Chinese who were injured in germ warfare launched by invading Japanese troops during the World War II, have established a society to better protect their rights.

The establishment of the Society for Victims of Japanese Germ Warfare in east China's coastal city of Yiwu, Zhejiang Province, was approved by the Yiwu municipal civil administration Wednesday.

"It is a new start for the victims to protect their rights," said Wang Xuan, member of the Zhejiang Provincial Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. He is also the curator of Yiwu's Japanese Germ Warfare Exhibition Hall.

The society was initiated by a group of Chinese people who sued Japan for an apology and compensation for injuries incurred in the germ warfare.

Some are germ warfare victims and some are victims' relatives, Wang said. Volunteers can also be members.

The purpose of the society is to investigate cases of germ warfare and be a support system for victims.

The first members of this council will soon be elected, Wang said. The society still has to set up its statutes and establish goals.

According to records kept by the Wang family, Japanese troops killed 404 villagers using germ warfare in Chongshan Village of Yiwu City in 1942.

Invading Japanese troops killed a total of more than 1,200 people at that time, using plague, and some plague patients were studied by Japanese troops while still alive, Wang said, citing the city's records.

Wang also said research conducted by China and foreign historians show that Unit 731 of the Japanese army used germ warfare dozens of times between 1931 to 1945 in China, bringing huge calamities to Chinese people.

Most victims were farmers who had no idea how to seek justice, so they were silent for many years, said Wang.

Their pain did not fade away along with time and some are still haunted by symptoms of those diseases, he added. He hopes this society will be able to help them.

In 1997, with Wang and his colleagues' help, about 180 people from Zhejiang and central China's Hunan Province sued Japan for an apology and 10 million Japanese yen (101,752 U.S. dollars) for each victim.

The Tokyo District Court and Tokyo High Court threw the cases out on Aug. 27, 2002, and July 19, 2005, respectively.

Japan's Supreme Court rejected their appeals May 9, 2007.

Historians say at least 270,000 Chinese in Zhejiang, Jiangxi and Hunan provinces were victims of Japanese germ warfare, which was mainly conducted by Unit 731, during World War II.

(Xinhua News Agency March 27, 2009)