TOKYO, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- At a peace memorial hall of the Association of Returnees from China in Kawagoe, Saitama Prefecture in Japan, "flowers of leniency" are blossoming, telling a story of some Japanese people having worked hard for promoting peace and China-Japan relations.
In September 1957, a group of Japanese war criminals who had been released and returned from China established the Association of Returnees from China, or Chukiren in short, with the aim of boosting "anti-war peace and Japan-China friendship".
On the glass door of the memorial hall, there is a picture of a bright morning glory flower, where the heart-shaped leaves stand out under the small blue blossom.
It is a "flower of leniency" instead of an ordinary morning glory, Nobuo Serizawa of the Chukiren Peace Memorial Office Secretariat, who is in his 80s, told Xinhua.
The story behind the flowers dates back to the summer of 1956, when Susumu Soejima, a Japanese war criminal who was released from Fushun War Criminals Management Center in northeast China's Liaoning Province, received morning glory seeds from his supervisor before returning to his home country. The supervisor hoped that he would "come back to China with flowers instead of weapons."
A picture book called "Flower of Leniency" can be found on the bookshelf of the memorial, which recorded that Soejima had planted the morning glory flower seeds from China in his home yard, and given the newly produced seeds to residents in his neighborhood and other Chukiren members.
"When most Japanese people refer to wars as victim experiences such as the Bombing of Tokyo, there is also a group of people who have come forward to talk about their own crime during the war and in China through speeches, books and documentaries, "said Serizawa.
Like Soejima, over 1,000 other Japanese war criminals previously held in war criminal management centers in China's Fushun and Taiyuan returned to Japan in the same year.
Back in those days when China and Japan had not yet established diplomatic ties, Chukiren took the initiative to condemn Japan's crimes in its aggression of China, becoming one of the backbone forces of the Japanese people to promote the normalization of bilateral relations.
Since 1957, the members of the association have carried out peace and anti-war movements across Japan and actively engaged in friendly exchanges between Japan and China.
They have worked to expose the war atrocities by the Japanese aggressors in China citing their own experiences, return the remains of martyred Chinese laborers, criticize Japan for tampering with history textbooks, and protest overseas deployment of troops by Japan Self-Defense Forces.
They also set up the Chukiren Peace Memorial Hall on the outskirts of Kawagoe to preserve the historical materials and books left by Chukiren members, hoping that the true history would be passed on to future generations.
The hall displayed a bewildering number of photos on the wall, books on the table and huge pieces of calligraphy works. One of them reads "Past experience, if not forgotten, is a guide for the future."
In the museum, there were also articles with titles such as "I performed vivisection on Chinese people when I was brainwashed and had no consciousness of killing people at all", "I lit a torch and burned an entire family to death" and "I speak out to compensate a little for the Unit 731 biological warfare."
At the memorial hall, Serizawa showed Xinhua reporters the published works of Chukiren members, including war-time memoirs and remorse-expressing confessions. According to him, Chukiren members participated in dozens of documentaries produced by the media and various groups and published dozens of books, most of which were self-funded.
"In addition to 50,000 books left by war criminals and donated by scholars, there are some historical materials in the memorial hall," said Serizawa, taking out several pieces of paper that had turned yellow over time -- the Japanese version of the decision of the Supreme People's Procuratorate of the People's Republic of China on the exemption from prosecution.
"This is the original document that a war criminal kept when he was alive," Serizawa added.
Ryuji Ishida, a researcher at the International Peace Research Institute at Meiji Gakuin University, believed that the Chukiren members have deeply reflected on Japan's aggression war.
"They have thought in depth about what turned ordinary Japanese into killing tools and 'devils,' and are also deeply grateful that the reform and trial they went through in China awakened their conscience and made them 'human' again," the researcher said.
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the normalization of China-Japan diplomatic relations, and it is very important to review the "origin" and "starting point" of the establishment of bilateral relations, said Zhang Hongbo, a professor at Meiji Gakuin University, who has followed and studied the activities of the association for more than 20 years.
The origin of the normalization of bilateral relations lies in Japan's recognition of the war history and deep remorse over it, and she hopes that those people who ignore Japan's history of aggression war against other countries can come and visit the memorial hall, Zhang added.
In Serizawa's house, the morning glory flowers bloom every year. Serizawa said he hopes that more Japanese people would know about the war history and the story of the "flower of leniency" to promote peace and friendship between Japan and China. ■
