New books shed more light on atrocities

The project contains first-hand inquiry records from the Tokyo Trials. [Photo provided to China Daily]

A major publishing project, comprising 70 books, sheds new light on the infamous Nanjing Massacre carried out by Japanese troops during World War II.

The books were released last week by the National Library of China on the eve of National Memorial Day when victims of that terrible massacre are remembered.

More than 300,000 people were slaughtered by Japanese troops in that incident.

The books, which also cover other atrocities committed during the war, represent a series called The Numerical Case Files Relating to Particular Incidents and Suspected War Criminals, International Prosecution Section (1945-1947). They comprise first-hand inquiry records from the Tokyo Trials conducted at the end of the war.

The work was published jointly by the library and Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

The Tokyo Trials, formally known as the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, ran from April 1946 to November 1948.

Twenty-eight Japanese military and political leaders were charged with Class A crimes, and more than 5,700 Japanese nationals were charged with Class B and C crimes.

The new books are complied using original files of the International Prosecution Section of the Tokyo Trials, which are now housed in the National Archives of the United States. Details of about 470 cases are recorded in the books, including the interrogation records of Japanese leaders Hideki Tojo, Kenji Doihara and Kishi Nobusuke.

"They (these documents) have never been seen in China," says Han Yongjin, curator of the NLC.

"I believe China's studies on the Tokyo Trials and the history of the war between China and Japan will be accelerated (with the publication of the books)."

Han says the new series is a crucial complement to the series called The Proceedings of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, which was published in 2013, and was the first Chinese book series based on the original files of the tribunal.