Japan should face up to history and the crimes its troops did during World War II, and only in this way can it win back trust among people in Asia and across the world, a French expert on Chinese studies said Thursday.

"Japanese leaders should face up to the questions hurting national sentiment of China. ... It will serve the bilateral ties, peace and confidence in Asia and in the world," Dr. Pierre Picquart, an expert on geopolitics from Paris University, told Xinhua in an interview.

Dr. Pierre, who majored in Chinese studies, gave an account of the atrocities Japanese troops did in China during their invasion.

He said history books in the West seldom described the massacre in Nanjing (an eastern city in China) in 1937 when the invading Japanese troops killed between 300,000 and 400,000 civilians and raped more than 20,000 women aged from 11 to 70.

"Tens of thousands of Chinese were buried alive with only their heads out of earth. Some weeks of massacres didn't spare children.

Rapes, live burials and all kinds of atrocities. Thousands of Chinese had their head cut in front of their parents..." Dr. Pierre said.

He added that there are many photos, witnesses, films and other evidence that one needs only to look at to know the crimes.

Dr. Pierre also mentioned the republication of a history textbook in Japan that minimizes the country's brutalities in Asia during the last century and said the Japanese government should be responsible for distorting history and hurting the feelings of its Asian neighbors.

He said the memory should remain alive and he compared the Chinese-Japanese ties with the French-German ties, saying they are not at the same level.

"The German authorities declare each year that it ought not to forget the history and not to repeat the same things. Why the Japanese authorities still pay official tribute to Japanese heroes who had massacred thousands of Chinese?

"Why do they favor the ignorance of the history ... Why are these Japanese history textbooks watered down?" he questioned.

Dr. Pierre also said Japan, while seeking a permanent membership at the UN Security Council, should first gain Asia's confidence by respecting the history.

Source: Xinhua