The painful history surrounding Japan's invasion of China should prompt Japanese people to reflect on their actions and encourage them to establish new ties with China, said Okawa Koiti, vice-chairman of the Japanese Union of War Criminals Returned From China, at a ceremony marking the 50th anniversary of the Fushun War Criminal Prison in Northeast China's Liaoning Province, on Sunday.

The Japanese invasion began on September 18, 1931 in Shenyang, the capital of Liaoning Province. Yesterday marked the 69th anniversary of the "September 18 Incident.''

More than 30 former war criminals from the union, a non-governmental organization in Japan, and their family members attended the ceremony.

"We are ashamed of our past. The war inflicted great suffering and sorrow not only on our country, but also on many other countries, particularly China," said Koiti, a war criminal from War of Resistance against Japan (1937-45), who was put in prison in Fushun after the war.

"When we were sent to the prison, we knew that the most common reaction from the Chinese people towards us would be bitterness," said Koiti.

Their worries were well founded. Japan is responsible for launching a series of aggressive actions against China during the last century, which claimed tens of millions of Chinese.

"However to our surprise, the Chinese people took a long-term view of us. They believe that war criminals are also human beings."

"They made an effort to reform us, and teach us to give up our aggressive ways."

"At the time when Chinese people lived in poor conditions, war criminals like me still had plenty of food to eat," Koiti recalled of his life in prison.

Between 1956 and 1964, all Japanese war criminals were released and sent back home.

"Our union has become a well-known organization in Japan. We are trying our best to teach the younger generation in our country to face up to the reality of Japan's invasion of China," said Koiti.

Fushun injected 8 million yuan (US$964,000) last year into the renovation of the famous prison.

Built in the 1950s, the prison was used to hold war criminals. Nearly 1,000 captured Japanese soldiers and officers were held in Fushun prison. The site was transformed into a base for education in patriotism and became a tourism destination in the late 1980s.

(China Daily)