Gruesome Crimes of Japan’s Unit 731

By+BU+PING

SINCE the unveiling of new evi- dence of biological experiments on humans conducted by the Japanese army in China in the first half of the last century， the brutality of Imperial Japan and its militarism have been universally denounced.

The testing of chemical and biological weapons on live humans by Unit 731 of the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II is among the most savage acts in human history. A post-war investigation conducted by the United States showed that， in 1943 alone， over 800 people fell victim to Unit 731s tests. By 1945， the number was around 1，000. According to confessions of Japanese war criminals at a trial in the former Soviet Unions Khabarovsk in December 1949， at least 3，000 experiments were conducted on humans at Unit 731.

However， due to its own interests， the United States did not pursue Japans liabilities for its chemical and biological warfare. Thus， the inhumanities of the Japanese army are seldom publicly discussed. Only a few of details about what Unit 731 did were mentioned and made public during the Khabarovsk trial， such as how the Japanese army used large numbers of living humans as experimental specimens.

One Unit 731 army officer confessed that， on January 26， 1938， the headquarters of the Japanese Kwantung Army， stationed in northeast China， ordered its troops to deliver recently arrested individuals directly to the military police in Harbin， capital of Chinas Heilongjiang Province， without any legal procedures. The order specified a“special transfer，” a euphemism used by the Kwantung Military Police. Ordinary officers did not even know what the real purpose of such activities were. Saito Yoshio， then chief of the police section of the Japanese Kwantung Army， confessed after the war that “special transfer” referred to sending prisoners to Unit 731.

However， since only incomplete testimonies from the Khabarovsk trial were made accessible， most details about the Japanese armys biological and chemical warfare tests on humans remained unknown. Japanese rightwing forces hence deny they took place. Finding documents about “special transfers” was therefore vital as evidence of the Japanese armys gruesome atrocities.

In 1999， the Heilongjiang Provincial Archives uncovered documents that recorded a “special transfer” involving 52 anti-Japanese intelligence agents， of whom 42 were sent to the Kwantung Military Police in Harbin. On the basis of this evidence， the Jilin Provincial Archives conducted extensive research into documents on the Kwantung Military Police. It found about 200 files that refer to the “special transfer” of 277 people， of whom 227 were recorded as already transferred， including Chinese， Korean， Mongolian and Soviet citizens.

The names of 33 people are men- tioned in the “special transfer” documents in both the Jilin and Heilongjiang provincial archives； however， most of the data under the same names are different. This is because Changchun in Jilin Province was the capital of the Japanese puppet state Manchukuo in northeast China， as well as headquarters of the Kwantung Army and Kwantung Military Police. Hideki Tojo was in charge of the Kwantung Military Police headquarters， which ordered military police to arrest spies for interrogation. Therefore， there were correspondence documents between the Kwantung Military Police and its various branches， hence the overlap of archival data. From August 8， 1945 when the Soviet Union officially declared war on Japan， to August 15， 1945 when Japan surrendered unconditionally， the Japanese puppet regime tried to destroy all files before their panicked retreat. Because archives in the Kwantung Military Police headquarters were too bulky to destroy by burning， some were hastily buried. It was not until post-war reconstruction in the 1950s that this evidence of the Japanese armys crimes was found. The archives here are more complete， providing important proof of Japans atrocities in China.

Progressive scholars and peace-loving organizations in Japan have shown great concern over the newly uncovered archives in Jilin. They claim that war crimes as a general concept have failed to arouse reflection on their countrys past from the Japanese people. The exceptional inhuman brutality of Unit 731s bacterial experiments on live humans should shock people enough to trigger such introspection. A Japanese peace organization that opposes the use of atomic， biological and chemical weapons raised money through donations and loans for the Heilongjiang and Jilin provincial archives to publish in 2001 and 2003 the data collections as Irrefutable Evidence of Unit 731.