BEIJING, Aug. 15 (Xinhua) — China has acquired new items of proof on the battle crimes dedicated by invading Japanese troops throughout World War II (WWII), together with letters written through the 1937 Nanjing Massacre and an oral testimony concerning the infamous organic warfare division Unit 731.
The Memorial Hall of the Victims in Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders, positioned in Nanjing, capital of east China’s Jiangsu Province, collected greater than 150 units of artifacts and historic supplies, in addition to over 100 items of archival paperwork, within the first half of 2026, the memorial corridor stated on Saturday, which marks the 81st anniversary of Japan’s give up in WWII.
The newly acquired gadgets, many donated by younger college students, embody non-public correspondence from Japanese troopers, battlefield postcards, educational supplies on fuel warfare, and compilations of wartime press protection.
Among them is a group of personal letters written between 1937 and 1939 by a soldier of the Imperial Japanese Army’s sixteenth Division, surnamed Ishikawa. In a letter dated Dec. 20, 1937, one week after the autumn of Nanjing, Ishikawa wrote, “A few days ago, we killed over ten thousand defeated soldiers.” This letter serves as a firsthand account from the perpetrator himself, recorded on the time of the bloodbath, and corroborates the diary entries of Azuma Shiro, a fellow soldier in the identical division.
Also donated are two educational manuals on the systematic coaching of poison fuel warfare by the invading Japanese forces.
In addition, Marcus Detrez and Bastien Ratat from France and Zhong Haosong from China made a joint donation of archival supplies to the memorial corridor. The donated gadgets comprise 861 pages of paperwork from the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs regarding Japan’s aggression in China, in addition to over 50 Japanese-language publications, together with wartime illustrated magazines and frontline battle data.
“These artifacts, historical materials and archival documents reveal the atrocities committed by Japanese forces, including the Nanjing Massacre and other war crimes, from various perspectives. Coming from different sources, they corroborate one another and form an irrefutable chain of evidence,” stated Meng Guoxiang, a researcher on the Institute for National Memory and International Peace Studies.
On Friday, a brand new batch of artifacts, photographs and video data documenting the experiences of surviving victims of the Imperial Japanese Army’s wartime “comfort women” system had been placed on show on the Nanjing Museum of the Site of the Lijixiang Comfort Stations. Two Chinese photographers donated the historic supplies after years of on-the-ground documentation and area analysis.
Li Xiaofang, a member of the China Photographers Association, spent greater than 20 years touring throughout China, Japan and the Republic of Korea to go to, interview and {photograph} greater than 100 survivors of the “comfort women” system. Among the donated gadgets are greater than 200 pictures he took of over 70 survivors, together with 43 duplicate handprints and round 30 items of private belongings from survivor Yi Yinglan.
“After escaping from the comfort station, I had to take a bath every day, hoping to wash away the humiliation and pain from my body,” Li recalled survivor Zhou Fenying telling him. “It was a psychological trauma she could never erase.”
Another donor, photojournalist Yan Meihua from Xiaogan City in central China’s Hubei Province, devoted two years to recording the testimony and every day lifetime of Mao Yinmei, a Korean-born survivor. Yan finally compiled greater than 7,000 photos and 10 video clips, all of which had been donated to the museum.
“She often sat alone in silence. Whenever the Japanese military was mentioned, her face would turn pale, and she would quietly shed tears,” Yan stated. “You could really feel that the scars left by Japan’s wartime atrocities never left her, like a shadow that never faded.”
A brand new assortment of historic data about Unit 731 was additionally made public on Wednesday in northeast China, providing additional proof of wartime crimes towards humanity dedicated by the Japanese forces in China.
Released by the Exhibition Hall of Evidences of Crime Committed by Unit 731 of the Japanese Imperial Army in Harbin, capital of Heilongjiang Province, the 70-minute oral testimony from Hitoshi Tanizaki, a former medic on the Hailar department of Unit 731, confirms that the Japanese navy buried giant portions of chemical shells in China on the eve of its defeat. Researchers collected the testimony in 2016 throughout a go to to Japan.
Tanizaki stated that after being assigned to the Hailar department, he realized that it was a navy unit that violated worldwide legislation. The Hailar department was beneath the direct command of Unit 731’s headquarters in Harbin. Its First Section cultivated micro organism, whereas its Second Section performed toxicity exams on water sources, amongst different duties.
Tanizaki confirmed that, through the retreat, the Hailar department set all its services on fireplace, whereas the Japanese fuel unit secretly buried a lot of poison fuel shells. “It wasn’t bacteria, but poison gas,” he stated, including that there was a poison fuel unit primarily based within the Fulaerji district of Qiqihar, Heilongjiang.
Jin Shicheng, a researcher on the exhibition corridor, stated the testimony instantly corroborates that the Japanese navy had deserted chemical weapons in China when Japan was defeated. It additionally sheds mild on the historic origins of the postwar hurt brought on by these deserted weapons, giving the findings up to date relevance.
According to China’s place paper submitted to the Fifth Review Conference of the Chemical Weapons Convention, deserted Japanese chemical weapons have prompted greater than 2,000 casualties in China for the reason that finish of WWII.
Jin additionally launched the non-public info registration information of the Unit 731 Hailar department, one other piece of proof disclosed to Xinhua on Wednesday. Research into these information exposes how the Japanese navy hid its organic warfare crimes by recruiting personnel beneath the guise of standard infantry models, a misleading apply meant to cowl up secret prison actions together with human experimentation.
Meanwhile, the data reveal that 145 of the 156 unit members had been captured by Soviet forces after the battle and detained within the Soviet Union, with 4 of them tried in Khabarovsk between April and September 1950. Jin stated the findings verify that Soviet investigations and judicial accountability for Japanese organic warfare criminals had continued after the general public trials held in 1949.
The professional famous that the disclosed data will deepen analysis into the branches of Unit 731 and, along with beforehand obtained oral testimonies from former members, kind a strong chain of proof of Japan’s grotesque WWII battle crimes.
Unit 731 was a top-secret organic and chemical warfare analysis base that served because the nerve heart of Japan’s WWII organic warfare operations in China and Southeast Asia. At least 3,000 folks had been subjected to human experiments performed by Unit 731, and Japan’s organic weapons claimed greater than 300,000 lives in China.
“Today, the international community has largely reflected on Nazi Germany’s medical crimes and the Doctors’ Trial during the Nuremberg Trials. However, the awareness of Japan’s wartime medical atrocities remains insufficient,” stated Yang Yanjun, a researcher on the exhibition corridor.
Yang referred to as on students worldwide to additional improve the educational rigor and objectivity of research on the crimes dedicated by Unit 731, and assist foster an accurate historic understanding within the worldwide neighborhood.