An academic symposium held in Harbin, Heilongjiang province, attracted scholars and experts to discuss newly discovered evidence and findings related to bacteriological and chemical warfare crimes during the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1931-45).
The symposium, titled "Remembering History • Safeguarding Justice — Symposium on the Atrocities of the Imperial Japanese Army's Bacteriological and Chemical Warfare," was co-hosted by the Institute of Japanese Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the Exhibition Hall of Evidences of Crime Committed by Unit 731 of the Japanese Imperial Army from Monday to Wednesday.
This year marks the 80th anniversary of the opening of the Tokyo Trials.
Scholars and experts from research institutes, universities and museums across the country focused on current hazards of abandoned chemical weapons, redress for war victims and international narratives of historical crimes, aiming to solidify historical evidence, call for justice and urge the Japanese government to fulfill its international legal obligations by accelerating the disposal of abandoned chemical weapons in China.
Jin Shicheng, a researcher at the Unit 731 Museum, released new research based on archives of the Imperial Japanese Army's Units 731 and 516.
He revealed the existence of Unit 516's cleanup team, which was responsible for handling chemical weapons after Japan's defeat.
"The team of about 70 members was tasked with transporting, burying and abandoning chemical weapons, providing a potential breakthrough for uncovering burial sites," he said.
Despite the end of warfare, the large quantities of chemical weapons abandoned by the Japanese army across China continue to pose severe threats to the safety of Chinese people's lives, property and the ecological environment.
Gao Xiaoyan, a researcher from the Heilongjiang Provincial Academy of Social Sciences, reconstructed the complete chain of Japanese chemical warfare through years of field research and archival evidence.
"According to military experts, during the war, the Japanese army used chemical weapons against Chinese forces 2,091 times and also poisoned civilians, resulting in 200,000 cases of poisoning among Chinese residents," she said. "After the war, the abandoned chemical weapons continued to harm 2,000 to 3,000 people, leaving a significant safety and environmental hazard."
The challenge remains to break through international information barriers and address the issue of historical narratives being misinterpreted or distorted abroad.
Participants emphasized that merely accumulating historical materials does not automatically translate into international discourse power.
A systematic approach to international communication is needed to build a convincing narrative framework that can be accepted worldwide.
Liu Rujia, a researcher at the international center for Unit 731 research under Harbin Academy of Social Sciences, advocated for rigorous strategies in multilingual international communication.
"The credibility of international communication depends first on the verifiability of evidence and then on innovative media forms," she said. "The most effective communication allows audiences of different nationalities to approach the facts through archival numbers, original texts and cross-referencing relationships."
In light of Japan's dual "responsibility avoidance" on historical and current levels, Wu Huaizhong, deputy director of the Institute of Japanese Studies at the CASS, pointed out that the bacteriological and chemical warfare conducted by the invading Japanese army represents the darkest and most secretive part of Japan's militaristic crimes against humanity.
"Over 80 years later, the trend of denying invasion history and glorifying war crimes in Japan has not subsided," he said. "Instead, it has intertwined deeply with its political rightward shift and remilitarization.
"These facts remind us that the effort to reveal historical truth and guard against Japan's remilitarization is far from over," Wu said. "The task of safeguarding justice and defending peace remains arduous."
For more than four decades, the Unit 731 Museum has been committed to cross-national evidence collection, academic research, site preservation, exhibition, education and international exchange, according to its curator Jin Chengmin.
"The museum serves as tangible evidence of Japan's invasion of China, the origin of bacteriological warfare preparations, and a historical memorial to the anti-Japanese aggression resistance heroes who perished here," he said.
He also proposed initiatives, including advocating for museums, academic circles, universities and media to form an academic community to systematically research, reveal, and continuously disseminate Japan's wartime bacteriological and chemical warfare crimes during the war.
"I also hope to promote the regularization and long-term establishment of the symposium to continuously gather domestic and international academic forces, deepen thematic research and academic exchange, and develop it into an academic stronghold for defending historical truth and maintaining world peace," Jin said.
