Three Chinese germ warfare investigators who have studied the
Japanese invasion of China during its invasion in China flew to
Japan yesterday to reveal atrocities unleashed by the Japanese
army.
The team will testify before a Tokyo High Court that they have
found evidence of bacteriological warfare on the Chinese
people.
The evidence is being presented in an October 28 hearing in a
second trial on the lawsuit lodged by Chinese victims.
Chen Zhiyuan, 50, a history professor at Hunan University of
Arts and Science in Changde of Central China's Hunan
Province, is expected to appear in court to show evidence of
the historic fact.
He has spent more than seven years investigating germ warfare
during 1930s and 1940s by visiting the living witnesses of the
event and collecting the historic materials.
Accompanying Chen are Lou Xian and Qiu Weizhong from east
China's Zhejiang
Province, who have also contributed to investigating germ
warfare.
From 1936 to 1945, the notorious Japanese Unit 731 of Japanese
army conducted biological experiments on live human subjects as it
developed its biological weapons. Many Chinese people lost their
lives subjected to these cruel experiments.
Since 1995, 180 Chinese victims of the bacteriological war have
been involved in a lawsuit against the Japanese government but the
latter refused to admit guilt.
On August 27, 2002, the Tokyo District Court rejected a demand
for Japanese government compensation in a first trial after some 28
hearings.
However, the court declared for the first time that the
deployment of biological weapons (in China in the 1930s and 1940s)
was a strategic part of Japanese war plans and was carried out
under orders from the central army command.
The hearing is of great importance since it is the last
opportunity for Chinese victims to testify at the court in
accordance with the Japanese law, Chen Yufang, the
secretary-general of the plaintiff's group, told China
Daily.
The court will reveal its verdict on December 7, when around 50
Chinese volunteers will go to Japan to support the plaintiff group,
she said.
"We are not sure whether we can win the lawsuit in the second
trial, but we are ready to continue our efforts until the last
victory," Chen said.
To support the Chinese victims in the lawsuit against the
Japanese Government, 77-year-old Fang Shiwei from Nanjing, capital
of east China's Jiangsu
Province, left for Japan Friday.
He will speak at Japanese universities, do interviews with
Japanese news outlets and tell the truth about germ warfare to
common Japanese.
He witnessed the misery that biological weapons unleashed by the
Japanese army imposed upon families in his village in October 1940
when his mother died of anthrax inhalation.
(China Daily October 23, 2004)