Recently uncovered archives are shedding new light on the
chilling details of human experiments carried out more than 60
years ago by Japan's infamous Unit 731.
At a news conference yesterday, researchers in Harbin, capital
of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, formally presented
Japanese files recording details of 1,463 people secretly
transported to Unit 731 in the Pingfang District of suburban Harbin
shortly before and during the War of Resistance Against Japanese
Aggression (1937-45).
The files include full descriptions of 318 cases, including at
least 25 victims from the former Soviet Union, Mongolia and
Korea.
The files record victims' names, ages, occupations, place of
birth and some even contain victims' photographs along with lists
of their supposed crimes.
Some are described as "incorrigible," "die-hard anti-Japanese,"
and "of no value or use."
"This is direct evidence proving Unit 731 conducted biological
experiments on live human beings," Jin Chengmin, an expert on Unit
731 from the Harbin Academy of Social Sciences, told China
Daily.
Jin said he and his late colleague Han Xiao had spent 20 years
going through archives all over the country to collect scattered
wartime files left by the Japanese forces.
The files were marked "Special Deportation," indicating the
victims were condemned to be sent to Unit 731.
According to Jin, the "special deportation" started on January
26, 1936, when Ishii Shiro, lieutenant general of Unit 731, felt he
needed more human guinea pigs to conduct experiments on.
"These 'special deportations' ensured a supply of human guinea
pigs and are a key part of the crimes," Jin said, adding that "by
conservative estimates" at least 5,000 people were tortured to
death by Unit 731 and its predecessor from 1933 to 1945.
Opening up the archives and identifying victims will allow their
offspring and relatives know more about what happened to their
ancestors, Jin said.
"Most of the families have no idea what their relatives went
through or that they died in that hell-like place," he said.
Unit 731 was notorious for experimenting on live humans in order
to develop biological weapons, such as bubonic plague, typhoid,
anthrax and cholera.
Outside the camp, an estimated more than 200,000 Chinese were
killed by biological weapons produced in the laboratories of Unit
731.
As well as Chinese victims, Russians, Mongolians, Koreans and
some prisoners of war from the United States and Europe died in the
camp. Historians said Unit 731 would have had the capability to
wipe out all human beings on earth if it had kept up full
production of its weapons for just one year.
(China Daily August 3, 2005)