China has released what it claims are previously confidential Japanese wartime documents, including some about comfort women forced to serve in military brothels during World War Two, Chinese state media reported.
The publication comes during a fraught period in Japan-China relations. Last week, Japan’s Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Ltd paid about $29 million for the release of a ship seized by China over a dispute that dates back to the 1930s war between the two countries.
The 89 documents released from archives in northern Jilin province supposedly include letters written by Japanese soldiers, newspaper articles, and military files unearthed in the early 1950s, state media said. Why they had not been released until now was not immediately clear.
Nationalist politicians in Japan have been urging Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe to water down a 1993 apology to comfort women. These politicians have said there is no evidence of large scale coercion by government authorities or the military.
Abe said last month that Tokyo would not revise this apology.
Japan occupied Manchuria and established the puppet state of Manchuko.
The League of Nations condemned Japan's actions, leading to Japan's withdrawal from that organization.
- In 1937, the Marco Polo Bridge incident launched the Second Sino-Japanese War.
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In late 1937, Japan captured Shanghai in the Battle of Shanghai and Nanking in the Nanking Massacre, in which 300,000 Chinese were killed.
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Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor this war became integrated into the greater conflict of World War II.
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An estimated 20 million Chinese, mostly civilians, were killed during World War II.
