China seeks UN status for Japan germ warfare unit site

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/PEK287089.htm

BEIJING, April 19 (Reuters) - China will seek UNESCO World Heritage protection for the ruins of a Japanese germ warfare centre during World War Two called Unit 731, Xinhua news agency said on Tuesday. snip

"The Unit 731 site should also qualify as a World Heritage site," Jin was quoted as saying. "The remaining ruins can serve as a reminder of the horrible atrocities Japanese troops committed in China."

Located south of Harbin, capital of northeast China's Heilongjiang province, the laboratories, prisons and crematoria were notorious for experiments on humans to develop germ weapons, such as bubonic plague, typhoid, anthrax and cholera.

At least 3,000 people, including Chinese civilians, Russians, Mongolians and Koreans, died in the experiments between 1939 and 1945, Xinhua said. Outside the site, more than 200,000 Chinese were killed by biological weapons produced by Unit 731, it said.

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[barb162]

1. sounds like a good idea to me

[NNN0LHI]

2. Yep. War crimes should never be forgotten n/t

[bemildred]

3. Could not agree more.

Let's add most of Nevada and Eniwetok while we are at it.
Certainly Dugway should be on the list.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

4. Mumble mumble something about glass houses and stones... n/t

[NNN0LHI]

5. Why? Has China ever invaded and used biological weapons on Japan?

I think that is what this is all about.

Don

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

6. No,

But they're certainly fucking up the World Heritage site of Lhasa.

[NNN0LHI]

7. I support the UNESCO Convention concerning...

the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage.

Don

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

8. Good.

So do I. The Chinese government doesn't. That's why I find it disingenuous for them to go around demanding that anything be made a world heritage site. Especiall in Japan. Especially right now. They are just stirring up shit.

[NNN0LHI]

9. The Japanese appear to be pretty good at stirring up the shit too

Japanese Lawmakers to Visit War Shrine in Move Likely to Enrage China Further

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBRUDM1Q7E.html

TOKYO (AP) - Inflaming already tense relations with China, Japanese lawmakers said Tuesday they plan to visit a shrine that critics say glorifies their country's militarist past, and a Tokyo court ruled against Chinese victims of Japanese wartime atrocities. snip

But Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang noted that the dead honored at Yasukuni include executed war criminals, whom he called the "planners and conspirators" of World War II.

"We hope the Japanese leaders could fully respect the people in the victimized countries in Asia, including the Chinese people," Qin said at a regular news briefing. He called on Japanese leaders to "refrain from doing anything that might harm the feelings of Asian people."

Also infuriating China, a Tokyo court rejected demands to compensate Chinese victims of atrocities committed by Japan's military in the 1930s and 40s, including the use of biological weapons.

Historians estimate that the military unit that took part in wartime germ experiments may have killed as many as 250,000 people - including vivisections of Chinese prisoners.

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[Cessna Invesco Palin]

10. What a bunch of idiots. n/t

[NNN0LHI]

11. You and I agree on a whole lot of stuff. Heres another

The Chinese government is made up of a bunch of idiots too.

Don

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

12. Yeah, I guess we've got a lot in common with them :) n/t