HARBIN, (Xinhua) — A new collection of historical records about Unit 731, the notorious Japanese germ warfare division during World War II (WWII), has unveiled more evidence of Japan’s war atrocities in China.
Released Wednesday by the Exhibition Hall of Evidences of Crime Committed by Unit 731 of the Japanese Imperial Army in northeast China’s Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, the records confirm that the Japanese military buried large quantities of chemical shells in China on the eve of its defeat.
The 70-minute oral testimony from Hitoshi Tanizaki, a former medic at the Hailar branch of Unit 731, provides first-hand evidence useful for further research into Japan’s abandoned chemical weapons in China.
The testimony was collected in 2016 when researchers from the Exhibition Hall visited Japan. Tanizaki, whose original name was Hitoshi Ozaki, said in the video that he was 21 when he joined the military. Before enlistment, he had assisted a doctor and attended a night commercial school.
Tanizaki said that after being assigned to the Hailar branch, he realized that it was a military unit that violated international law. The Hailar branch was under the direct command of Unit 731’s headquarters in Harbin, the provincial capital. Its First Section was responsible for cultivating bacteria, while its Second Section conducted toxicity tests on water sources, among other duties.
Of particular significance, Tanizaki disclosed that the Japanese military had destroyed evidence of its crimes and buried chemical shells when it was defeated. He confirmed that, during the retreat, the Hailar branch set fire to all its facilities, while the Japanese military’s chemical warfare unit secretly buried large quantities of chemical shells.
“It wasn’t bacteria, but poison gas,” said Tanizaki. He added that there was a chemical warfare unit, based in the Fulaerji district of Qiqihar, Heilongjiang.
Jin Shicheng, a researcher at the Exhibition Hall, said the testimony directly corroborates that the Japanese military had abandoned chemical weapons in China when it was defeated. It also sheds light on the historical origins of the harm caused by abandoned chemical weapons after the war, giving it contemporary significance.
Jin also introduced the personal information registration files of the Unit 731 Hailar branch, another piece of evidence disclosed on Wednesday to Xinhua.
The files were military service records that Japanese military personnel were required to complete as individuals when they were demobilized after the war at the request of Japan’s then Ministry of Health and Welfare. The records released this time comprise 185 pages and contain key information on 156 members of the Hailar branch, including their names, ranks, dates of enlistment, duties, transfers and whereabouts after the war.
Jin said research into these files yields two major findings. First, it exposes how the Japanese military concealed its biological warfare crimes by recruiting personnel under the names of regular infantry units.
For example, personnel were recruited under the names of standard infantry units, before receiving three months of training at Unit 731 headquarters and being assigned to the Hailar branch.
Such recruitment was clearly deceptive and was intended to conceal Unit 731’s secret criminal activities, including human experimentation, Jin said.
Second, the records confirm the continuity of postwar investigations into Japanese biological warfare crimes.
The records reveal that 145 of the 156 unit members were captured by Soviet forces after the war and detained in the Soviet Union, while four of them were tried in Khabarovsk between April and September 1950.
Jin said the findings confirm that Soviet investigations and judicial accountability for Japanese biological warfare criminals had continued after the public trials held in 1949.
Jin noted that the disclosed records will deepen research into the branches of Unit 731 and, together with previously obtained oral testimonies from former members, form a solid evidence chain of Japan’s gruesome war crimes during WWII.
Unit 731 was a top-secret biological and chemical warfare research base established as the nerve center for Japanese biological warfare in China and Southeast Asia during WWII. At least 3,000 people were used in human experiments conducted by Unit 731, and more than 300,000 people in China were killed by Japan’s biological weapons.
This year marks the 81st anniversary of the victory in the Chinese People’s War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War.
Yang Yanjun, a researcher at the Exhibition Hall, said that during the past eight decades since the war ended, the world outside of China and Japan has remained relatively unaware of the medical atrocities committed by Unit 731.
“Today, the international community has largely reflected on the Doctors’ Trial during the Nuremberg Trials and Nazi Germany’s medical crimes. However, the awareness of Japan’s wartime medical atrocities remains insufficient,” Yang said.
Yang called on scholars worldwide to further enhance the academic rigor and objectivity of studies on the crimes committed by Unit 731, and help foster a correct historical understanding in the international community.
