Photo released on Aug. 11, 2015 by the State Archives Administration of China on its website shows the image of Japanese war criminal Kenzo Sugishita.According to the written confession of Kenzo Sugishita on 29 November 1954, he was born in Gifu Prefecture, Japan in 1901 and joined the Japanese War of Aggression against China in February 1932.

The State Archives Administration of China started releasing the written confessions of Japanese war criminals on its website on Tuesday to expose the crimes committed by wartime Japan in China and remind the people around the world of the need to oppose war and treasure peace.

To commemorate the 70th anniversary of victory of the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World War against Fascism, 31 Japanese war criminals’ written confessions, which have never been published, have been selected to be released. One confession will be released each day on the official website of the State Archives Administration.

After the birth of New China in 1949, a total of 1,109 Japanese war criminals were held in custody in two Chinese cities. The special military tribunal of the Supreme People's Court had public trials of the 45 major criminals, sentencing them to from eight to twenty years in prison.

Except for 47 who died in custody, the other 1,017 were exempt from prosecution and released in 1956 because they had relatively minor offenses, good behavior and showed remorse.

The first in the series features a confession by Kenzo Sugishita. In his written confession, he said “At a village about eight kilometers south of Tianle Temple, Shanghai, the squadron gave the instruction to shoot all, resulting in the killing of an estimated number of 30 Chinese people” in 1932.