An 85-year-old former Japanese prisoner of war (POW) has shown
deep regret over his war crimes committed decades ago in China
while visiting his former POW prison in the northeast of the
country over the weekend.
"This is a place for my re-birth and I will never forget it,"
Fujihara Sukeo said.
Sukeo spent Saturday night at the Fushun POW Prison located at
Fushun City, about 45 km east of Shenyang, capital of Liaoning
Province, after he arrived in the province on Saturday
afternoon.
"Despite its own difficulties, China was very humane to us
prisoners. Chinese wardens had sorghum for meal but gave us rice,"
he said in tears, while recalling the days he spent in prison
from1950 to 1956 with 982 other POWs.
"We could also play basketball, read books and watch cultural
activities," he said.
"But at the very beginning, we were very stubborn, refusing to
acknowledge our aggression and crimes," he said.
In 1943, the young Sukeo came to central China's Hubei Province
as a Japanese soldier. In 1945, he was captured by the Red Army of
the Soviet Union in China's Liaoning Province.
"We did a lot of bad things in China. We slaughtered many people
in Hubei. We piled dead bodies into one house and burnt them
all."
"I remember when we were in a village in Hubei, the villagers
drank the water that we had used for washing our faces and bowls.
Their stomachs bulged after they drunk the water ... our troops
were very inhumane," he said.
This is Sukeo's third visit to the prison since he was set free
by the Chinese government and repatriated to Japan in 1956. It
coincides with the 75th anniversary on Sept. 18 of the Japanese
army invading China and seizing the three provinces in the
northeast.
Speaking of the current relationship between China and Japan,
Sukeo said: "The Yasukuni Shrine problem is the major obstacle for
the ties."
Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's repeated visits to
the Yasukuni Shrine, most recently on August 15, the anniversary of
his country's World War II surrender, have strained Japan's
relations with its Asian neighbors.
"I firmly oppose the shrine visits by the Japanese Prime
Minister, because it is unjust to the Chinese people. Japan has not
done enough to show remorse and apologize to the nations they
invaded," Sukeo said.
"I hope I can use my limited lifetime to teach my sons and my
grandsons about my own experiences and about the truth of the war
and history," he said.
(Xinhua News Agency September 18, 2006)
