Japanese govt urged to compensate Chinese victims in WWII

Li Chen, a Japanese abandoned chemical weapon victim, shows a surgery scar during a hearing event in Harbin, capital of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, April 29, 2014. (Xinhua/Wang Song)

A two-day public hearing ended Tuesday in the northeastern Chinese city of Harbin, with Chinese and Japanese lawyers urging the Japanese government to pay Chinese victims of chemical bombs left by Japanese troops during the World War II.

Japanese government should take responsibility to pay compensation for the Chinese victims, said Minami Norio, a Japanese lawyer on the sidelines of the public hearing held in the Unit 731's ruins in Harbin, Heilongjiang Province.

Unit 731 was a top-secret biological and chemical warfare research base established in Harbin in 1935, serving as the nerve center of Japan's biological warfare in China and Southeast Asia during WWII. At least 3,000 people were killed in experiments at Unit 731.

More than 200 people have been affected by the chemical weapons left over by the Japanese invaders in China, according to Chinese lawyer Li Wanchun.

Thus far, lawyers from China and Japan have led four lawsuits for victims, and two of the cases have been accepted by Tokyo High Court, according to Minami Norio.

He said Japan bears both moral and legal responsibilities for the suffering of the victims, and that lawyers from both sides expect the Japanese government and civil groups to jointly offer financial and medical support for the victims.

"Although the damages were made after the war, it has relations to the war, though Japanese government does not take such stand. I hope they can admit the fact and take responsibility through our legal suits," he said.

Minami Norio is among more than 30 Japanese lawyers who have been helping Chinese victims to sue the Japanese government.