- SHANGHAI - A former Japanese
officer has admitted he and his unit dissected live Chinese people and
created deadly bacteria to harm enemies during World War II.
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- Yoshio Shinozuka, 78, said yesterday he is anguished
over the cruelty his division, Unit 731, perpetrated on Chinese victims
in Pingfang, a city in Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, during
the war.
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- "Together with another Unit 731 veteran, Shinozuka
is the first veteran to have given testimony exposing Japan's atrocities,"
said Wang Xuan, chairwoman of a group that filed a lawsuit on behalf of
Chinese survivors and the families of victims of Japanese germ warfare
in World War II.
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- The veteran, a standing member of the Association of
Japanese Veteran Returnees From China, said he raised fleas intended to
spread deadly diseases and participated in the production of bacteria such
as cholera, typhoid, dysentery and anthrax. He also said he dissected dying
Chinese people, who they called "logs."
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- Shinozuka took part in five live human anatomies within
two months during the war.
-
- This is a wicked and cruel sin that Japanese militarism
did to the Chinese, he said.
-
- Founded by veterans in 1957, the association now has
270 members. Their average age is over 80.
-
- "It is our responsibility to make this hidden history
known to the whole world," Shinozuka said.
-
- The veteran regrets that the Japanese Government now
still wants to cover up the brutality, and he strongly opposes Japanese
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's plan to visit the Yasukuni Shrine next
week.
-
- The lawsuit, filed by 108 Chinese in 1997, demands an
apology and compensation for the deaths of plaintiffs' relatives. Thousands
of civilians in China were killed by biological weapons and other acts
of brutality carried out by Japan's notorious Unit 731 and another section,
Unit 164, the lawsuit asserts. The total number, including Chinese soldiers,
could be 270,000, one research report has said.
-
- The court case began in February 1998, and the plaintiffs'
group has grown from 108 people to 180. The 25th hearings will be held
in Tokyo District Court in September, and the case is expected to be decided
this spring.
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- http://www1.chinadaily.com.cn/cndy/2001-08-08/25168.html
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