Written confession by Japanese war criminals published in China

A selection of written confessions by Japanese war criminals after WWII was published in August in China, according to the State Archives Administration on Thursday.

After Japan's unconditional surrender to China, a total of 1,109 Japanese war criminals were put behind bars in China's Fushun and Taiyuan cities from 1950 to 1956, receiving their sentences from China's central authorities.

Included in the book are photocopied hand-written confessions by the Japanese war criminals and detailed records of their interrogations and trials, which serves as irrefutable evidence of Japan's heinous crimes against China during the war.

The written confessions detailed crimes such as killing, enslavement and poisoning of Chinese people. They also confessed they had used bacterial and chemical weapons, conducted biological tests on live human and set up military brothels with sex slaves for the Japanese army.

The book included confessions by 800 plus war criminals, which are compiled in 120 volumes. It is the first time most of the content is available to the public.

The book, published by Zhonghua Book Company, is made of the original photocopied texts in Japanese, supplements, corrections, postscripts and the text of Chinese translations at that time, with English translations of the abstract content presented before the relevant written confession.