China's State Archives Administration has released the 12th set of 45 confessions of Japanese war criminals from the Second World War.

Shuichi Kikuchi, born in Miyagi Prefecture in 1915, was dispatched to the "Manchukuo", or the part of China known as Manchuria in 1937. A member of the Japanese Army, in his written confession, Kikuchi admitted to committing brutal crimes against the Chinese people during Japan's invasion of the country.

Shuichi Kikuchi admitted to shooting dead civilians, while conducting searches around Yaoshan County in north China's Hebei Province.

"I encountered a woman aged around 25 and a 4-year-old girl at the east gate. I said that those who still stayed remained inside the town must be relatives of the enemy and ordered my subordinates to shoot the woman dead with light machine guns and rifles. Later, the daughter who was crying and dragging her mother's body, was also shot dead," from his written confession.

Kikuchi admitted to raping 39 women while he was with the Japanese Army in China. And he also allowed those under him to rape.

"In the Military Police Station in Pianguan City, the Agent Squad brought three women to pour liquor at the banquet. At 23:00 in the Military Police Station, I raped a woman aged around 22 years and allowed two of my subordinate officers to rape two other women," from his written confession.

Kikuchi also confessed that in September 1941, he gave permission to the Surgeon Lieutenant Shinji Kawagen, attached to the Company, to perform surgical procedures on one of the captives.

"First, he cut the captive's throat so he wouldn't make a sound. He wanted to perform an appendectomy. After he had done so, he shot the captive's gut with a handgun. He then sutured the gut and left the prisoner in the dispensary to see what would happen to him. At around 2 pm on the third day, he conducted a joint separation surgery on the prisoner. He was later carried out to the yard of the Company camp. Shinji Kawagen shot the captive in the head when he was still alive and the dead body was buried on the spot," from his written confession.

During the eight years of Japan's invasion of China, Kikuchi killed 1,122 Chinese, among whom 727 were civilians. Some of them were slashed to death, some were beaten to death, some were buried alive, and some were killed by poison gas or bacteria.

After Japan's surrender, Shuichi Kikuchi took refuge in the troops of a military officer of the Kuomingtang in August 1945. He was arrested in Shanxi Province on April the 24th, 1949.