Kneeling down and praying at memorials for the war of resistance against Japanese aggression across northeast China's Jilin Province, a 70-year-old Japanese monk has begun a special trip to express his sorrow for Chinese victims of Japan's aggression during World War II.

The Forced Laborers' Memorial in Jilin City on Monday witnessed Iwata Ryuzo's first praying ceremony, lasting about half an hour.

He has vowed to have nothing but water and fruit during the first three days of his tour of the province where hundreds of thousands of forced laborers were killed by Japanese aggressors.

"I want to apologise sincerely to the Chinese people for the war crimes. Japan's aggression war against China is ignominious," said Iwata Ryuzo.

"The textbook I used when I was younger recorded the invasion history but now some false textbook compiled by right-wingers has changed the word 'invasion' to 'entry', which is a total violation of the truth," he said.

Now, Japan's younger generation can not learn what actually happened during the war from these incorrect textbooks, he said.

"I hope that my actions will help young people learn about the Japanese army's atrocities on Chinese people during the war and help promote future relations between the two countries."

"Although few people around me in Japan understand me or support my trip to China, I will never regret what I have done in seeking to represent history," he said.

Ryuzo was born in Taipei in 1936 and went back home to Tokyo in 1945. After 18 years working as a bank clerk, he found religion at the age of 45.

"The idea of making an apology to victims from Japan's war aggression came about when I was a senior high school student," Ryuzo told Xinhua, saying he learnt about the crimes committed by Japanese troops from 1931 to 1945 from his history teacher.

He recalled his teacher's remarks that strongly influenced his mind: "We Japanese should apologise to the victims."

At ceremonies held in 1995 in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the two Japanese cities that experienced the A-bomb attacks, a pacifist made a speech which had a profound effect on Ryuzo. "It is still not too late to say sorry for the war crimes," Ryuzo quoted the pacifist as saying.

"I realized the true meaning of peace from that moment," said the monk, who from then on began to pray for the people that suffered from Japan's invasion during World War II.

Before his first visit to China in August 2005 with the aim of praying for Chinese war victims, Ryuzo paid five visits to South Korea, praying for the war victims there.

His second trip to China began in April this year and will last about two months, during which Ryuzo will visit memorials for the war of resistance against Japanese aggression in Changchun, Jilin and other cities across the province.

"As long as I live, I am going to make more and more such apology trips to places in China that suffered from Japan's aggression," Ryuzo said, "I will say sorry to and pray for the war victims and their offspring," Ryuzo said.

Source: Xinhua