Page 17 - MaterialsTrial-JapaneseArmy-1950

course of this expedition, Japanese aircraft infected the locality with plague-carrying fleas.

Another expedition was organized by Detachment 731 in 1942, at a time when the
Japanese forces were retreating in one of the sectors in Central China.

Accused Karasawa testified regarding the preparations for this expedition as follows:

". . . An expedition against the Chinese troops was carried out in the middle of 1942, with
General Ishii in charge.

". . . As a preliminary to this expedition, 130 kilograms of paratyphoid and anthrax bacteria
were prepared under my direction, again on the orders of Major Suzuki. According to my
information, fleas were also used as epidemic carriers in this expedition. ... To carry out the
expedition, General Ishii left with a party for Central China, where the Japanese troops were
retreating at that time. The members of the expedition took advantage of the retreat to
disseminate bacteria in the abandoned territory in order to cause outbreaks of epidemic
among the advancing Chinese troops." (Vol. 4, p. 44.) This testimony of accused Karasawa
was fully confirmed by another accused, Kawashima Kiyoshi:

". . . In July 1942, after preliminary preparations had been made, the expedition left in
several parties for Central China. ..." "This time the bacteriological weapon was employed on
the ground, the contaminating of the territory being done by sabotage action. ..." "The
advancing Chinese troops entered the contaminated zone and came under the action of the
bacteriological weapon."

As established by the testimony of witness Mishina Takayuki, formerly Chief of the
Information and Intelligence Division of the Headquarters of the 13th Japanese Army,
members of Bacteriological Detachment Ei also took part in this operation. (Vol. 6, p. 307.)

Intensification of Preparations
for Bacteriological Warfare against the U.S.S.R.

In 1941, after Hitler Germany's perfidious attack on the U.S.S.R., the Japanese militarists,
while waiting for an opportune moment to enter the war against the Soviet Union, greatly
accelerated in Manchuria the expansion and training of the bacteriological detachments and
their branches, formed to wage bacteriological warfare.

In accordance with the "Kan-Toku-En" Plan (the plan for the deployment of the Japanese
Kwantung Army for attack on the U.S.S.R., approved in the summer of 1941), detachments
731 and 100 organized the special training of officers and non-commissioned officers in the
use of bacteriological weapons.

Lieutenant General Takahashi Takaatsu, formerly Chief of the Veterinary Service of the
Kwantung Army, testified: ". . .After the 'Kan-Toku-En' operations plan
appeared,'epizootic'units wereformed under the headquarters of every army in Manchuria.
The chiefs of these units were medical men, expert bacteriologists, detailed from Detachment
100. . . . The initiator of these units was the 1st Operations Division of the General Staff of

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