Chinese and Japanese lawyers visited a dozen victims of Japanese
chemical weapons over the weekend in northeast China, collecting
evidence to prepare a lawsuit against the Japanese
government.
A leak last August killed one person and injured 43 others when
barrels of mustard gas were dug up at a construction site in
Qiqihar.
The chemicals were abandoned by the Japanese invading troops at
the end of World War II.
The victims decided to sue the Japanese government last
October.
One of the victims, construction worker Ding Shuwen, suffered
severe injuries to the skin of his legs and feet that have left him
unable to walk, according to Su Xiangxiang, one of the Chinese
lawyers.
Although he has had an operation, he will still have to pay for
skin grafts, Su said. The victims are asking for compensation from
the Japanese government and a public apology.
The lawyers, including four Japanese and two Chinese, arrived in
Qiqihar on Saturday and left Sunday night.
It is the first step of collecting evidence for the case, and
another group of attorneys will travel to Qiqihar in two weeks. Su
said that the case might be tried in Japan within the year.
Increasingly, Japanese lawyers are speaking for Chinese victims,
one of the Japanese lawyers told China Central Television. It is
only with this sort of support that Japan can win the respect of
the Asian public, he said.
The lawyers belong to a group of more than 300 offering free
legal assistance to Chinese victims since 1995.
During the war, Qiqihar was the base camp of the Japanese army's
Unit 516. While the notorious Unit 731 was engaged in germ warfare
research, Unit 516 specialized in biochemical weapons.
In the latest clean-up effort, ended Thursday, experts from
China and Japan found a total of 542 chemical bombs in Qiqihar.
A local farmer, Dong Liyan, discovered the weapons on May 23
near his house in the city's Ang'angxi district. A Japanese
airfield and a deployment regiment were located there during World
War II.
(China Daily June 28, 2004)