Online memorial for war criminals angers Chinese

Some netizens revealed that an online memorial service platform in Chongqing — www.xazjw.com — has set up an online memorial hall for Japanese war criminals, including Okamura Yasuji and Matsui Iwane, angering numerous Chinese people and triggering heated discussion.

According to an official announcement by the Wanzhou district government of Chongqing on Tuesday, the local government investigated. The website was suspended.

A preliminary investigation found that the website company moved from outside the city to Chongqing's Wanzhou district in 2021. The local public security department has notified relevant provinces and cities to identify the person who uploaded the pages.

On Tuesday, the website issued an apology for harming national sentiment by allowing web pages memorializing Japanese war criminals to exist. The lapse was blamed on management failure.

According to the notice, the memorial was established in 2014, with web pages uploaded by netizens themselves. However, without real name registration or content review supervision, some netizens were able to upload the content about Japanese war criminals in 2014 and 2015.

Further investigation is underway.