富永顺太郎侵华罪行自供公布
China’s State Archives Administration has released the 9th set of 45 confessions from Japanese war criminals during the Second World War. Tominaga Juntaro, born in Fukushima Prefecture in 1895, confessed to being responsible for the deaths of countless Chinese soldiers and civilians during Japan’s invasion of China.
Tominaga Juntaro
Suppressing the people in the name of the railway police. That was what Tominaga Juntaro confessed to doing, to aid the Japanese Army’s invasion. From 1926 to 1931, Juntaro worked in the office of Japan’s Interior Affairs Officer Kinzo Ishikawa, in China’s northeastern city of Harbin.
Starting from 1933, he set up a vast spying network in northeast and central China, to arrest and interrogate Chinese civilians and soldiers. Their methods, which included unspeakable acts of torture were beyond imagination.
"We had a central spy agency in Beijing and a local agency in railway stations, to expand spying networks and collect information about Chinese soldiers. We also adopted some inhuman means to search, inquiry and torture and assassinate passengers and residents along the railways. Under my leadership, our agency had sternly cracked down the Chinese who fought against Japanese," he said.
Tominaga Juntaro
After June 1939, Juntaro served successively as section supervisor, and deputy director of the Information and Operation Office. His targets included not only Chinese, but also some foreigners.
"We arrested and interrogated those highly suspected of being spies, among whom three or four were sent to the above-mentioned Japanese Secrete Service. One of them was a White Russian, and the others were Chinese," he said.
Juntaro confessed how he strictly monitored nationals from third countries, especially those from belligerent countries such as the UK, the US and France.
Tominaga Juntaro's confession
In 1943, his troops found a base used by the US heavy bomber, the B29, and reported it to the Japanese Army. Later, the Japanese army razed the base to the ground.
In 1944, Juntaro made reconstruction plans for the southern section of Beijing-Wuhan Railway, to assist the Japanese army in attacking areas in Henan Province.
Juntaro was later tried in China by a special military tribunal in 1956 and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. After serving out his sentence, he was sent back to Japan.
His written confession details the cruel acts that were committed under his watch. In his own words, even death would not expunge all his crimes, and he sincerely apologized for his offences.
