Archives on forced laborers by the Japanese military

This file shows a document about the requisition of laborers and the management of "special laborers" by Japanese Military Police of Kwangtung Army in 1943, in Changchun, capital of Northeast China's Jilin province. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Fourteen files of archives disclosed this time are on the exploitation, oppression and enslavement of laborers by the Japanese military, and most of the files were compiled in the middle and late periods of Japan’s occupation of Northeast China.

The contents of these archives include:

Information on the escape of 91 laborers, including Xie Zhenhua, a laborer in the Hsinking Datong Team of Bei’an Unit 956 , from a military construction site, due to their grievance over shortage of clothing and food, as well as failure in fulfilling the recruit contract;

Information on the Kempeitai order requiring tightened supervision on the laborers, as most of the laborer escape cases happened in the border areas;

Information on the death from electric shock of a laborer named Cui Jilong;

Information on the escape from Luanshishan military construction site by Wang Minghai and 47 other laborers;

Information from the archives of the Dongning Kempeitai on its receipt of special laborers transferred from the North China Dispatched Army;

Information on the attack by laborers on the guards and the guards station of Manchuria Unit 570, which was located in Jianchanggou, Shimenzi, Dongning County; and

Information on the violence committed by the Japanese military against laborers attempting escape, which resulted in many laborers’ dead bodies scattered around and bitten by dogs.

Photo copied on Jan 10, 2014 shows a photo of the dead body of a forced Chinese laborers who is electrocuted by Japanese troops, in Changchun, capital of Northeast China's Jilin province. The Japanese documents recently released by Jilin Provincial Archives regarding "forced Chinese labor" show in detail Japanese troops' warfare crimes on forcing Chinese laborers including exploitation, maltreatment and execution. [Photo/Xinhua]