Japanese researcher donates WWII documents

27/3/2025 6:04

Seiya Matsuno, a Japanese researcher at the International Peace Research Institute of Meiji Gakuin University in Japan, donated a collection of rare Japanese wartime documents to the Guangdong Provincial Archives on Tuesday, disclosing new evidence of the counterfeit currency war waged by Japanese invaders in Hong Kong during World War II.

The materials, including classified military telegrams and documents written in Japanese, provide details on how the Japanese invaders orchestrated the mass counterfeiting of the then-Nationalist government's fiat currency in Hong Kong, according to the Guangdong Provincial Archives in Guangzhou, the capital of south China's Guangdong Province.

The documents record specifics such as counterfeiting quantities, manufacturing locations and processes, distribution channels, and guidelines for the use of the fake money.

Matsuno has made multiple previous donations to the Chinese mainland, including historical evidence of Japan's infamous Unit 731 and chemical warfare in China.

These donations have also showed that there were precedent uses of counterfeit money by the invading Japanese army, meaning the Japanese officials at the time were accustomed to their army's shameless practice of currency counterfeiting to steal the wealth of the Chinese people and disrupt China's economic and financial order, according to the Guangdong Provincial Archives.