Court hearings began Monday on a class-action suit against the government brought by Chinese nationals demanding an official apology and 1.08 billion yen in damages for germ warfare Japan waged during the Pacific War.

The 108 plaintiffs include victims and relatives of victims of Japanese biological attacks on six areas of China, including Chongshan, Zhejiang Province, and Changde, Hunan Province. They are seeking 10 million yen each in damages for their suffering.

One of the plaintiffs, Hu Xianzhong, 66, from Ningbo in Zhejian Province, told the court Monday he lost his entire family -- his father, mother, older sister and younger brother -- to a plaque bacillus attack inflicted by the Imperial Japanese Army in 1940. "They all died within two weeks after the attack and I was left an orphan," Hu said, adding that the Japanese government should officially own up to its involvement in germ warfare.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs said their clients are eligible for individual state compensation based on the Hague Convention of 1907, which bans signatory nations from engaging in a germ warfare. Japan ratified the convention in 1911.

The government meanwhile asked the court to dismiss the suit on the grounds that the plaintiffs are not eligible to sue because the so-called statute of prescriptions, according to Japanese civil law, runs out after 20 years. In addition, lawyers for the government said there is no reason for the government to state its position on germ warfare.

According to the suit, which was filed with the Tokyo District Court, the Imperial army's Unit 731 and other units dropped disease-infected fleas from aircraft at various places in China between 1940 and 1942, resulting in the deaths of at least 2,000 people.