Japanese war criminals recall atrocities(2)

TRANSFORMATION

Japan invaded northeast China in Sept. 1931. On July 7, 1937, the invading Japanese troops marched to Lugou Bridge in the western suburbs of Beijing, where they clashed with the Chinese army, marking the start of the main phase of the Sino-Japanese War.

The following eight years saw savage rapes and killings, before Japan finally surrendered in 1945.

After the founding of the New China in 1949, 982 Japanese war criminals were sent to a jail in Fushun of northeast China's Liaoning Province, which was formerly built by the invaders to intern Chinese.

It was the instruction of late Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai that these war criminals should not be executed or jailed for life. They were to be released after a process of reformative "transformation."

The Japanese criminals were not abused as some have claimed. They were treated well during their prison time. Even in China's three years of famine from 1958 to 1961, the standard of their meals remained unchanged. They ate better food than the prison staff, whose menu was invariably edible wild herbs and pumpkins because of the food shortage.

The last batch of these Japanese war criminals was finally released in 1975.

The jailers asked them to talk about their own lives and took them to revisit the places where they killed Chinese. By listening to survivors' accounts, many regretted suffering they had inflicted.

"I have lived to a good age," said Kubotera Hisao, 94. "But I have fired on ordinary people, and even shot dead a child as young as 12 or 13. How sad and angry his parents must have been."

Kubotera wished that China and Japan could be friendly neighbors.

"I swear," he said, "I will do my best to achieve this as long as I live."

DEEPLY REGRETFUL

Okawara Koichi, 92, has compiled a book of his confessions. He has also been talking with housewives so that they can tell their children what really happened seven decades ago.

During the interviews, many of the veterans said it was not right for the Japanese government to distort history.

"Japan is doomed if it doesn't tell its citizens what really happened," said Nishio Kokki.

"Many Japanese people are not aware of what happened. They know nothing about the Japanese invasion, which Shinzo Abe has even denied. This is not the right attitude at all," said Takahashi Tetsuro, chief of a Japanese veterans organization that has been calling for truth since 1956.

"The Yasukuni Shrine is used to worship war criminals," said Inaha Seki. "Our politicians need history education as badly as the youngsters do."

"I haven't got many years to live," said Naniwa Yasunao. "But as long as I can, I would like to tell our descendants, generation after generation, that Japan and China must consult with and understand each other, holding hands and progressing together."