Japanese war criminal confesses murder, rape: archive

Kuyoshi Kamino, a Japanese war criminal, confessed he had killed 177 Chinese and raped 24 women during Japan's aggression war against China, according to archives.

The confession, published on Saturday, is the latest in a series published on the website of China's State Archives Administration (SAA).

According to the written confession of Kamino, who was born in 1908 and took part in the war of aggression against China in 1941, he served as chief commander of police directly under the jurisdiction of Datong Government Office in north China's Shanxi Province.

During the "guard action" in Pinggu County on June 13, 1941, he "arrested about 20 villagers and had them locked up in a cave, then threw two tear gas canisters into the cave, forced the people to stay inside by guarding the cave on the outside for about 15 minutes."

He also admitted to having "raped a peasant woman aged around 32 in a farmhouse on Shizilu North Street inside the Pinglu County seat" on July 15, 1942.

On Sept. 13, 1942, he raped a peasant woman aged around 35 in her home in a village 2.5 kilometers to the south of Erdun, Pinglu County, according to the archive.

On June 7, 1945, "one peasant woman aged around 25 was looking after her sick husband (in Nantuling Village, Guangling County) and another peasant woman aged around 28 was with her. I raped both of them in a corner of the toilet," he confessed.

"During my time in the Japanese Army, I killed 177 people in 17 cases... raped 24 women in 24 cases, attempted to rape 5 women in 5 cases and arrested 24 people in 10 cases," he recalled.

This is the 17th confession among a total of 45 Japanese war criminal confessions the SAA plans to publish. The SAA has been issuing one a day since July 3.

The move follows denials of war crimes by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Japanese right-wing politicians.