Japanese veteran donates anti-invasion prints to China

Japanese veteran Shima Antan donated 30 prints on Japanese invasion of the country six decades ago Monday to China on the 67th anniversary of the Nanjing Massacre in which 300,000 Chinese were killed.

The Museum of Chinese People's Resistance Against Japanese Invasion received the donation depicting Japanese army's beheading, paunching, shooting and raping of Chinese civilians. The work is named "Sangguang", which means Japanese war policy of "Burning all, Killing all and Robbing all".

"This is an inhumane war. We abandoned any humanity at the time," said the 84-year-old veteran, who served as intelligence man in China's Shandong Province from 1943 to 1945.

After five years in Soviet Union's labor camp and six years in China's detention house, Shima Antan was exempted from accusation of Chinese government and went back to Japan in 1956.

"I should have been executed, but they sent me back. From that day, I decided to atone for my sin."

Shima Antan started to do "Sanguang" in 1975. He staged exhibition in TBS and then received blackmails from right-wing extremists several times.

"I'm not worried. This is why I do it. I want to tell the ordinary people the truth of the invasion. I want to ask those who started the war and forced us to kill to apologize. I want to warn those who is leading the nation to the same road to stop and think," said Shima Antan.

Shima Antan believed only when every Japanese recognizes the failure of the war and has courageous reflection on it could the country heal the wounds it did to Asian neighbors and set for the genuine peace.