Japan's wartime crimes cannot be forgotten by the Chinese and Japanese people who told their true stories on the 57th anniversary of Japan's surrender in World War II.

In Nanjing, capital of east China's Jiangsu Province, Matsuoka Tamaki, a teacher from Japan, displayed the testimonies of 102 Japanese veteran soldiers, who confessed to committing atrocities on native Nanjing civilians, including murder, rape and robbery.

The testimonies were recorded by Japanese volunteers who interviewed over 200 Japanese veterans who took part in the Nanjing Massacre.

A book containing the testimonies was also published Thursday in Japan.

A hotline was first set up in Japan in October 1997 to collect information on the Nanjing Massacre. Within three days over 130 calls came from different regions in Japan with some veterans even asking to describe their experiences face to face.

Matsuoka Tamaki, one of the volunteers, said while carrying out the research, she felt much pressure. However, as a teacher in a primary school, she felt it her duty to tell the truth to her pupils.

In Shenyang, capital of northeast China's Liaoning Province, veteran Chinese soldiers gathered for a commemorative meeting.

They recalled their fights with Japanese invaders and expressed their rage at the attempts to distort historical events in Japan.

Zhang Yibo, a researcher on China's war against the Japanese invasion, expressed his indignation at Japan's denial of its invasion and some important politicians' practice of paying homage to the Yusukuni Shrine.

In central China's Hunan Province, a secret military map drawn by the Japanese in 1919 was made public Thursday by Huang Nianzeng, a local collector.

Marks remaining on the map revealed that Japan had begun preparations to invade China 18 years before the war started in 1937, according to experts.

(Xinhua News Agency August 16, 2002)