How we killed, tortured civilian Chinese, by ex-Japanese soldier

A former Japanese soldier confessed to being part of a group that killed dozens of Chinese civilians and raped several women during Japan's war of aggression against China.

The State Archives Administration said on Friday in Beijing that this was the third in a series of 31 handwritten confessions from Japanese suspected war criminals published online.

It said the confession was made by Yoshio Miura, who was born in Chiba Prefecture, Japan in 1920 and joined the Japanese war of aggression against China in 1940.

The office said Yoshio, together with others, confessed to killing two peasants to seize 'concealed weapons’ in Laiwu County of Shandong Province in September 1941.

"In April 1942 I broke into a civilian house in a village of Xintai County of Shandong, threatened a Chinese woman aged 27 to 28 with a bayonet and raped her”, Yoshio said in his confession.

"In July 1942, in Zhangqiu County, three of my companions 'pushed a captured peasant into a 20-feet-deep dry well, and threw down a rock of around 50 kilograms to kill him in Zhangqiu County.

"Near Xianggong Village of Zhangqiu County, we captured another peasant, covered his mouth with a towel, bloated his belly with about 20 liters of cold water, making it hard for him to breath.

"We then fed him with dung, beat him on the belly, private parts, head and feet with a shoulder pole and killed him after an hour of interrogation and torture," he said.

It said in early October 1944, Yoshio ordered his subordinates to shoot dead 13 Chinese in Tai'an County, claiming that they colluded with the Eighth Route Army.

A State Archives official said a total of 31 confessions from Japanese war criminals would be published online starting Tuesday, to expose crimes committed by Japan in China during World War II.

The official said the handwritten confessions, along with translations and abstracts in both Chinese and English, have been published on its the website.

"These archives are hard evidence of the heinous crimes committed by Japanese imperialists against the Chinese”, the official said.

The official said the confessions, which have never been released before, detail crimes perpetrated by the Japanese, including killing, enslavement and poisoning of Chinese people.

The official said it also included the use of biological and chemical weapons on humans.