Beijing exhibition reviews reforming of Japanese war criminals

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Sunday, December 14, 2003

Beijing exhibition reviews reforming of Japanese war criminals

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Marking the 66th anniversary of the Nanjing Massacre, during which the Japanese invaders killed some 300,000 Chinese in 1937, an exhibition opened here Saturday featuring the reforming of Japanese war criminals in a northeast China-based reformatory.

The exhibition, with more than 200 photographs and over 100 historical relics such as accordions left by the criminals, was jointly held by the Beijing-based Memorial Hall of the War of Resistance to Japanese Aggression and the Fushun War Criminals Administration Office, located in northeast China's Liaoning Province. It displays the Japanese militarists' atrocities, and the humanitarian attitude of the Chinese people and government toward the war criminals.

Wang Xinhua, curator of the memorial hall, said the opening of the exhibition on such a special day will hopefully make people think more about issues such as war and peace, and humanitarianismvs. atrocities.

The victory of the resistance war left China with some 1,000 Japanese war criminals, who during the aggression launched some 30massacres, killing over 900,000 Chinese people. But, instead of acting tit for tat, the Chinese government educated and reformed them in the spirit of humanitarianism. As of 1964, all the criminals had been sent back to Japan after serving sentences of various lengths in Fushun.

The reformed criminals since returning home have become peace promoters and fighters against the militarist forces in Japan. They have written books and given speeches based on their own experiences, and have fought against Japanese right-wing moves which seek to distort or deny the history of Japan's aggression.

"We expect our exhibition to send to the public the message that the pain and disaster aggressive wars have brought shouldn't have fallen on the Chinese, nor should they fall on other places and other people of the world in the future. The peace-loving willof the Chinese government and people has been fully reflected in what they have done for the Japanese war criminals, and is being and will be reflected in what they are doing now and what they areto do in the future," said the curator.

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