HEFEI (Xinhua) -- The original version of a book that recorded brutal crimes committed by Japanese soldiers in China during World War II has been found in Hefei, capital of East China's Anhui Province.
Historians said the book provides new evidence about the infamous Nanjing Massacre, which occurred between late 1937 and early 1938 following the Japanese occupation of this East China city, then the national capital.
The book, entitled "What War Means: The Japanese Atrocities in China," was written by H.J. Timperley, an overseas correspondent for the British newspaper "Manchester Herald."
Timperley was in China in the late 1930s and witnessed the bloody massacre in Nanjing.
The earliest translation of this book, published in China in 1938, was found by a retired worker who was sorting out the belongings of his late father.
In the foreword, Timperley said that he was prompted to write this book after the Japanese army prevented him from sending his stories on the massacre back to England.
Zhu Chengshan, curator of the museum in memory of the Nanjing Massacre victims, said that his museum has only an incomplete copy of the book.
Historical records show that after the fall of Nanjing, Japanese troops launched a mass killing of disarmed Chinese soldiers and civilians. The number of victims has been estimated at 300,000.