Page 70 - Marutas of Unit 731

cylinder lled with plague germs was then exploded at a distance of roughly
[38]
ten meters from the test subjects.”
Further testimony by Nishi Toshihide ver i ed the criminal exper iments

at the Anta proving ground, “… In Januar y 1945, in my presence, Lieutenant

nd
Colonel Ikrai, Chief of the 2 Division of Detachment 731, and Futaki, a
research official of this division, per formed an exper iment at the

detachment’s proving ground near Anta Station, infecting ten Chines e war
prisoners with gas gangrene. e ten Chines e prisoners were tied to stakes

from 10 to 20 meters apart, and a bomb was then exploded by electricity. All

ten were injured by shrapnel contaminated with gas gangrene ger ms and
[39]
within a week they all died in severe torment.”

According to witness Fukuzumi Mitsuyoshi, they were engaged in,
“… Research in methods for the mass employment of bacter ia was

conducted by means of experiments on special proving grounds, special

apparatus and aircra being used. Large scale exper iments of this kind were

called ‘maneuvers.’ Such ‘maneuvers’ were held in September 1944 at Anta

Station… e experiments were made on 300 cattle and sheep. is
experiment showed good results, as all the animals were infected and died.

Representatives of the Headquarters of the Kwantung Army arrived by plane

[40]
to witness these maneuvers.”
Experiments at Anta Station, enabled Unit 731 to better engage in

biological warfare. For example, as Kawashima testi ed in the Khabarovsk
Trial about an incident in the Nimpo area in 1940, “General Ishii showed me

a Chinese medical journal in which the causes of an outbreak of plague in

the Nimpo area in 1940 were discussed. Aer showing me the journal he

told me that a Detachment 731 expedition had dropped plague eas from an

airplane in the Nimpo area, and that this was the cause of the outbreak of
the epidemic.” e Nimpo area outbreak was well documented by a student