The Museum of the War of Chinese People's Resistance Against Japanese Aggression in Beijing. [Xinhua]
The Museum of the War of Chinese People's Resistance Against Japanese Aggression in Beijing. [Xinhua]

Letters written by Japanese soldiers describing atrocities committed during the Nanjing Massacre have been made public.

The Memorial Hall of the Victims in Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders released handwritten letters and other documents by Japanese soldiers on Saturday, the 81st anniversary of Japan's defeat in World War II, according to China's state-run Xinhua News Agency.

The materials include correspondence written between 1937 and 1939 by Ishikawa Morita, a soldier of the Japanese Army's 16th Division, and postcards sent to Japan by Mitsui Shigemasa, a soldier of the 114th Division. Both sets of documents describe in detail the movements of Japanese forces at the time, Xinhua said.

A letter apparently written by Ishikawa on Dec. 20, 1937, states: "A few days ago, we killed over 10,000 stragglers."

The record supports claims that the Japanese Army's 16th Division carried out a large-scale massacre of Chinese prisoners of war during the Nanjing Massacre.

A postcard sent by Mitsui describes his unit's attack on the Jinling Arsenal near Zhonghua Gate in Nanjing on Dec. 12, 1937, and the capture of a large number of Chinese prisoners and weapons.

The memorial said it collected more than 150 artifacts and historical materials, along with more than 100 documentary items, in the first half of this year.

Meng Guoxiang, a researcher at China's National Memory and International Peace Institute, said the materials "reveal the true nature of the atrocities committed by Japanese forces who invaded China, including the Nanjing Massacre." He added that while the items came from different sources, they "constitute irrefutable evidence through mutual corroboration."

During the Second Sino-Japanese War, Japanese forces carried out indiscriminate killings of soldiers and civilians in Nanjing between December 1937 and January 1938. China estimates that more than 300,000 people were killed.


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