Page 96 - Marutas of Unit 731

According to one of the nurses, Akama Masako, in the nal days of Unit
731, she was, “… with the syphilitic mothers; the doctor in charge of our

team delivered the maruta babies himself instead of having the nurses do it,

as would normally be the case. At that time, he would order me to stop the

blood ow from the mother to the baby. e doctor would take a sample of

the blood, then I would let small quantities of blood ow inter mittently, as

he took successive samples. e test tubes were all lined up on the shelf. He
was checking to determine the intensity of the syphilis transmitted from

mother to child and the progression of the disease from the time of birth. A

researcher came running in, screaming that some maruta had es caped. ey

were caught by the Special Forces, the team under Ishii Shiro’s brother, Ishii

Takeo. Only someone who could be trusted was admitted to that team. ey
shot the escapees.

When it came time to evacuate, we got into a train and le the unit

headquarters. It was a long train, maybe twenty or thirty cars. A soldier

came running to me and said that a baby was going to be born in a freight

car at the end of the train. We ran back through the cars. e wife of one of
the unit members was there in labor, and there were soldiers with lots of

medals. Surrounded by those high-ranking officers, I delivered the baby.

at was August 15, 1945. We were passing through Xinjing. e train

engineer ran away and we could not move. Planes were ying overhead,

keeping lookout; soldiers were around us. I was trembling in fear. is, I felt,
was really war. en, we heard the emperor’s words ending the war. We were

always told to “work hard and Japan will de nitely win.” When I heard that

we had lost, I was sad. It grew dark. Ishii came over to us carr ying a big

candle and said, ‘I’m sending you all back home. When you get there, if any

one of you gives away the secret of Unit 731, I personally will nd you, even
if I have to part the roots of the grass to do it.’ He had a fearful diabolical