China has published, for the first time in a book series, documentary evidence from the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, also known as the Tokyo Trials, which took place after World War II.

The publication coincides with the 70th anniversary of the Allied victory over Japan.

The collection is classified into 53 volumes, with 3,915 court items. It is said to be the first time the court exhibits have been published globally.

After the war, the victorious powers that occupied Japan put Japanese war criminals on trial in Tokyo under the direction of US General Douglas MacArthur. The proceedings played an important part in creating the postwar international order.

Aside from Japanese government files acquired by the US military, and other secret files that were not destroyed, the evidence includes Red Cross reports, excerpts from personal diaries, letters and other personnel files.

The collection includes important evidence about Japanese war criminals' role in the Sept 18 Incident (1931), Marco Polo Bridge Incident (1937) and the Nanjing Massacre (1937 to 38).

Compilers of the book series cross-checked language differences in the original Japanese and English files and corrected thousands of mistakes.

Titled A Collection of Court Exhibits of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, the series will also be released at the BookExpo America in New York soon.