Azuma Shiro, a former soldier from the Japanese army that massacred about 300,000 people in Nanjing in 1937, came to Northeast China's Liaoning Province to search for more support and new evidence for his legal difficulties.

"Although I am over 88 years old, I will make full use of the rest time of my life to publicize that the 1937 Nanjing Massacre did happen," said Shiro, who was sent to China twice and served in the Ouno Nobuaki troop during the eight-year war.

In 1993, Shiro was brought into Tokyo's local court by Kouji Hashimoto, his old battle companion, after he published his wartime diary uncovering the Japanese crimes. He failed at the Japanese supreme court level on January 21 in attempts to clarify the record. Shiro is now looking to the International Courts for help.

"The atrocities committed by the Japanese who invaded China during the War of Resistance against Japan (1937-45) and recorded in my wartime diary are ironclad facts," said Shiro.

"I will lodge an appeal with the United Nations if I cannot find justice in Japan," vowed Shiro.