China has released previously confidential Japanese wartime documents, including some about comfort women forced to serve in military brothels during the second world war, state media reported.
The publication comes during a fraught period in Japan-China relations. Last week, Japan’s Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Ltd paid about US$29 million for the release of a ship seized by China over a dispute that dates back to the 1930s war between the two countries.
The 89 documents released from archives in northern Jilin province include letters written by Japanese soldiers, newspaper articles, and military files unearthed in the early 1950s, state media said. Why they had not been released until now was not immediately clear.
Nationalist politicians in Japan have been urging Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to water down a 1993 apology to “comfort women”. These politicians have said there is no evidence of large scale coercion by government authorities or the military.
Abe said last month that Tokyo would not revise this apology.
The Jilin documents include Japanese records on the exploitation of “comfort women” by troops as well as details of the Nanjing Massacre that began in December 1937.