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A newly declassified Chinese diplomatic file explains that China gave up suing 1,063 Japanese war criminals in 1956 was for the purpose of promoting normalization of China-Japan ties.

 

"In light of the international situation, the Chinese government has opted to take lenient policies towards Japanese war criminals to help promote normalization of China-Japan ties," according to a declassified memorandum China sent to the former Soviet Union on April, 25, 1956.

 

Altogether 1,063 Japanese war criminals were in jail in China that year. China's legal organs had finished their investigations into their crimes by that time, the memorandum says.

 

"However, considering the great changes that have taken place in the positions of the two countries and 10 years has passed since the ending of World War II, the Chinese government has now decided to handle the Japanese war criminals more leniently," it says.

 

According to the memorandum, the Chinese National People's Congress (NPC) had passed a decision on settling the Japanese war criminals on April 25, 1956, in which the Chinese government sentenced those guilty of serious crimes to less than 20 years' imprisonment. China decided to abandon the prosecution of some 1,000 criminals who showed minor guilt or penitence, and set them free.

 

These released criminals were later repatriated by the Chinese Red Cross Society, the memorandum says.

 

The war of aggression against China by the Japanese militarists inflicted immense disaster on the Chinese people.

 

According to incomplete statistics, the war resulted in 35 million Chinese casualties and more than 300,000 Chinese civilians and troops were massacred in Nanjing, a city in eastern China, in 1937.

 

However, the Chinese government and people took a lenient attitude towards the Japanese criminals and organized visits for them.

 

According to another declassified record, besides living in prisons, the detainees could also visit other places outside to see the change and carry out self-examination of their actions during the war time.

 

"The 1,063 Japanese war criminals detained in Fushun and Taiyuan have visited factories, shops, schools, kindergartens, rest homes and agricultural cooperatives in Fushun, Taiyuan and Beijing since February," said a briefing recording the detainees' situation from April to July in 1956.

 

The Japanese were deeply moved by those visits, in which they were well treated and pardoned by the Chinese people, some of whom were even victims during the war.

 

"This visit made the crimes conducted by Japanese imperialism and myself clear to me...I sincerely hope I can apologize to the Chinese people and then request execution by firing squad," the briefing quoted Saza Shinnosuke, a lieutenant general during the war, as saying.

 

"I hope the Japanese government will convey my feelings to the next generation and tell them not to follow my old path," he was quoted as saying.

 

The Chinese people also showed their generosity. When asked by a detainee how he felt about the war criminals, a Chinese man said that he opposed the imperialism, which triggered the war, instead of any specific person.

 

"If you show regret for the past, I think the Chinese government will treat you with leniency," the Chinese man was quoted as saying.

 

Meanwhile, the Red Cross Society of China offered help for the war criminals' relatives to visit their families in China. It even provided subsidies for some poor ones.

 

In June 1956, the Chinese government announced the dismissal of the case and immediate release of the first batch of 355 Japanese war criminals. The freed Japanese wrote a letter to the Chinese government and to the prison supervision agencies after they returned to Japan.

 

In the letter, the Japanese wrote of their appreciation for the Chinese grace and denounced the war, describing themselves as "bloody devils" during the war.

 

"The war was absolutely not for the country, neither a so-called holy war for peace in Asia... We will never step on the road of invasion, nor be cheated by imperialism. We will oppose aggression, oppose imperialism and safeguard peace," said the letter.

 

The Chinese Foreign Ministry on Wednesday declassified its diplomatic files from between 1956 and 1960 containing a total of 25,651 items.

 

The files contained records of China's major diplomatic events during the five-year period, including its forging of diplomatic links with 14 Asian, African and Latin American countries, the former Soviet Union's withdrawal of its experts working in China and the Sino-US ambassadorial talks.

 

(Xinhua News Agency May 13, 2006)