Page 69 - Marutas of Unit 731

bomb charged with plague eas. e site used for the tests was ver y caref ully
guarded and no one was allowed to pass through. Special sentr y posts were

stationed around it, which guarded the place so that no unauthorized person

could enter it. e persons used for thes e exper iments, een in number,

were brought from the detachment’s inner prison to the exper imental

ground and tied to stakes which had been driven into the ground for the

purpose. Flags and smoke signals were used to guide the planes and enable
them to nd the proving ground easily. A special plane took off from

Pingfan Station, and when it was over the site it dropped about two dozen

bombs, which burst at about 100 or 200 meters from the ground, releasing

the plague eas with which they were charged. e plague eas were

dispersed all over the territor y. A long inter val was allowed to pass aer the
bombs had been dropped in order the eas might spread and infect the test

subjects. ese people were then disinfected and taken back by plane to the

inner prison at Pingfan Station, where obser vation was established over
[37]
them to ascertain whether they had been infected with plague.”

Another employee of Unit 731, Karasawa stated, “… I personally was
present on two occasions at the Anta proving ground when the action of

bacteria was tested on human beings under eld conditions. e rst time I

was there towards the end of 1943. Some ten persons were brought to the

proving ground, were tied to stakes which had been previously driven into

the ground ve meters apart, and a fragmentation bomb was exploded by
electric current about 50 meters away from them. A number of those tested

were injured by bomb splinters and simultaneously, as I aer wards learned,

infected with anthrax, since the bomb was charged with thes e bacter ia. e

second time I visited the proving ground was in the spring of 1944; about

ten people were brought there, and, as on the rst occasion, tied to stakes. A