A book on Japan's germ warfare crimes during World War II has been published by the Jilin Provincial People's Publishing House.

Ironclad Proof of Crimes of Unit 731 consists of copies of the archives on the "special deportation" conducted by Japan's Unit 731, copies of the archives on Unit 731's so-called "epidemic prevention" activities in Jilin Province and essays by Chinese and Japanese experts.

Liu Fenglou, curator of the Jilin Provincial Archives, said his archives had more than 80 volumes containing over 400 copies of files on Unit 731.

Unit 731 was part of Japan's invading Kwantung Army based in Harbin, capital of Heilongjiang. It was notorious for manufacturing materials for germ warfare.

Historical records show Unit 731 experimented on more than 10,000 prisoners of war and civilians from China, the Korean Peninsula, Mongolia and the former Soviet Union.

Archives included in the book document 277 people who were "specially transferred" to Unit 731 for germ warfare tests. Most of them were Chinese, and there were also people of the former Soviet Union and Koreans, aged from 16 to 70.

Unit 731 began its so-called "epidemic prevention" in Changchun, capital of northeast China's Jilin Province, in October 1940.

Archives on Unit 731's "epidemic prevention" include epidemic prevention reports, plans, daily reports on quarantine and information on epidemic prevention.

Liu, the curator, called the new book irrefutable evidence that proved Japan's war crimes.

(Xinhua News Agency October 17, 2003)