New books shed more light on atrocities

Speaking of the relevance of the books to counter right-wing propaganda about the trials, Cheng Zhaoqi, director of a research center on the Tokyo Trials at the university, says: "Since 2000, expressing doubts about the Tokyo Trials has become a popular theme in some circles in Japan."

Before the center was established by the university and the NLC in 2011, systematic research on the trials was almost non-existent in Chinese academia.

Explaining the relevance of the trials, Cheng says: "The trials laid the foundation for the postwar order in Asia. If they are denied, the world's faith in the judgment about Japan's war crimes will be shaken."

Meanwhile, more historical files on Japanese war criminals have also become available on the NLC's website. The database translated and complied information from first-hand Japanese and English files on the trials. It was opened to the public on Dec 10.

The content on the website has been updated since then, and is also simultaneously available through a smart phone app and micro blogs.

NLC has released more books on the Chinese War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1937-45), as 2015 marks the 70th anniversary of the end of the war.

Zhang Jiwen, deputy director of Jiangsu Provincial Archive, participated in research for the books on the newly published Chinese Magazines on War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression. She says the series (67 books) includes material from 55 wartime magazines, and "offers new angles and fills gaps in the studies of the war".

"The archive files are the most genuine records of wartime history," she says.

Zhang says her institution's cooperation with publishing houses was important as it (the archive) is not just a custodian of the files.

"Earlier, we used to emphasize on their political aspects (of the files) rather than the significance of circulating the material among the public. But, now, it is time to transfer our research to a wider group.

"With such solid proof, we have better tools rather than just regular books to counter Japanese right-wing propaganda."

Zhang says the books give more insight to members of the public. For example, there were 10 regional trials in China of Japanese war crime suspects after the conflict ended. But, barring the one in Nanjing, the provincial capital of Jiangsu and China's national capital at that time, details of the other trials remain mostly unknown to the public.

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