28th Japanese war criminal confession published

The latest in a series of publications of confessions by Japanese war criminals details how officer Hitoshi Imayoshi ordered slaughters of Chinese in puppet Longjiang Province in the 1930s and 1940s.

In the written confession, published on the website of China's State Archives Administration (SAA) on Wednesday, Imayoshi admits that the Japanese army set up a correction institution in Kangtai of Longjiang Province, where about 2,100 Chinese prisoners were forced to labor, causing many of them to die.

Imayoshi wrote that in August 1932, he mobilized 500 policemen and 800 members of the Self-Defense Forces to suppress the anti-Japanese movement, arresting six Chinese. Later, they were all killed.

He ordered 540 houses to be burned down, making over 3,000 residents homeless.

In February 1933, Imayoshi ordered the arrests of 22 or 23 Chinese and had 14 of them shot to death, according to the confession.

In August 1935, he arrested and beheaded a young Chinese. He later arrested another five young Chinese and killed them with a saber.

This is the latest of 45 Japanese war criminal confessions the SAA plans to publish. It has been issuing one a day since July 3.

The move follows denials of war crimes by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and right-wing politicians.