Kong had been asked to comment on a ruling by Tokyo District Court on a lawsuit taken by Chinese victims of bacteriological and chemical warfare conducted by the Japanese army's Unit 731 during World War II.

On Tuesday, the Tokyo court became the first Japanese court to recognize in a ruling that Unit 731 and other units of the Japanese army had engaged in germ warfare in China during World War II, but the court rejected the Chinese plaintiffs' claim for compensation.

Kong said China noted the ruling. The invaded Japanese army conducted bacteriological and chemical experiments and used bacteriological and chemical weapons in China that caused heavy casualties among the Chinese people during the war.

"The facts are undeniable,'' Kong stressed. "The Japanese side should take a responsible attitude towards its history and towards reality and correctly acknowledge and deal with history,'' the spokesman added.

The court's rejection of the compensation claims has sparked wide indignation and protest in China.

Yang Dafang, a plaintiff from Quzhou in East China's Zhejiang Province, said: "We swear to keep fighting against the evil until the final victory of justice. Otherwise, Chinese victims of Unit 731 will never forgive the atrocity.''

Lawyers from both China and Japan had predicted that the Chinese plaintiffs would win their lawsuit because, the lawyers said, the plaintiffs had collected sufficient authentic evidence from Changde in Central China's Hunan Province and from Zhejiang Province, where the Japanese army waged germ warfare on ordinary residents.

Wang Xuan, head of the plaintiff group, said that the lawsuit was part of a long and difficult fight, which would continue into the future.

"We expected to use a victory in the lawsuit to comfort the spirit of the thousands of victims killed by germ warfare,'' Wang added.

(People's Daily August 29, 2002)