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

Beijing – 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.
He said in late August 1942, for the purpose of
seizing concealed weapons, they `interrogated 74
peasants using torture’, 11 of which he personally
interrogated and killed.
“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.