A printing press in Northeast China's Liaoning Province announced it would publish a book consisting of letters written by victims of Japanese troops after they invaded China in 1931, a move to help preserve historical evidence.
"Many people have read or heard of the book, The Annex: Diary Notes from 14 June 1942 - 1 August 1944. China should also have a similar book to record what happened during the Japanese invasion. This is the reason why we need to publicize the book, Letters to Tong Zeng," Tong Zeng, president of the Chinese Civil Claims against Japan Federation, told the Global Times on Friday.
Liaoning Education Press and the federation were scheduled to publicize the book, which consists of 100 letters sent to Tong by victims of the Japanese troops, including "comfort women" and World War II forced laborers in China from 1991.
The signing ceremony of Tong and the press was held on Friday in Beijing.
"The letters were selected from 10,000 ones… more than 50 years have passed after the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, but some victims still wrote to me on their sufferings, which shows the depth of the wounds the Japanese troops made," Tong told the Global Times.
Gao Xiongfei, a victim of an attack by the Japanese troops in Yong'an, East China's Fujian Province in 1943, was presented during the Friday ceremony. He said that "publicizing Letters to Tong Zeng is important for Chinese to remember history. China should have this proof to seek an apology from Japan."
Yang Han, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, said on Friday that the book is important for future appeals for compensation from the Japanese government.
"With these materials, we would know the history much better. Only when we better know history can we realize national rejuvenation."
