BEIJING (REUTERS).- Officials in northeast China demolished a memorial to Japanese immigrants to allay a public outcry over its construction last month, state media said on Monday, a sign of lingering anti-Japanese sentiment in the region once occupied by Japan. The 3.8-meter high memorial wall was emblazoned with the names of 229 Japanese immigrants who were among the thousands settled in Heilongjiang province by Japan’s government during its World War Two-era occupation. An official said the memorial to the immigrants who died of hunger following Japan’s surrender was a mark of the Chinese people’s humanness. But residents in Fangzheng county where the memorial was erected criticized officials for wasting public funds to commemorate invaders, the official English-language China Daily newspaper said. Last week, five men from around China traveled to the province to smash the wall with hammers and splash it with red paint, a public show of anger that led authorities to tear down