Following the death of Shiro Azuma, the Nanjing massacre diary author, China has expressed condolences and sympathy to his relatives, Qin Gang, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, said in Beijing Thursday.

"I hope that more Japanese like Shiro Azuma will contribute to the friendship between China and Japan in the spirit of learning from history and facing the future, " said Qin.

Azuma was a soldier in the Japanese army during the war of aggression against China. He recorded the atrocities of the Nanjing massacre in his diary and had it published in 1987, which triggered a charge of "lying" from Japanese rightist politicians.

"Half a century later, Azuma had the courage to review the history of the aggression, defend the truth, and apologise to the victimized country, so his sense of justice and efforts to promote Sino-Japanese relations win our respect," Qin said.

Azuma died of cancer Tuesday in a hospital in Kyoto Prefecture.

Source: Xinhua