Japanese war criminals recall atrocities

They had the blood of Chinese people on their hands during World War II. But after years of imprisonment in the country they invaded, many Japanese war criminals' attitudes have changed.

Ahead of the anniversary of China's victory in its War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, which falls on Sept. 3, a social science planning fund of northeast China's Liaoning Province released face-to-face interviews of eight Japanese veterans. They reflected on the atrocities the committed during the war and called for peace.

China set Victory Day this year to commemorate the hardship and struggles of the Chinese people during the Anti-Japanese War, and to demonstrate the country's will to safeguard peace and oppose aggression.

SPARE NOT EVEN A CAT

Naniwa Yasunao, who was 24 in 1945, remembered seeing bodies of Chinese soldiers and ordinary people washed down the Yangtze River.

"More than 600 Japanese soldiers invaded several villages in a valley, where the battalion chief told us to take everything and kill everyone, to spare not even a cat," he said.

The Japanese forced seniors, women and children into a house, before locking the door and setting fire to the building.

"It was December," Naniwa said. "We could see the blaze and black smoke from the other side of the mountain, and hear the dreadful screams of the people."

Ehato Hatasu, who was born in 1913, was a corporal during the war in China. The former middle school teacher told Xinhua about a time the Japanese found themselves short of food in Suoge Village in east China's Shandong Province, so killed a woman to eat her.

"She was a prisoner," he said. "An officer forced her to become a comfort woman... The one who killed her admitted to this event."

Ehato himself once ordered some new soldiers to kill a teenager.

"He clutched my leg and cried, saying that his mom was waiting for him to go home," he said. "I had parents myself, but if I disobeyed the order of my superior, I would lose my life. So I could not let him go."

Isao Inaba, born in 1923 and joining Japanese army in 1943, served as a telecommunication officer in Japanese invading forces.

He said he saw young Japanese soldiers stabbing bound Chinese soldiers who were taken prisoners in a training to gain killing experience.