Unit 731, full name Manchurian Unit 731.
(Kwantung Army Epidemic Prevention and Water Supply Department)
(Right) Unit 731 in the process of corpse disposal
[Edit]1. Introduction
Unit 731 was a covert military medical unit of the invading Japanese army that was engaged in biological warfare bacteriological warfare research and research related to human experimentation during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1937-1945) and the Second World War. Disguised as a water purification unit, Unit 731 was based in the Pingfang District near Harbin in northeastern China, an area that was then part of the puppet regime of Manchukuo. Some researchers believe that more than 10,000 Chinese, Korean, and Allied prisoners of war were killed in Unit 731 experiments, but the number is disputed.
The Japanese Kwantung Army's Unit 731 was a strategically important special unit of the Japanese militarists who prepared for germ warfare. Japanese soldiers called "a small Harbin, a big cottage", in a sense, is to illustrate this point. In terms of scale, it was the largest bacteriological factory in the world. In terms of its status, it was under the dual leadership of the Japanese Army Ministry, the Japanese Army Staff Headquarters and the Japanese Kwantung Army Command. The personnel staff was very strong. It had a staff of more than 2,600 people engaged in germ warfare research, including five general officers, more than 30 colonel officers, and more than 300 lieutenants. From 1936 to July 1942, Lieutenant General Ishii Shiro was the chief of the unit, from August 1942 to February 1945, Major General Kitano Masuji took over as chief of the unit, and from March 1945 to August of the same year, Ishii Shiro was reappointed chief of the unit. Its immediate departments and detachments were headed by officers of the rank of sergeant, and some important departments were headed by officers of the rank of major general. The 731st was divided into eight departments and four detachments:
The first department (bacteriological research) was headed by Major General Kikuchi. Under it were the "Takahashi Class" specializing in bubonic plague research, the "Kasahara Class" engaged in research, the "Tanaka Class" engaged in research on insects as bacterial vectors, the "Yoshimura Class" engaged in frostbite research, the "Ejima Class" engaged in research on dysentery, the "Ota Class" engaged in splenic demodicosis research, the "Minato Class" engaged in cholera research, the "Gomoto and Ishikawa Classes" engaged in pathology research, the "Utsumi Class" engaged in serology research, the "Utsumi Class" engaged in pharmacology research, and the "Uchikai Class" engaged in serology research.
The second department (bacteriological experiments), was headed by Osamu Ota. This department had a division specializing in the breeding and propagation of parasites for the dispersal of plague bacteria. Under it was an aviation squad and a special test site at Kujayo, thirty-five miles east of Anda. The main task of this division was to conduct virus research and tests on plants through the "Yagisawa class" in addition to bacterial tests on human beings.
The third department (bacteriological weapons manufacturing) was headed by Lieutenant Colonel Eguchi. There were two factories under this department, one was a water filter manufacturing plant, which was set up to conceal the fact that it was a water filter factory. The other is a porcelain shell factory in Yangmaji, specializing in the production of bacteriological weapons such as "Ishii type" bacteriological bombs.
The fourth department (bacteriological production) was headed by Major General Kawashima. There were two divisions under this department, each of which independently produced various types of bacteria in accordance with the division of labor.
The General Affairs Department, initially headed by Lt. Col. Nakaragi, was later taken over by Col. Ota. This department was the general department of the headquarters of the July 31st Army, and had a great deal of power. It was not only responsible for the financial management of the entire army, production planning, personnel allocation, but also, and more importantly, for directly liaising with the Military Police and receiving people for bacteriological experiments.
The Department of Training and Education, initially headed by Colonel Sonoda, was later succeeded by Lieutenant Colonel Nishi. This ministry specialized in training professionals in bacteriological research, production and use of bacteriological weapons. According to the records, the training of junior members alone was conducted in four sessions.
The Information Supply Department was headed by Major General Otani. This department was responsible for the supply of all kinds of equipment and devices.
The Medical Department was headed by Colonel Nagayama. This department was responsible for the prevention of bacterial infections and the medical treatment of Japanese diseases.
Parallel to the ministries, there was an Ishii special squad, which was personally held by Shiro Ishii's family personnel. Shiro Ishii's second brother, Tsugio Jio, was in charge of the administration of the "Special Secret Prison", and Shiro Ishii's third brother, Mio, was in charge of the leadership of the breeding of test animals.
[edit]2. Overview of the Japanese Bacteriological Unit
Unit 731 is a synonym for the Japanese bacteriological unit. There are seven major Japanese germ warfare units, namely:
The Bacteriological Weapons Research Laboratory at the Army Medical School in Tokyo, Japan.
The 659th Kwantung Army unit in Harbin, and its headquarters in Harbin Pingfang District is called the 731st unit
The 100th Kwantung Army unit in Changchun
The 1855th unit of the North Branch in Beijing
The 1644th unit of the Rongji in Nanjing
The 8604th unit of the Waveji in Guangzhou
The 9420th unit of the Gonji in Singapore. Unit 9420 in Singapore
Bacteriological Weapons Research Laboratory of the Army Medical School
Established at the Army Medical School in Tokyo, Japan, located in Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan, and known externally as the Epidemiological Research Laboratory.
Kanto Army Unit 659
The headquarters was established in Hirafu District, Harbin, Japan, and was known externally as the Kanto Army's Epidemic Prevention and Water Supply Department, and its headquarters was known as Unit 731.
The 100th Kanto Army Unit
The headquarters was located in Changchun, and was known as the Kanto Army Veterinary Epidemic Prevention Department, with the 2630th Unit. It was headed by Lieutenant General Takahashi and Major General Matsuyujiro.
North Branch A 1855 troops
This department is located in Beijing's Temple of Heaven Park, south of the west gate of the Shenle Department, the former Central Epidemic Prevention Office of the Kuomintang, externally known as the North China Dispatch Army Epidemic Prevention and Water Supply Department, and later known as the 151st Military Station Hospital.
The Minister of the 1855th unit was initially Kuroe, then Kikuchi Qi. in 1939, Nishimura Eiji succeeded him. There were three divisions:
Division 1 was located at the Union Medical College, engaged in research on bacteriological (biological) warfare agents
Division 2 was located at the south side of the west gate of the Temple of Heaven Park, engaged in bacterial production. (The current address is the China Pharmaceutical and Biological Products Inspection Institute at the West Gate of Temple of Heaven in Beijing)
Section 3 was established at the west of Beijing Library next to the Beihai Sea for the Bacteriological Weapons Research Institute
In addition, detachments were stationed in Jinan, Tianjin, Taiyuan, Qingdao, Zhengzhou, Kaifeng, and Placebo, among others.
Rong Zi 1644 troops
This department is located in Nanjing, externally known as the East China Dispatch Army Epidemic Prevention and Water Supply Department, 12 detachments are stationed in Shanghai, Nanjing, Yueyang, Jingmen, Yichang and other places.
Bo 8604 troops
The headquarters was located in Guangzhou, externally known as the South China Dispatch Army Epidemic Prevention and Water Supply Department.
Okazi 9420 Troops
The headquarters is located in Singapore, externally known as the Southern Epidemic Defense and Water Supply Department.
The Japanese Bacteriological Forces have five major units and 63 detachments in China.
The acts of Unit 731 were just one of the many war crimes committed by the Imperial Japanese Army during the occupation of Manchuria (from 1931 to 1945, the end of World War II), during which 15 million Chinese, Korean, Filipino, Indonesian, Burmese civilians, Pacific Islanders and Allied prisoners were killed.
[edit]3. Formation of Unit 731
The predecessor of Unit 731 was the Togo Unit, which was established by Shiro Ishii in 1932 in the Biyin River outside of Harbin, Northeast China, and which was the first to begin human experimentation that could not be conducted within Japan.
In 1932, Shiro Ishii led his unit to build Nakama Castle, a prison on the outskirts of Harbin. a prison riot in 1935 forced Ishii to close Nakama Castle. Ishii traveled to a cottage area closer to Harbin to re-establish a new facility.
The 673rd established a base for bacteriological experiments in Sunwu County, Heihe River, including 300 buildings for animal breeding and bacteria-making rooms.
[edit]4. Activities of Unit 731
Vivisection: A special program code-named "Maruta" conducted human experiments: subjects were captured from Chinese aborigines, also known as "logs" (maruta). )
Grenade test: grenade test with people at different distances and positions
Frostbite test: frostbite test data for the North China Epidemiological and Water Supply Department professionals and the Mongolian Army Corps jointly conducted a field frostbite test data, entitled "extreme secret - the achievements of the Mongolian Army's winter hygiene research," the data compiled by the winter hygiene research class, formed in March (3 March 1941), the formation date of the 16th year of the Showa period. March 1941 (March 1941), the date of formation of the Showa 16th year.
The information is the invasion of the Japanese Army Institute of Bacteriological and Gas Warfare Director Kim Sung-min, should be invited by Mr. Kato Yuzen, President of Yokohama City University in Japan, by the government of the Pingfang District sent to Japan during the lecture visit, many times alone or with Japanese friends to go to Kanda, Tokyo, and other places in the library and the library to consult the information in a room of the information, found that this well-preserved information.
The flamethrower experiment: Unit 731 put the test subjects in the abandoned armored car, with a flamethrower baked to test the power of the flamethrower. But this experiment is meaningless, no armored car will stay in place to let you roast. It was pure entertainment
Plague experiment: The plague virus was injected into a test subject to observe his reaction. This method was also used on Soviet prisoners of war captured by the Japanese at the border.
Development of defoliant and bacteriological bombs One of the most notable "achievements" was the Ishii bomb, a modified version of the pineapple bomb that the U.S. Army later used in Vietnam. The Ishii Bomb was a ceramic casing containing bacteria-carrying jumpers. Another invention of Shiro Ishii was the Ishii water filter, which solved the problem of treating sewage as drinking water for soldiers in the field. It was the only useful invention of Unit 731.
[edit]5. Members of Unit 731
Lieutenant General Ishii Shiro
Army Lieutenant Colonel Naito Ryoichi
Doctor Kitano Masuji
Shozeban Shinozuka Ryoio
[edit]6. Departments and Detachments of Unit 731
Unit 731 was divided into eight departments and four detachments:
First Department
The first department and detachment was the Ishii water filter. p>
The first division: studied lymphatic plague, cholera, anthrax, typhoid, and tuberculosis on live subjects. A prison for about 300 people was built for this purpose. The minister, Major General Kikuchi, was a military doctor. Subordinate:
Kasahara Class (Virus): Research on filtering viruses and local endemic diseases. Shiro Kasahara, the squad leader, was a medical officer
Tanaka's squad (Insects): studied insects. Class Leader Hero Tanaka was an Army Medical Major
Yoshimura Class (Frostbite): researched effective treatments for frostbite and aerospace medicine. The squad leader, Shuren Yoshimura, is an army technician
Takahashi's squad (plague): research on plague. Class Leader Masahiko Takahashi was a Major in the Army Medical Department
Ejima Class (Red Dysentery):Studied red dysentery and serology. The squad leader [[Shinpei Ejima]] was an army technician.
Ota class (Anthrax): Research on anthrax. Class leader Ota Sumi was a medical officer
Minato class (Cholera): Research on cholera. The squad leader, Mr. Masao Minato, was an army technician
Minato's squad (Pathology): studied pathology and dissection of living and dead bodies. Class Leader Kozo Okamoto was an Army technician
Ishikawa Class (Pathology): Studied pathology and made human tissue specimens. The squad leader, Yumaru Ishikawa, was an army technician
Utsumi Squad (Serum): Researching serums, developing vaccines, and practicing symptomatic treatments for infected friendly forces during bacterial war.
Tanabe Class (Typhoid): Research on typhoid. Squad Leader Tanabe Ii and Army Medical Officer Lt.
Niki Squad (Tuberculosis): Research on tuberculosis bacteria. Class leader Hideo Futagi was an army technician
Kusumi class (pharmacology): studied pharmacology and chemical structure of toxic agents. Class Leader Masao Kusumi, Pharmacy Major
Noguchi Class (Typhus):Research on typhus.
Hizunoto Class (Anthrax): Research on anthrax, class leader Hizunoto Shinzo.
Ichiban (Anthrax): Research on anthrax. Squad leader Ikari Tsuneishige
The Jaeda Squad (X-Ray): research on X-Ray and other radiation.
Special Class: responsible for the management of special secret prisons and the cultivation of experimental animals, head of which are Tsugio Ishii and Mio Ishii.
Department 2: Research on the use of biological weapons on the battlefield, especially in the study of equipment for the transmission of bacteria and parasites. The head of the department was Colonel Sumi Ota. There was a division with an aviation squad and the Anda Special Laboratory in Kujayo
Yagisawa Squad (Phytobacteria): Research on phytobacteria. The leader of the class, Yagisawa Yukimasa, was an army technician.
Oda class (Sterilization): Class leader Osamu Oda.
Part 3: Produces shells that house biological warfare agents and is stationed in Harbin. It was headed by Lt. Col. Eguchi, and had two factories, the main one being a ceramic shell manufacturing plant for the production of "Ishii type" ceramic bacteriological shells. There is also a transportation squad.
Department 4: Production of various biological warfare agents, head of Major General Kiyoshi Kawashima. There were four divisions for the production of various types of bacteria.
Division 1
Shokusawa Class: Bacteria Production Class leader Shokusawa Shiranao, a military doctor major
Noguchi Class: Production of plague bacteria and anthrax bacteria. Class leader Keiichi Noguchi
Class 2: Research on dried bacteria and vaccines. Head Yukio Mitani
Class 3: Research on desiccating bacteria and vaccines.
Lesson 4 (Vaccines)
Uemura class: production of gas gangrene and anthrax. Class leader Hiromi Uemura
Arita class: produces typhus and vaccines. The class leader, Major Masayoshi Arita
Asahina class: class leader Shojiro Asahina, Army technician
Fifth Department: Training and Education Department, Head of the Department of Education, Senior Colonel Taro Sonoda, who was succeeded by Lieutenant Colonel Toshihide Nishi. It was responsible for training personnel in bacteriological weapons and germ warfare.
Sixth Department: Equipment Department, headed by Major General Otani. It is responsible for the supply of equipment and facilities.
Department 7: Medical Department, headed by Colonel Nagayama. In charge of prevention of bacterial infections and medical treatment of Japanese.
Department VIII: General Affairs Department, headed by Lieutenant Colonel Kinzo Nakaragi, later assumed by Senior Colonel Dr. Sumi Ota. Responsible for the financial management of the entire force, production plans, personnel allocation,.
Ishii's Bacteriological Unit (Unit 659) had four detachments in addition to the Hirafu Headquarters (Unit 731):
Unit 162 (Hayashiguchi Detachment): located in Hayashiguchi Prefecture, with a detachment leader, Lt. Col. Toshihide Nishi, who was later succeeded by Lt. Col. Hideo Sakakibara, an army medical major.
643 Troop (Mudanjiang or Hailin Detachment): based in Hailin Town, Detachment Commander Masao Onoue was an Army Medical Major.
673 Troops (Sunwu Detachment): established in Sunwu County, Heihe City, with Detachment Commander Nishi Toshihide as Medical Officer Lieutenant Colonel.
543 troops (Hailar detachment): located in Hailar City, detachment leader Kato Tsunenori army doctor major.
Unit 319 (Dalian Bacteriological Research Institute): located in Dalian, formerly known as the Hygiene Research Institute of the South Manchuria Railway Company, which was transferred to Unit 731 in 1939
Facilities
The 731st base, which is one of the buildings open to visitors, occupies an area of 6 square kilometers and consists of more than 150 buildings. The facilities have been very carefully designed, making them very difficult to destroy. Some of the surrounding facilities of 731 are still preserved to this day and developed for tourists to visit.
The base includes a wide variety of production facilities. There were about 4,500 containers for cultivating fleas, six huge boilers for manufacturing various chemicals, and about 1,800 containers for the production of biological warfare agents. About 30 grams of glandular plague can be produced in a few days.
Dozens of tons of these biological weapons (as well as some chemical weapons) were stored in many locations in northeastern China throughout the war. After the dismantling, Japan tried to destroy every shred of evidence, but in any case this was not successful, and there is still a lot of evidence left. To this day, it sometimes harms Chinese civilians. In particular, in September 2003, 29 workers at a building in Heilongjiang inadvertently dug up chemical weapons shell casings that had been buried in the ground for more than 50 years, and in doing so were given medical treatment.
Dismissal and the end of World War II
Local profile Ishii wanted to use chemical weapons in May 1944 after the conflict in the Pacific, but his attempts were repeatedly thwarted by poor planning and Allied intervention. When it became clear that the war would soon be over, Ishii ordered the destruction of the facilities and told his men to "take the secret to the grave". His Japanese troops rallied in the final days of the war to destroy evidence of their human experimentation, including gassing and burning 400 "Marudai" detainees; and deliberately releasing all plague-infected animals.
The United States believes that this research data is of considerable value because the Union State has never conducted this type of human experimentation. At the same time, the U.S. did not want any other country, especially the Soviet Union, to get this data for use in research on biological weapons. Therefore, in exchange for obtaining this data, the United States did not prosecute the officers of Unit 731 for war crimes.
In December 1949, the war criminals of Unit 731 were tried by the War Criminals Trial Court in the city of Buri (Khabarovsk).
Many former members of Unit 731 joined Japanese medical organizations. dr Katano Masaji headed Japan's largest pharmaceutical company, Green Cross. Other members
either headed medical schools or worked for the Japanese Ministry of Health and Welfare.
Politicization of history
Memorial to Unit 731 in Tokyo Japanese right-wing nationalist historians deny the actions of Unit 731, which they believe were fabricated by Chinese propaganda. Meanwhile left-wing organizations used to publish the history of Unit 731, emphasizing that the United States deliberately covered up the historical facts of Unit 731 in exchange for research data on Unit 731. The history of Unit 731 and many other World War II topics involving Unit 731 (and the controversies that arose from it were erased from many Japanese history textbooks. Some see this as a sign that historical revisionism is part of the dominant ideology in modern Japan, and thus that Japan has not yet accepted full responsibility for the crimes of the past.
In 1997, 180 Chinese, victims of Unit 731 or their families, filed a lawsuit against the Japanese government demanding full disclosure of the facts of Unit 731, an apology, and compensation. in August 2002, the Tokyo District Court acknowledged the existence of Unit 731 and its acts of biological warfare, but ruled that all issues of compensation had already been resolved in the September 29, 1972, signing of the "Chinese People's Charter" and the "Chinese People's Charter".
In 2000, the U.S. Congress passed the Imperial Japanese Government Declassification Act to declassify most of the classified U.S. government files on war crimes and war criminals committed by Japan in World War II. In 2003, this work will be completed by the Interdepartmental Working Group (IWG) on Nazi War Crimes and the Archives of the Imperial Japanese Government
Culturally Described and Presented
In 1981, the Japanese author Seiichi Morimura published the book The Devil's Feast (悪魔の饱食). This documentary literature exposes with a large number of facts that during the Japanese invasion of Northeast China during the Second World War, Chinese people were used as biological subjects to test bacteriological, biological and chemical weapons. The work was serialized in the newspaper Red Flag, causing a sensation and selling out 3 million copies.
In March 2008, The Devil's Satiety - The Secret of Japan's 731st Bacteriological Warfare Unit was published by Academy Press, and will be given to school libraries, anti-Japanese war sites, memorial halls, and related organizations free of charge, in order to remember the history, and not to let the history repeat itself.
The Chinese film Black Sun 731 is an important movie that shows the serious crimes committed by Japan in China.
It is worth mentioning that after the end of the Second World War, Shiro Ishii used the information and data on bacterial killing methods obtained by killing more than 10,000 human lives to carry out a conspiracy deal with U.S. President Harry S. Truman, evading the trial of the war tribunal and the responsibility of the conscience and morality of mankind.
The Japanese imperialists invaded the Northeast, located in the southeast of Harbin to carry out bacteriological experiments, research and manufacture of bacteriological weapons of the secret unit - the external name of the Kwantung Army epidemic prevention and water supply unit to cover up the eyes of the people. This unit was under the direct jurisdiction of the Commander of the Kwantung Army, presided over by Shiro Ishii, and used living human beings as test subjects, and some major issues were directly under the orders of the Staff Headquarters of the Japanese Main Camp.
Unit 731 had four detachments in Linkou, Mudanjiang, Sunwu and Hailaer, and a test site in Anda, with a maximum of about 3,000 people, and was also engaged in the production of bacteriological bomb casings. Chinese arrested for "anti-Manchurian and anti-Japanese" crimes were sent directly from the military police to Unit 731 for various inhumane bacterial experiments.
The horrifying scene in the movie "Black Sun July 31" shows frostbite experiments being conducted.
Unit 731 collectively referred to the living human beings used in the experiments as "logs," meaning that they could be cut as a single piece of material. The "logs" were "specially transported" by the Japanese military police, and each year about 500 to 600 people, including Chinese anti-Japanese volunteers, innocent people, and Soviets and Koreans. 1937-1945, only Unit 731 used for bacteriological experiments in the death of more than 4,000 people.
From 1940 onwards, Unit 731 had continuously carried out bacteriological warfare against the Chinese army and peaceful residents in China's anti-Japanese battlefields. After June 22, 1941, Shiro Ishii was recruited to return to Japan to receive urgent instructions from the Japanese Army Staff Headquarters - Shiro Ishii said, "All methods of expanding the production of bacteriological weapons must be carried out because of the change in the international situation of the country, the start of the German war against the Soviet Union, and because the Kwantung Army had already carried out its plan to prepare for anti-Soviet military measures by the 'Kantoku Special Exercise' (i.e., the special maneuver of the Kwantung Army for an attack on the Soviet Union in the summer of 1941). (i.e., the special maneuvers planned by the Kwantung Army in the summer of 1941 to attack the Soviet Union), our army should be fully equipped with enough bacteriological weapons to oppose the Soviet Union if necessary". The Japanese soldier's so-called "little Harbin, big bungalow" is in a sense an illustration of this.
Unit 731, while conducting bacteriological research, also frequently conducted a variety of field training, including training in the use of poisonous gas, training in the use of water filters, etc. Unit 731 actively participated in the war in Nomonhan and the use of bacteriological weapons on the battlefield. There are also traces of its evil in Changde, Ningbo, Jinhua and other places in China.
In 1945, the Chinese people, defeated the Japanese invaders. 731 troops fear of exposing the secret of its bacteriological weapons to kill, will be detained in all the people killed. And will not be able to carry all the evidence of the crime destroyed, and blew up the main facilities. Smuggled the main equipment and information of bacteriological warfare back to the country, killed the last batch of people used as experiments .
When he fled in defeat, he released a large number of rats infected with the plague bacteria, causing a major plague epidemic in the Hirafu area in 1946.
The main war criminals of Unit 731 had to bow their heads and confess to the ugly crimes of Unit 731 at the Birling military court and at the Shenyang trial.
Witnesses of the victims of the live tests of the Japanese invading army Unit 731 have been discovered for the first time. The circumstances described by these witnesses discovered so far are basically consistent with those recorded by the Japanese Army in the Kanto Kempeitai special transfer files involving the two victims. It can be concluded that they are the first discovered witnesses of live test victims.
A book on the bacteriological research of the invading Japanese army was found in Harbin city. Xin Peilin, a researcher at the Institute of History of the Heilongjiang Academy of Social Sciences, testified that the book, "About Acute Infectious Diseases in Manchuria," written by Kitano Masatsuji, the second chief of Unit 731, was written by the invading Japanese army after a lot of research and experiments in northeastern China, and is another incriminating evidence of their bacteriological warfare research in China.
Chinese Victims of Bacteriological Warfare by the Invading Japanese Army Claims Case---Late to Win! How many more places are there underneath where bacteria are now buried in China? These remaining problems --- the day of real solution is still far away. Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary said: "This is a very serious issue for the Japanese government. There are differences in judicial judgments and many historical factors."