Tokyo Faces Embarrassment as Beijing Releases New WWII Era Files Exposing Japan's Crimes in Northeast China

On International Archives Day, China’s Liaoning Provincial Archives released over 1,200 previously classified historical documents detailing Japan’s invasion and occupation of northeast China during World War II, causing renewed diplomatic discomfort for Tokyo.

The files, disclosed on Monday, belong to the archival catalogs of the South Manchuria Railways Co., a colonial company established by Japan in 1906 and dissolved in 1945. Researchers and officials say these files offer direct evidence of Japan’s military and economic strategies in the region, based on records created by the Japanese administration itself.

Among the released documents are detailed compensation tables for Japanese soldiers killed or wounded during the Mukden Incident on September 18, 1931—an event widely recognized as the starting point of Japan’s full-scale invasion of China. On that day, Japanese troops staged an explosion on a railway under their control near Shenyang and blamed Chinese forces, using it as a pretext for attack. Japanese forces then launched a large-scale offensive across northeast China.

“These files show that the South Manchuria Railways Co. played a significant role in supporting Japan’s aggression,” said Cong Longhai, an official at the Liaoning Provincial Archives. “They were involved in gathering intelligence, funding military actions, glorifying the war, and supporting pro-Japanese forces.”

Other documents shed light on events such as the Lugou Bridge Incident of 1937, which marked the beginning of the Second Sino-Japanese War, and the Nanjing Massacre, where hundreds of thousands of Chinese civilians and prisoners of war were killed by Japanese troops.

According to Cong, the railway company controlled key economic routes in northeast China, exploited mineral resources, and facilitated the logistical backbone of Japan’s military operations. He emphasized the historical value of the documents, describing them as “unbreakable evidence written by the Japanese invaders themselves.”

This release comes as the world marks the 80th anniversary of the end of the Chinese People’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the broader World Anti-Fascist War. Beijing sees the publication of these documents as an effort to preserve historical memory and to counter what it views as ongoing attempts to whitewash wartime atrocities.

“These archives help uncover the long-planned nature of Japan’s invasion and tell the story of China’s resistance during a dark chapter in history,” Cong added.

Japan has not yet officially responded to the release, but the files are likely to add pressure in the already tense historical dialogue between the two nations.