Archives show Japanese war criminal slaughters captives

Chinese captives were consistently tortured and slaughtered by invading Japanese soldiers in the 1930s, according to the latest Japanese war criminal confession published Tuesday.

Shigesaku Nozaki went to northeast China in 1931 to take part in the war of aggression against China and served successively as sergeant of Munitions Factory Squad of Mukden Japanese Military Police and chief of Police Division in Huaide County.

He ordered the arrest and torture of "15 soldiers of Zhang Xueliang's troops" in 1931 and later shot them to death with handguns, according to his written confession.

Between 1932 and 1935, he led subordinates to interrogate and torture a total of 45 anti-Japanese soldiers, who were all shot dead after interrogation. He was arrested in early 1946.

The confession was published on the website of China's State Archives Administration (SAA) following denials of war crimes by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Japanese right-wing politicians.