Japanese policeman confesses to torture of Chinese

A Japanese police officer serving in China during World War II arranged the torture of a large number of Chinese, according to the latest in a series of publications of confessions by Japanese war criminals.

The written confession by Shigeo Hachisuka, a police officer serving in northeast China from 1918 to 1945, was posted on the website of the State Archives Administration (SAA) on Sunday.

Hachisuka first served as a police officer in Lyushun City of northeast China's Liaoning Province, then occupied by Japan, and then at the Mukden Railway Security Police of "Manchukuo," the puppet state established by the Empire of Japan in northeast China from 1931 to 1945. He was arrested in September 1945.

As a senior police officer, Hachisuka personally arrested and ordered the arrests of many Chinese who fought against Japan's invasion and occupation of China. Most of them were tortured after their arrests.

According to his confession written in December 1954, during an operation to arrest a young Chinese who had assisted the anti-Japanese troops in July 1943, Hachisuka and his subordinates were refused entry to a house they wanted to search. One of them opened fire through the door and killed an old man, who was later found to be the young Chinese's father.

This is the latest in a series 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 in China by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and right-wing politicians.