The former military court in Shenyang where Japanese war criminals were tried is expected to reopen in May after two years of renovation.

A major attraction at the renovated court, a two-story building located in Shenyang, capital of northeast China's Liaoning Province, is a 30 minutes of rare footage of the trial of 36 Japanese WWII criminals in 1956, Shen Zongyan, head of the renovation project told Xinhua on Thursday.

"Some of the footage is being shown in public for the first time, including clips of the Japanese kneeling down and apologizing for their crimes," said Shen.

Meanwhile, a diorama of the trial be on show with life size wax statues, she said.

China set up two military tribunals, one in Shenyang, and another in Taiyuan, capital of Shanxi Province, to try 45 war criminals in 1956.

Among the 36 who stood trial in Shenyang were Japanese generals, field officers and high-ranking officials of the puppet state of Manchuria founded by Japanese invaders in northeast China in 1932.

Japanese troops invaded Shenyang in 1931 and later occupied the whole northeastern part of China.

Go to Forum >>0 Comment(s)