Coinciding with a release of documents by Tokyo that show how
the U.S. performed biological experiments in Japan, Taiwan, and the United
States, China's state-run Xinhua is
reporting that new research has unearthed documents that record the activities
of Japan's notorious Unit 731, which practiced biological warfare against
Chinese, Russian, Koreans and others on a massive scale. Is there a connection between the two sets of 'revelations'?
Shiro Ishii, Japan's version of Nazi doctor Josef Mengele and the man in charge of Unit 731, the biological and chemical weapons division of the Japanese Imperial Army.
CHANGCHUN:
Newly-released documents reveal evidence of biological warfare crimes and atrocities
committed by Japanese Unit 731 during World War II.
The
documents released on Friday by the Jilin Provincial Archives regarding
"biological warfare" show in detail the activities of Japanese troops
in forming "bacteria forces" in its colonies, and using human beings
for experiments on developing biological weapons.
The
documents, dated from 1936 to 1945, include 81 folders containing more than 400
pages and over 70 audio and video recordings.
According
to a Japanese military police report from Aug. 9, 1937, in place of the phrase
"biological warfare" was a code name - "plague prevention."
Starting then, all matters related to "biological warfare" were
referred to by Japan's military with the code name.
"This
explains why so few mentions of Japanese biological warfare could be found in
public documentation," said Gao Wei, leader of
the Jilin Provincial Archives.
A
large number of the documents recorded that 372 people were sent to Unit 731, a
covert biological and chemical warfare research and development team - for
"Special Transfer." Such people were from China, the-then Soviet
Union, and Korea.
Provocation or strange
coincidence?: Prime Minister Shinzo Abe
poses in a fighter jet
numbered 731 - the number of a secret unit
- Unit 731 - which
conducted genocidal experiments on human
"Special
Transfer" refers to prisoners who, as far as the "bacteria
forces" were concerned, no longer had any experimental use, said Gao.
The
documents also record an order by the Kwantung Army to catch
rats [The Kwantung Army was the highest echelon of the Japanese Imperial Army].
Japanese Imperial Troops handed out to citizens more than 20,000 rat-traps,
asking them to catch 450,000 rats. The army rewarded those who caught the most.
The
documents say that Ishii Shiro, who was in charge of biological warfare, had
attended "plague prevention" meetings on several occasions.
Posted By Worldmeets.US
Gao argued that the purpose of catching
rats was to develop plague.
"We
found that once Japanese troops occupied a region, they would then deploy a 'bacterial
army' there," Gao said. "These documents show
that biological warfare was a central strategy for Japanese forces."
According
to the archives, Japan's "bacterial forces," including Unit 731, began
biological warfare operations in more than 20 Chinese provinces and cities on
161 occasions, claiming more than 270,000 lives and causing more than 2.37
million people to be infected with plague.
