Page 67 - Marutas of Unit 731

cultivation and breeding of parasites intended to cause plague epidemics. In
a testimony by Kawashima during the Khabarovsk Trial, he stated, “… With

the available equipment and its rate of output, the Production Division…

could manufacture as much as 300 kilograms of plague bacter ia monthly, or

800 to 900 kilograms of typhoid germs”. is was also ver i ed by another

accused in the Khabarovsk Trial, “… e monthly output of the ger m

producing division could be raised… if all its equipment were fully
[34]
operated, to about 300 kilograms of plague bacter ia.”
e wholesale breeding of eas using rodents such as mice and rats was

also utilized as a line of defense as a type of bacter iological weapon, not only

for the personnel bacteriological unit’s personnel, but also by special squads

detailed from line troops of the Kwantung Army. In Branch 543 of Ishii’s
[35]
Network in Hailar, there were about 13,000 rats in the summer of 1945. In
fact, there were multiple branches of Unit 731 close to the Mongolian

People’s Republic and the Soviet Union in locations such as Sunyu, Hailar,

Linkow, and Hailin.

e Chief of Branch 673 of Unit 731 was located in the town of Sunyu, and

the Chief of the Training Division of the detachment, Nishi Toshihide,

testi ed that, From Januar y 1943 to July 1944, and then from June to August

1945, I was in charge of Branch 673 of Detachment 731 in the town of

Sunye, which was engage in breeding white rats, mice, and guinea pigs, in
catching eld rodents and in breeding eas… In particular, the breeding and

catching of rodents and the breeding of eas to be sent to Detachment 731

were intensi ed, since the spreading of plague ger ms by scatter ing plague-

infected eas was regarded as the most effective means of bacter iological

warfare.” It was to be kept an extreme secret as he continued, “On August
11-12, 1945, owing to the advance of the Soviet Army, and with the object of