Evidence of war crimes at Unit 731 museum get electronic ID

More than 5,000 pieces of evidence at the Museum of Evidence of War Crimes by Japanese Army Unit 731, in Harbin, capital of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, now have an electronic identification card, museum sources said Tuesday.

China launched a nationwide investigation into portable cultural relics from May 2013 to August 2016.

As a result of the investigation, the basic information of 5,378 portable cultural relics from the museum have been included in an online database of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, said Gao Yubao, director of the protection department of the Unit 731 site.

Gao said the electronic ID would help the evidence be preserved and be better understood by visitors.

There are 5,665 items at the museum, including medical equipment and daily necessities that were used by the Japanese army.

The museum is on the site of the former biological weapons research, experiment and production base of Japanese army unit 731.

Unit 731 was a biological and chemical warfare unit of the Japanese army. Construction of the base began in 1935 during the Japanese army's occupation of northeast China.

The 6,300 square-meter museum is home to 13 exhibition rooms, a gallery and an exhibition hall.

At least 3,000 people died at the base alone between 1939 and 1945, mostly in experiments for the development of biological weapons, with biological weapons killing at least 300,000 people across China. Endi