Symposiums to focus on newly found war archives

More archives on the Japanese invasion of China will be made available overseas through international symposiums and exhibitions, Jilin Provincial Archives said on Thursday.

Currently, only 0.5 percent of the newly discovered 100,000 archives have been translated and released, including information on Japan's "Unit 731" biological and chemical warfare research center, and the military's use of girls and women from occupied territories as sex slaves. Overseas scholars have shown interest in the rare files. South Korea universities, for example, have approached Jilin Provincial Archives about the files.

"Now we are still working on the archives. Once we have more to share, we will host international symposiums," said Mu Zhanyi, deputy director of the Jilin Provincial Archives, during the Japanese Invasion of China Archives Symposium, held in Beijing on Thursday.

"However, this is not only an academic issue. We are going to organize exhibitions in other countries," added Mu. "This is a good way to let ordinary people in Japan and other countries get to know the real history."

China has accelerated the management work of history archives related to the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression (1937-1945). The newly discovered archives, stored in Changchun, are considered an important find in the research field. Nearly 90 percent of the archives in Jilin were written in Japanese.

Huang Mengfu, chairman of China Foundation for Human Rights Development, said the research on archives is very important because "Japan may think it could deny everything if there is no evidence".

"Now we have translated many archives, which were written by their own hand and cannot be denied," said Huang.

"In the future, more and more witnesses and victims of the Japanese invasion will pass away. The archives will be the only tool to separate white from black."