Shortly after Japan's surrender in August 1945, a huge bonfire was built at the headquarters of Kwantung Kempeitai in Changchun, Northeast China. Hundreds of boxes of files were lost to the flames over the following days, but the unexpected arrival of Soviet soldiers prompted the Japanese to hastily bury some of them. These were unearthed by construction workers in 1953 and eventually handed over to archivists in the early 1980s.

This book contains more than four hundred images of these original Japanese documents alongside English translations. They provide new insights into Japanese military activity during the occupation of China and Java during the second world war, with a focus on the following topics:

• The Nanjing Massacre
• “Comfort Women”
• Transfer of Prisoners to Unit 731
• Forced labour
• Atrocities committed by Japanese troops
• Invasion through immigration in Northeast China
• Suppression of the Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army
• American and British prisoners of war