Page 203 - MaterialsTrial-JapaneseArmy-1950

Answer: Of course, that is what the Chief of the detachment planned to do.

Question: You are referring to General Kitano?

Answer: Yes.

Question: What caused the necessity for your being sent to these branches?

Answer: Before I left on this trip, the Chief of the detachment, General Kitano, told me
what my mission was. The first thing was the necessity to enlarge the detachment's facilities
for the mass production of bacteria; the second was the necessity, in view of the outbreak of
war with America, to disperse the detachment's production equipment as a precaution against
bombing by American aircraft, so that production might not be interrupted even during
enemy air attack.

Question: Please tell us, did Detachment 731 study the immunity of Americans to
infectious diseases?

Answer: As far as I can recall, that was at the beginning of 1943. I was in hospital at the
time in Mukden, and Minata, one of the researchers of the detachment, came to see me. He
told me about his work, and said that he had come to Mukden to study immunity among
American war prisoners.

Minata was sent specially by Detachment 731 to camps where Allied war prisoners were
kept in order to study the immunity of Anglo-Saxons to infectious diseases.

Question: And for this purpose tests were made of the blood of American war prisoners?

Answer: That is so.

Question: What was researcher Uchimi doing in 1943?

Answer: He made trips into Inner Mongolia, where he studied the blood of the
Mongolians, also in connection with the question of immunity.

Question: Were you yourself ever present at experiments on human beings?

Answer: I was present on two occasions at experiments in infecting people under field
conditions at the Anta Station proving ground. The first experiment was made towards the
end of 1943 with anthrax bacteria. Ten persons were used for these experiments. They were
brought to the proving ground and tied to stakes five metres apart from one another. A
fragmentation bomb was used for the purpose, placed 50 metres from the people to be
infected. The bomb was exploded by electric current. Some of the experimentees were
infected as a result of these experiments. They were given certain treatments and then sent
back to the detachment. I later learned from the report that the persons who had got infected
with anthrax subsequently died.

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