Page 23 - MaterialsTrial-JapaneseArmy-1950
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Later, as Chief of the Medical Service of the 5th Army, accused Sato actively assisted and
supported Branch 643 in increasing its output of bacteriological material, and issued a special
order to the troops of the 5th Army to procure rodents for this branch.
Interrogated as an accused person, Sato stated:
"As Chief of Detachment Ei . . . I directed the detachment's work in devising
bacteriological weapons^ and producing them on a mass scale. For this purpose the Nanking
Detachment Ei was supplied with high-capacity equipment and with bacteriological experts,
and it produced lethal bacteria on a mass scale.
"Under my direction . . . the Training Division every year trained about 300 bacteriologists
with the object of employing them in bacteriological warfare." (Vol. 9, pp. 150 and 154-57.)
Apart from his own testimony, Sato is incriminated by
the testimony of the accused Onoue, and of Mishina and other
witnesses. (Vol. 2, p. 251; Vol. 17, pp. 59-64.)
9. Hirazakura Zensaku, who from July 1942 till Japan's surrender served in Detachment
100, took an active part in research on, and the mass production of, bacteriological weapons
for use in an attack on the Soviet Union.
In 1942-44, accused Hirazakura headed reconnoitring and sabotage groups made up of
personnel of Detachment 100 and repeatedly took part in special reconnoitring operations
against the Soviet Union with the object of ascertaining the most effective means of
employing bacteriological weapons against the U.S.S.R. During this period, he also
repeatedly contaminated water sources on the Soviet border, notably in the Tryokhrechye
area, as a sabotage move. (Vol. 18, pp. 89 and 93-96.)
10. Mitomo Kazuo served from April 1941 to 1944 in Detachment 100 and took an active
part in the breeding of lethal bacteria for use in bacteriological warfare and sabotage against
the Soviet Union.
Mitomo himself took part in putting prisoners to painful death by testing the action of
various bacteriological weapons upon them.
In July and August 1942, as a member of a reconnoitring and sabotage group made up of
personnel of Detachment 100, accused Mitomo took part in sabotage operations against the
Soviet Union in the Tryokhrechye area. (Vol. 12, pp. 187and 191-93.)
11. Kikuchi Norimitsu served from April 1943 to August 1945 as a private in Branch 643
of Detachment 731. From February 1944 to February 1945 Kikuchi was a laboratory assistant
in the 1st Section of this branch and helped in the research work on bacteriological weapons
by cultivating typhoid and dysentery germs. In June 1945 Kikuchi took a bacteriological
course at the classes of Detachment 731, where personnel for bacteriological warfare were
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