The trials of war criminals of the Nazi Germany and Japanese war criminals after World War II are "trials of history" and their just nature is "unshakable and allows of no challenge," Chinese President Hu Jintao said Saturday in Beijing.

During the war of aggression against China, "Japanese aggressors wantonly trampled underfoot the beautiful land of China, slaughtered its soldiers and civilians, pressganged its laborers, and raped and tortured its women," he said.

"They conducted germ and chemical warfare, committed a series of inhuman atrocities such the Rope of Nanjing, crimes that deserved universal condemnation."

According to incomplete statistics, China suffered over 35 million casualties, both military and civilian. China's direct economic losses exceeded 100 billion US dollars and its indirect economic losses totaled more than 500 billion US dollars, calculated at the price in 1937.

Following the victory of the World Anti-Fascist War, war criminals of the Nazi Germany were tried at the Nuremberg International Military Tribunal and Japanese war criminals were tried at the International Military Tribunal for the Far East and the military tribunals in China, the Soviet Union and other countries.

In the trials, Hu said, "those arch criminals who launched the wars of aggression and had their hands blotted with the blood of the people around the world received their due punishment."

At the tribunals, justice and human dignity were upheld, and the common aspiration of the people who love peace and justice all over the world came true, said Hu.

Source: Xinhua