Yin Huai， Curator of the Jilin Provincial Archives. “Despite this， we have managed to remain professional and not let any negative feelings get in the way of revealing the truth.”
Yin said that the documents have filled the gaps in studies on Japan’s aggression in China and have restored a truthful perception of that period of time. “They also provide an irrefutable rebuttal to denials of Japan’s wartime crimes in China，” he added.
In recent years， there has been a growing tendency for Japan’s right-wing forces to deny and distort history to achieve their political ends or mislead the international community.
In 2012， Takashi Kawamura， Mayor of Nagoya， told a visiting delegation from Nanjing that the Nanjing Massacre was unlikely to have taken place.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said that “the definition of what constitutes aggression has yet to be established in academia or in the international community” while at a parliamentary meeting in April 2013.
On February 16， Sankei Shimbun， a leading Japanese newspaper， published an article titled It is True that the Nanjing Massacre Never Happened.
Zhang Dejiang， Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress， China’s top legislature， called on the Japanese Government to take a correct view of history， reality and the future. Zhang made the plea during a meeting in Beijing with a delegation of Japanese lawmakers led by Masahiko Komura， Vice President of Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party， on May 5. “Remembering history is not about nursing hatred， only that human kind should have the ability to reflect on past mistakes，” Yin said.
State crime
According to the newly released documents， forcing women into sex slavery and setting up comfort stations in Asian countries were official actions undertaken by the Japanese army during WWII.
The Jilin Provincial Archives has published 25 files about “comfort women”—sex slaves kept for Japanese soldiers. They tell in detail how“comfort stations” were operated by Japanese troops in northeast and central China， as well as in Indonesia.
One file records that 532，000 yen was transferred by the central bank of the Manchurian regime from November 1944 to March 1945 for comfort women for a military branch， under an account described as “public spending for military use.” The records show that the expenditure was approved by the Kwantung Army.
Su Zhiliang， a professor at Shanghai Normal University， who has studied the comfort women issue for more than 20 years， said that the files， along with the large amount of money， once again prove that the sex slavery system was enforced officially， rather than being a private commercial operation as has been claimed by Japan’s right-wing politicians. “Wherever there were Japanese troops， there were comfort stations. The stations appeared in at least 20 to 30 counties across northeast China，” Su said.
The archives reveal conditions at comfort stations， including the number of comfort women needed to serve the soldiers and details of gruesome rapes. One document shows that the Japanese army allocated women proportionally. From February 1 to 10， 1938， there was one comfort women for every 200 soldiers in Xiaguan District in Nanjing. After February 20， 11 more comfort women were added. In Zhenjiang， a city near Nanjing， 8，929 Japanese soldiers visited the comfort stations there in only 10 days， according to the same document.
In one issue of the Japanese army’s Postal Review Monthly published in 1941， a letter written by a Japanese soldier named Takeda Bunirou stationed in Heihe， northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province， was recorded. He wrote that a comfort station was open in a corner of the camp of the local Japanese army. All 20 of the comfort women were from Korea and they were forced to come to China under Japan’s National General Mobilization Act while Korea was still under occupation by the Japanese， according to the soldier.
“Japan’s system of sex slavery during WWII was unprecedented，” Su said. “However， all the victims’ claims for compensation were rejected by Japanese authorities even though international laws dictate that war crimes are not subject to time constraints.”
Human experimentation
According to sources with the Jilin Provincial Archives， there are up to 200 files in the archives that document the transfer of prisoners to the notorious Unit 731， where human experimentation with biological and chemical weapons were carried out.
Unit 731 was a top-secret biological and chemical warfare research base established in Harbin of Heilongjiang in 1933， serving as the nerve center of Japan’s biological warfare in China and Southeast Asia during WWII.
The documents show in detail that Unit 731 used human beings for experiments when developing biological weapons. More than 100 such experiments on live humans were carried out including those on the effects of frostbite， vivisection， anthrax and syphilis.
Among the documents， some record 372 people that were sent to Unit 731， for “special transfer，” including Chinese， Russians and Koreans. Special transfer referred to sending prisoners who were no longer at any use in experiments for the development of biological weapons.
Professor Jin Chengmin， Curator of the Museum of War Crime Evidence by Japanese Army Unit 731 （731 Museum）， said that according to the confessions of a former army official of Unit 731， at least 3，000 people were used for human experimentation with biological and chemical weapons.
Documents in the Jilin Provincial Archives show that Japanese army units used biological warfare in more than 20 provinces and cities in China on 161 occasions， claiming more than 270，000 lives and causing more than 2.37 million people to be infected by diseases.
Even today， a large number of Chinese people still suffer because of chemical weapons abandoned by Japanese troops within China and the environment is still contaminated. Statistics from the 731 Museum show that about 2 million gas bombs and 100 tons of toxi- cants abandoned by Japanese troops have been discovered across dozen of provinces in China and more than 2，000 people have suffered from injuries as a result. One prominent case was in Qiqihar in Heilongjiang， where 43 people were injured by five containers of contaminants unearthed at a construction site in 2003， leaving one person dead. However， no Unit 731 members were found guilty after WWII. Files made public by the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration on January 12， 2007 show that Ishii Shiro， head of Unit 731， provided several trucks’ worth of their research results to the United States in exchange for safety and freedom for himself and other army officers. The deal was kept secret for a long time.
“The research reports are invaluable， but they were made from human blood and human lives，” said Jin with the 731 Museum. Jin has researched the war crimes of Unit 731 for 24 years.
In addition， among the newly published files， there are 14 that detail Japanese troops torturing Chinese and foreign laborers， including teenagers as well as U.S. and British prisoners. Files show that the laborers were under close watch， suffered inhumane treatment and many of them became ill and died as a result. “Bodies of Chinese workers were strewn everywhere and dogs were eating their corpses，” one file says.