Page 12 - MaterialsTrial-JapaneseArmy-1950
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for extermination. I recall the following persons ... Demchenko, a soldier of the Soviet Army,
who categorically refused to give any information about the Soviet Union. Physical means of
pressure were used on him with my permission. The questioners tortured him by tying him to
a beam by the hands or the feet. Nevertheless, Demchenko gave no information.
"I then decided to have him physically exterminated, and sent him to Detachment 731 for
this purpose." (Vol. 2, p. 174.)
That Soviet citizens were sent from the Hogoin camp for extermination was also attested
by witness lijima.
". . . In all, I on various occasions sent about 40
Soviet citizens from the Hogoin camp to certain death;
they all died under the experiments. ..." (Vol. 6, p. 242.)
The inhuman experiments on prisoners who fell into
the hands of Detachment 731 went on until the victim
died. .
"If a prisoner survived the inoculation of lethal bacteria," accused Kawashima testified,
"this did not save him from a repetition of the experiments, which were continued until death
from infection supervened. The infected people were given medical treatment in order to test
various methods of cure, they were fed normally, and after they had fully recovered, were
used for the next experiment, but infected with another kind of germ. At any rate, no one ever
left this death factory alive. ..." (Vol. 3, p. 60.)
In accordance with their instructions and by arrangement with the chiefs of the
detachments, the Japanese Gendarmerie and Japanese Military Missions in Manchuria sent
imprisoned Chinese, Manchurians and Soviet citizens to the detachments to be used as
"special material" for the so-called "researches." For the sake of secrecy, the term "special
consignment" was used for their designation in the official documents of the gendarmerie.
Witness Tachibana Takeo, formerly Japanese adviser to the Gendarmerie of the
Manchukuo Army, testified:
". . . There was a category of persons under investigation whom the special department of
the gendarmerie administration under my charge desired to have put to death. These were . . .
partisans, persons sharply opposed to the Japanese authorities in Manchuria, and others. No
court proceedings were instituted against these prisoners, since we sent them to the 731st
Bacteriological Detachment to be killed. ..." (Vol. 6, p. 95.) Another witness, Kirnura,
formerly adjutant to the Chief of the Japanese Gendarmerie in Harbin, confirmed when
interrogated that in a conversation with Kasuga Kaoru, Chief of the Harbin Gendarmerie
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