HARBIN, Oct. 31 (Xinhua) -- In late autumn, members of a Japanese delegation stood with solemn expressions in extended silence at an exhibition hall presenting evidence of crimes committed by the notorious biological warfare division Unit 731 of invading Japanese troops during World War II.
In recent days, the Japanese civil-society delegation visited the exhibition hall and former sites of Unit 731 in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province. During the visit, the delegation took the opportunity to exchange views with Chinese experts and scholars.
The delegation is from the Association for Inheriting and Propagating the Murayama Statement, which was established in Tokyo, Japan, in 2013. Composed of scholars, journalists, lawyers, and civic activists, it is a progressive force within Japan that persists in reflecting on the history of aggression.
Shigenori Kanehira, a delegation member and veteran Japanese media professional, said that although he already knew a lot about this history, stepping into these historical sites in person left him even more shocked.
Mitsuhisa Fukutomi, another delegation member and a university professor, expressed a similar sentiment. A scholar who has long taught international politics, he was somewhat familiar with the crimes of Unit 731, yet he still felt immense shame and sorrow upon seeing these crime scenes firsthand.
The visit helped the delegation fully recognize that the truth could not be buried, despite the invading Japanese troops' deliberate destruction of core facilities in an attempt to conceal evidence of their crimes. Decades of archaeological excavations and academic verification have established an irrefutable chain of criminal evidence beyond doubt.
After visiting a human experiment exhibition area, Takakage Fujita, head of the delegation, said the Japanese army's act of injecting bacteria into living people can only be described as "demonic."
"As a Japanese, I sincerely apologize to the Chinese people who perished in the disaster," he added.
During a symposium with experts and scholars from the exhibition hall, Fujita strongly condemned the growing tide of historical revisionism and right-wing countercurrents in Japan in recent years.
He noted that since last year, some right-wing politicians in Japan have openly made absurd and ignorant remarks in attempts to incite regional conflict, even brazenly clamoring that the war of aggression was a "war of self-defense" and a "just war," which is utterly outrageous.
The delegation agreed that post-war right-wing forces in Japan deliberately played down the history of aggression and revised textbooks, leaving Japan's younger generation with a serious lack of understanding of the history of aggression against China. Such state-driven historical erasure is precisely the soil in which the rampant right-wing ideology in Japanese society today has taken root.
Despite years of sustained pressure from right-wing forces in Japan, concerned people in China and Japan have never wavered in their efforts to preserve historical truth.
Jin Chengmin, an expert with the exhibition hall, said at the symposium that over the years, people-to-people exchanges among scholars, journalists, lawyers and civil-society groups in China and Japan have served as a bridge for rational communication and a shared understanding of history between the two countries.
After the symposium concluded, Jin donated a photocopy of a handwritten letter former Japanese Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama left during his 2007 visit to China to the Association for Inheriting and Propagating the Murayama Statement. The letter bears the inscription "Learn from history and open up a future of peace and friendship between Japan and China."
"Those responsible for the war committed heinous atrocities, yet went on to live out their postwar years in comfort. This is an unacceptable failure of justice," said Fujita.
He added that the delegation will continue to pursue accountability for war responsibility within Japan, counter historical nihilism, and promote China-Japan friendship as it is the only correct path to peace and prosperity for both countries. ■
