General info on the archives of the Japanese Aggression

Changchun, which was then called Hsinking, was the so-called “Capital City” of the Puppet Manchurian Regime during the period of Japanese aggression and where the Headquarters of the Japanese Kwantung Army was located. Therefore, a great number of archives of the Japanese aggression period were left in Changchun. Here at the Jilin Provincial Archives, we have 65 general archives or nearly 100,000 volumes and files (90% of the files are written in Japanese) recording various kinds of activities during the period of Japanese aggression. These archives are of great value and are historical records of that part of the history.

The archives mainly include the following four parts:

1. Archives of the Kwantung Kempeitai Headquarters

This part of the archives recorded the battle news, battle plans and colonization activities of all the units of the Kwantung Kempeitai (military police). After Japan announced its surrender on 15 August 1945, the Japanese troops, fleeing in panic, had no time to burn all these archives and had to bury them instead. In the 1950s, the archives were discovered in a construction site in Jilin Province. With some pages torn or broken, these archives have mostly survived the chaos.

2. Archives of the Central Bank of the Puppet Manchurian Regime.

These archives were created by the Central Bank of the Puppet Manchurian Regime and were received and kept by Jilin Provincial Archives after the founding of the People’s Republic of China. These archives are very complete, and are valuable historical records for the studies on the financial administration and exploitation of Northeast China by Japan.

3. Audio Archives

These files fall into the category of audio and visual archives. They recorded the speeches of military and administrative personnel of Japan including Hideki Tojo and Yoshijiro Umezu and high-ranking officials of the Puppet Manchurian Regime including Aisin-Gioro Puyi, Zhang Jinghui and Xiqia, as well as the last words of Kamikaze members of Japan before they went to battlefield.

4. Blueprints of Some Important Buildings in Hsinking, the so-called "Capital City" of the Puppet Manchurian Regime