Shiro Azuma (東 史郎 Azuma Shirō, April 27, 1912 — January 3, 2006) was a Japanese soldier who openly admitted his participation in Japanese war crimes against the Chinese during the Second World War. He was one of the few former soldiers of the Empire of Japan to admit to his participation in the 1937 Nanking Massacre. He died of cancer on January 3, 2006 in Kyoto.
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In 1987, Azuma published his journal, My Nanking Platoon, written during his time in China about the Nanjing Massacre. His full diary was published in Japanese in 2001 as Azuma Shiro no Nikki. It has also been published in Chinese, and in English in 2006 as The Diary of Azuma Shiro (translated by Kimberly Hughes and published by the Phoenix Publishing Media Group).
In an interview in 1998, Azuma stated the following:
| “ | When I tried to cut off the first one, either the farmer moved or I mis-aimed. I ended up slicing off just part of his skull. Blood spurted upwards. I swung again... and this time I killed him... We were taught that we were a superior race since we lived only for the sake of a human god—our emperor. But the Chinese were not. So we held nothing but contempt for them... There were many rapes, and the women were always killed. When they were being raped, the women were human. But once the rape was finished, they became pig's flesh.[1] | ” |
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— Shiro Azuma
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In addition, he described how one of his superior officers, Mitsuharu Hashimoto, allegedly killed a Chinese civilian. Hashimoto was said to have put a Chinese civilian into a mailbag, soaked it with kerosene, and burned the bag to entertain his comrades. Afterwards, he placed a hand grenade inside the bag and threw it into a river in an effort to create a "stimulating high".
| “ | I am 86 years old now, but I will fight to death like a young man. This time not for the Emperor, but for justice and history. If the matter is allowed to rest, then obviously the massacre will be treated as fiction and the Japanese people will ignore this piece of history. | ” |
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— Shiro Azuma, stated in a news conference at the YMCA in Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong
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On March 12, 1998, the 86-year old appeared before the Japanese Supreme Court to defend his journal as a valid account of the Nanjing Massacre. However, in the year 2000, his appeal was denied by the Japanese Supreme Court.[2]
The lawsuits discredited his accounts in Japan, but they became well-known in China.