China Vows to Oppose Efforts to Gloss Over Atrocities Committed During World War II

BEIJING (Sputnik) - China will not tolerate attempts to downplay the guilt of invaders or relieve them of historical responsibility for the atrocities they committed during the Second World War, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs told Sputnik on 8 September.

Russian Investigative Committee Deputy Chairman Alexander Fyodorov told participants of an international forum called "Khabarovsk Process: Historical Lessons and Modern Challenges" on 7 September that the committee possesses enough evidence to revisit the war crimes committed by Japan during WWII.

"We denounce the atrocities of the invaders. Under no circumstances will we tolerate an awkward farce to diminish and remove historical responsibility for the crimes committed. We call on the international community to join efforts to protect human dignity and uphold impartiality and justice", a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said when asked whether Beijing is ready to cooperate with Moscow in revisiting the wartime crimes perpetrated by Japan.

The ministry noted that China and Russia — two important theatres of military operations in Asia and Europe during World War II — had made "enormous sacrifices" and had always considered upholding historical truth and defending the results of the war to be a shared responsibility.

The Khabarovsk war crimes trials were held in 1949 to bring to justice captured Japanese troops accused of conducting inhumane biological experiments in territories occupied by them. The tribunal was separate from the Tokyo Trial of Japanese commanders by the allied powers.