Sino-Japanese tensions rise

By Willy Wo-Lap Lam
Senior China Analyst

(CNN) -- Hostile sentiments toward Japan are expected to flare up in China with renewed efforts to seek reparations for World War II-related atrocities.

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Over the weekend, more than 200 residents in the northeast city of Harbin held a gathering to demand compensation for at least 18 victims of contamination by chemical weapons left behind by the Japanese army.

During the Sino-Japanese war, large numbers of Japanese troops were stationed in the three northeastern provinces, and bio-chemical divisions such as the notorious 731 Unit conducted experiments in chemical warfare there.

The official China News Service reported on Monday that about 700,000 chemical weapons including bombs had been left behind by the Japanese army.

Organizers of the Harbin gathering said at a press conference the 18 victims had been badly hurt by detonations of and contamination from the chemical weapons.

Since 1996, they had pursued a marathon legal battle in Tokyo courts to seek compensation worth 360 million yen.

The Harbin gathering was on the heels of a growing movement across China to seek damages for comfort women, as well as Chinese who worked as virtual slaves in labor camps in both China and Japan during World War Two.

The People's Daily reported on Monday about the discovery of a list of 352 Chinese "slave workers" who labored in Japanese mines in 1944.

The Xinhua news agency quoted Nanjing expert on Japanese atrocities, Zhu Chengshan, as saying most of the slave laborers were young Chinese who had been abducted by the Japanese army to work in Japan in the mid-1940s.

Meanwhile, the national media, including Liberation Army Daily, on Monday gave big play to a story saying the Japanese Diet is preparing legislation to give the prime minister greater authority to deploy Japan's Self-Defense Forces on emergencies such as fighting terrorism.

Late last year, Beijing diplomats and commentators expressed disquiet over the overseas deployment of several Japan naval vessels to provide logistics support to the Afghan war effort of the United States and its allies.