Japanese threw Chinese into furnaces during WWII

BEIJING - Japanese authorities killed sick Chinese miners by throwing them into iron ore furnaces during World War II, according to the latest in a series of publications of confessions by Japanese war criminals.

The written confession by Yuichi Kashiwaba, a Japanese officer stationed in Northeast China from 1932 to 1945, was posted on the website of the State Archives Administration (SAA) on Thursday.

In 1932, Kashiwaba was assigned to the military police in "Manchukuo," the puppet state established by the Empire of Japan in northeast China, and then took the post of police chief of the state's Fushun City.

In September 1942, acting as police chief, Kashiwaba ordered that Fushun Coal Mine be cordoned off to contain an epidemic outbreak there.

Ninety-seven people were isolated in a dormitory and 54 died, according to Kashiwaba's confession.

"In Yongantai No 25 Isolation Station, there were no adequate supplies. People in isolation were in poor health, and many of them were thrown into the iron ore furnaces in the repair workshop and burnt to death," he wrote.

Kashiwaba also admitted what happened when about 250 Chinese engaged as slave laborers in a local coal mine managed to escape in September 1941.

After a pursuit, Kashiwaba and his subordinates encircled the escapees, "shot some dead with handguns and arrested the rest of them."

During his tenure as Fushun police chief, Kashiwaba ordered that local beggars be arrested and dispersed, in batches of about 200 to 300, into nearby mountains once or twice a year, according to his confession.

This is the latest in a series of 45 Japanese war criminal confessions the SAA plans to publish. It has been issuing one a day since July 3.

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