That's the account of residents of Zhaiqian, now in their 70s, who blame Japanese germ warfare for the outbreak of illness and death. The testimony is part of an investigation in Jiangxi province by a 26-member Japanese civic group in cooperation with Chi nese researchers.
Their research adds to widely accepted evidence that Japanese soldiers used biological warfare in World War II. A Foreign Ministry spokesman said Tuesday that the Japanese government has not found any official documents confirming evidence that germ warf are was employed in China.
But Japan's Defense Agency has confirmed that limited chemical warfare was waged. Even more than five decades later, the subject of Japanese germ warfare in China -- like many other topics related to World War II --remains extremely sensitive here.
Late summer brings a string of war anniversaries that still prompt painful debate. Last week, Aug. 6 and 9 marked the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and Thursday is the 51st anniversary of Japan's surrender. Official ceremonies marking these dates usually focus on Japan's role as a war victim rather than aggressor. But many Asians in countries Japan brutalized believe the Tokyo government has not done enough to face up to its responsibilities for the past.
Asian women conscripted as sex slaves to the Japanese army, and other Asians forced into labor by the Japanese have sued the government seeking compensation. The agreements with the former sex slaves are just beginning to be worked out, but are the women have said they are unacceptable because they are being paid through a private fund rather than by the government.
Public depictions of Japan's war role also cause periodic controversy here. Museum exhibits in Hiroshima and Nagasaki now address Japan's role in starting the war, but critics claim the displays - and Japanese school textbooks -- still soft-pedal Japan's aggression. Conservative politicians also frequently anger Japan's neighbors with comments playing down Tokyo's war role or suggesting that other countries benefited from being overrun by Japan.
In Zhaiqian, 400 people out of a population of 600 died in 1942, villagers told the Japanese group, headed by Masataka Mori, a junior high school teacher in central Japan. Three Zhaiqian residents spoke with Mori's team. Documentation that the Japanese a rmy put germs into water wells, rivers and barracks in Jiangxi emerged at a war crimes tribunal in the Soviet Union after the war and in a former Japanese soldier's diary, Mori said.
In the early 1930s, Japan occupied China's three northeastern provinces, called Manchuria, and set up a puppet state. It later invaded other parts of China before being ousted in August 1945 at the end of the war. China has claimed Japan used poison gas 2,900 times, killing 80,000 people, during World War II.
"We want the Japanese government to formally acknowledge (the germ warfare) and have this put into history textbooks," said the 54-year-old Mori, who spoke with villagers in Zhaiqian between July 30 and Aug. 8. His group also is calling for Japan to pay compensation to Chinese victims. The two countries currently are discussing how to remove leftover shells from China that were used in chemical warfare.