A photo album picturing Japanese prisoners of war who were held in northeast China's Fushun Prison for War Criminals in the 1950's, has surfaced in Shenyang, capital of northeast China's Liaoning Province.

The album contains well-preserved photographs of 150 high-ranking war criminals, including Takebe Robuzo, who served in the general affairs department of the state council of the puppet Manchuria government in northeast China between 1940 and 1945.

Below each photo is an assessment of their performance in prison which ranged from "excellent, good, bad to extremely bad."

The album was acquired by 35-year-old Zhan Hongge, a well known Chinese collector, who said the album was likely made around 1952 by prison staff.

Hou Guihua, curator of the gallery for Fushun Prison for War Criminals, said the album is a rare and historically important find.

Following China's victory in the war of resistance against Japanese aggression China held some 1,000 Japanese war criminals, who were responsible for 30 massacres and killing more than 900,000 Chinese.

More than 982 Japanese prisoners of war and the last Chinese emperor Puyi were jailed in the Fushun Prison for War Criminals from 1950 to 1964.

By 1964, all the Japanese criminals had been sent back to Japan after serving sentences of various lengths in Fushun. Many reformed criminals became peace activists and opponents of militarist forces in Japan.

(Xinhua News Agency January 25, 2007)