In 1953, a vast stash of secret Japanese files was discovered underground in the former Kwantung military police headquarters in northeast China. They include details of the Nanjing Massacre, sex slaves of the Japanese military, and activities of Japanese Army Unit 731. In January this year, the archives in Jilin were revealed to the public.

Among the images in the files, this man, Li Jizhu, can be vaguely identified. What was his fate?

Archive Number 37: Order on Soviet strategy-maker Li Jizhu, 28 years old. Ordered to be "Specially transferred for disposal” on September 4th, and transferred to Japanese military police in Harbin on September 10th.

It was an order used by Japan’s Kwantung Army. Most of the army knew that on receiving the order, they should transfer the subjects to the military police in Harbin. The military police there would transport them to Army Unit 731.

Sun Xiang is the man in this file. It says he was arrested in 1942, and in March 1944, the Kwantung military police ordered his "special transfer".

Records of Sun Xiang’s life, and that of another man named Liu Desheng came to an end on February 9, 1944.

Archive Number 46: Order on the disposal of Soviet spies. In accordance with January 31st Jiaxian Battle Number 49, Soviet spies Liu Desheng and Sun Xiang are to be specially transferred.

These are letters to home by Japanese soldiers in China, which were intercepted by the Army.

Archive Number 6.... 1941.

"I killed one Chinese, I don’t feel too good. Those scenes of killing would definitely frighten women back home. Stabbing people with a bayonet, it’s like cutting a beancurd. My hands started to shake after one or two stabs.”

Archive Number 32.... July 23rd, 1941

"I can’t tell how I felt when I cut off the heads of Chinese people, but I cannot forget the look of pain and their screams before they died. I have lost count of how many people I have killed. But I have immunity on the battlefield, so I am not regulated by the local law.”

There are over 200 books, and over 20, 000 pages of inspected mail in the Jilin Archives. Judging from the strict mail inspection, the Japanese army were committing crimes on the one hand, while hiding them on the other.