Japan court rejects germ war compensation
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-07-19 15:30

Some Japanese veterans testified that they mass-produced cholera, dysentery, anthrax and typhoid at the unit's base in Harbin in the early 1940s.

Japan's former Imperial Army is also estimated to have left behind about 700,000 chemical weapons in China, which Beijing claims have killed at least 2,000 Chinese since 1945.

Last month, decaying World War II shells leaked poison gas on a riverbank in southern Guangzhou, sickening three people.

A group of 39 survivors or relatives of the victims of victims of Japanese germ warfare from Yiwu, Zhejiang Province, depart from Hangzhou for Tokyo July 18, 2005 to support a lawsuit for apology and compensation from the Japanese government. The Tokyo court on Tuesday rejected compensation, but acknowledged the Japanese military had engaged in germ warfare. [newsphoto]

The Cabinet Office said in a statement that, starting Tuesday, it was overseeing a six-day effort to excavate and remove those weapons.

After decades of denial, Tokyo confirmed the existence of Unit 731 several years ago, but has yet to disclose specifics about the unit's activities.

Historians estimate that the unit may have killed as many as 250,000 people in their experiments during the 1930s-40s, when Japanese troops occupied much of China.

Many of the killings were carried out before World War II began to turn against Japan.

None of the unit's members have been tried for the alleged wartime activities.

Despite criticism both at home and abroad that Japan has not fully shown remorse for its wartime brutality, the government has refused to pay individuals damages.

It is obligated under a 1997 international convention to dispose of all chemical weapons discarded by its wartime military by 2007.

So far, only 37,000 of them have been dug up and treated.

Last month, Tokyo pledged to speed up the process, saying it would build a factory to dispose of weapons in China's northeastern Jilin Province, where most of the abandoned chemical weapons are buried untreated.

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