Chinese researchers say they have uncovered more evidence of the use of germ warfare by Japanese forces in southwestern China's Yunnan during the Second World War.

 

　　Su Yi has more.

 

　　The findings by researchers are suggesting the wide-spread use of protective measures to ensure Japanese troops did not become infected with plague, anthrax and cholera.

 

　　Researchers also say Japanese troops poisoned wells along the route leading from Yunnan into neighboring Myanmar during the invasion in 1942.

 

　　Research carried out by the Harbin Academy of Social Sciences is now trying to determine how closely the suspected germ warfare activities in Yunnan are linked to the notorious Unit 731.

 

　　This was the secret Japanese biological and chemical weapons research unit, which operated out of northeast China during the Japanese occupation of the region.

 

　　Researchers say some 200-thousand local residents were killed in germ attacks in the western part of Yunnan alone.

 

　　For CRI, I'm Su Yi.