Confessions of Japanese war criminal Saburo Shimamura

According to the written confession of Saburo Shimamura in July 1954, he was born in Kochi Prefecture, Japan in 1908. In October 1934, he served as staff of Investigation Division of Mongolian and Tibetan Ministry of the "Manchukuo". In July 1945, he became chief of Investigation Division in Secret Service Department of the puppet Police Administration and concurrently chief of the 5th Division of the puppet Central Security Bureau.

File photo of Saburo Shimamura

Major offences:

Early February 1939: received intelligence that, "found an underground organization of the Communist Party in Yilan County", ordered Nakano, Chief of Police Division in Yilan County, to "arrest more than 100 people involved, after interrogation with torture, one patriot died from deterioration of enteropathy; another one was forced to commit suicide by jumping into the Songhua River during his transportation to Jiamusi";

August: "arrested over 60 Chinese patriots, after an interrogation with torture, over 17 of them were sent to the court and over 10 of them were sentenced to death";

October: the underground Communist Party of Tonghe County launched an insurgence in prison with the help of patriotic wardens inside the prison and the puppet regime; in order to suppress the uprising, "arrested more than 100 patriots who were determined to be involved in this case, more than 30 of them were sent to court, and I committed the crime of making over 10 of them sentenced to death";

November: since we found that some Soviet agents had stayed for two nights in a farmhouse near Shuipaozi, Tangyuan County, I sent police officer Kato to "arrest two peaceful people living in that house and interrogated them with torture, killing one of them";

From February to July 1941: during my term in Zhaozhou County, "arrested a total of about 200 patriots, 70 of them were sent to court and as many as 30 of them were sentenced to death".