Evidence mounts of Japan's wartime atrocities

In 1945, on the eve of the Japanese Army's defeat, Unit 731 destroyed base facilities, massacred test subjects and eliminated evidence of their crimes. During the postwar Tokyo Trials, a deal between Japan and the United States allowed key members of Unit 731 to get away with their crimes, according to Gong Wenjing, director of the international research center on Unit 731 at the Harbin Academy of Social Sciences.

The Khabarovsk trials, which were the first in history to specifically target germ warfare criminals, held accountable the war criminals who escaped justice at the Tokyo Trials, and exposed more crimes committed by the Japanese military, Gong said.

"The newly released archives include firsthand accounts from the biological war perpetrators. Their testimony contains detailed accounts of victims' lives in Unit 731, their painful reactions during experiments, and casualty data, all of which reveal the inhumane nature of the Japanese Army's atrocities," she added.

The archives complement and corroborate China's archives on the crimes of Unit 731, forming a complete chain of evidence that confirms Japan's biological warfare as an "organized, premeditated and systematic state crime", according to Zhou Zhenfan, an official responsible for archives management at the China Central Archives.

The release of the archives coincided with the 12th National Memorial Day for Nanjing Massacre Victims.

As this year marks the 80th anniversary of the victory in the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War, preventing the resurgence of Japanese militarism is a shared commitment of the international community, said Zhao Cong, director of the department of international exchange and cooperation of the National Archives Administration of China.

"The release of these archives once again provides indisputable evidence of the crimes committed by the Japanese Army, and they hold significant value in restoring historical truth and promoting a correct understanding of World War II history," Zhao added.

xunuo@chinadaily.com.cn