A Japanese Army commander had confessed to the murder of 1,660 Chinese soldiers and 970 civilians from 1942 to 1945, China's State Archives Administration said.

The Administration released on Monday the confession of Japanese war criminal Tsutomu Nagashima, commander of the 54^th Brigade of the Japanese Army's 59^th Division for the period 142-1945.

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The publication, the latest in a series of similar publications released by the administration, showed that Nagashima detailed how his men killed more than 2,600 Chinese soldiers and civilians.

Nagashima led Japanese soldiers in 15 major battles that resulted to the mass murder of Chinese soldiers and civilians. He also confessed to ordering the burning down of over 2,200 civilian houses in China when he was still war commander.

The publication showed how gruesome the killings under Nagashima's order were conducted.

Extremely cruel killings were involved, including the bayoneting, beheading, burning, hacking, hanging, exploding and sending to gas chambers, besides gun shootings, the document said.

The publication, released on Monday, includes scan copies of the original Japanese confessions, with English and Chinese translations.

The State Archives Administration began releasing full texts of of confessions by Japanese war criminals last Thursday. It promised to release one confession per day online.

The releasing of such documents - alleged confessions of Japanese war criminals - was made after Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe denied any war crimes in China involving Japanese troops during the World War II period.

The Administration said China held in custody a total of 1,109 Japanese war criminals between 1950 and 1956. Some 1,017 of the criminals had minor offenses and were release in 1956.

However, 45 of the Japanese war criminals were tried under the Supreme People's Court in the same year.

The Administration said it will also make public the confessions of the 1,017 Japanese war criminals who committed minor offenses to prove China's point that Japan committed war crimes in the country during the war.

TagsWar Crimes, Japanese War Crimes, Japanese Criminals