Page 26 - Marutas of Unit 731

Chapter 4

Establishing Pingfan

With the Zhong Ma Complex destroyed, Ishii needed a better structure.
Since the Togo Unit had been supporting Ishii’s biological weapon res earch

th
promises, the budget for his unit increased. On May 30 , 1936, the Togo
Unit, led by Ishii Shiro, was awarded the “Army Regulation ‘A’ No. 7” by the

Emperor and became an official army unit. erefore, it was no longer an

agency part of the Epidemic Prevention Institute of the Army Militar y
Medical School but actually was under the Kwantung Army as Central

Epidemic Prevention and Water Puri cation Department of the Kwantung

Army with the headquarters located at Pingfan, closer to the city of Harbin.

e initial budget was 3 million yen for personnel, 200 to 300 thousand yen

per autonomous unit and 6 million yen for exper imentation and res earch.
Hence, the annual budget of over 10 million yen for Pingfan was huge at the

time. It was a short train ride away via the South Manchuria Railway.