New evidence of Japan's germ warfare found in US

The International Research Center for Unit 731 Issues in Harbin Academy of Social Sciences revealed new evidence of Japan's germ war atrocities after one week of research in the US. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Recently, the International Research Center for Unit 731 Issues in Harbin Academy of Social Sciences revealed new evidence of Japan's germ war atrocities after one week of research in the US.

A four-member group in the center discovered more than 2,300 pages of files about the notorious Japanese biological and chemical warfare unit in the National Archives of the United States, the Library of Congress and the Hoover Institution, Stanford University in the end of September.

"The files, including a great deal of medical theses, laboratory reports and Japanese soldiers' recollections, have great significance in filling in the blanks in domestic germ war archives," Liu Rujia, one of the team members, told China Daily Friday. "They have both historical and academic value."

"There is a large number of historical documents in the US on germ warfare. The huge quantity of information and complex content can help strengthen the research," Liu said. "And in recent years, more experts on the subject have emerged in the country and provided some valued academic works."

The experts have taken pictures of the documents found and brought them to China. In the next step, they will do translations and further research, according to Liu.

Unit 731 was a top-secret biological and chemical warfare research base established in Harbin in 1935 as the nerve center of Japanese biological warfare in China and Southeast Asia during World War II.

The unit conducted experiments on live human beings to test germ-releasing bombs and chemical bombs, among other atrocities.

Many civilians and prisoners of war from China, the Soviet Union, the Korean Peninsula and Mongolia perished at the hands of Japanese scientists. Some of them were children.

At least 3,000 people were used for human experimentation by Unit 731and more than 300,000 people across China were killed by Japan's biological weapons.

The International Research Center for Unit 731 Issues in Harbin Academy of Social Sciences revealed new evidence of Japan's germ war atrocities after one week of research in the US. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]