Page 230 - MaterialsTrial-JapaneseArmy-1950

Question: Did General Umezu tell you anything about Detachment 731?

Answer: Before leaving to inspect Detachment 731, I went to report to General Umezu that
I was setting out for the inspection, and it was then that he told me that Detachment 731 was
engaged in preparations for bacteriological warfare.

Question: When did "you make your first inspection of Detachment 731?

Answer: It was soon after my appointment as -Chief of the Medical Administration, in
March 1940.

Question: Who was then Chief of the detachment?

Answer: Ishii Shiro, who was a colonel at that time.

Question: What did Ishii Shiro tell you about the activities of Detachment 731?

Answer: Ishii made a general survey of the work of the detachment, referring mainly to
that part of its work which was specified in the official instructions of the Kwantung Army.

Question: And when was it that Ishii Shiro spoke of the detachment's "secret of secrets"?

Answer: As far as I remember, it was in the early part of 1941.

Question: What was this "secret of secrets" of Detachment 731 that Colonel Ishii Shiro, the
Chief of the detachment, told you about?

Answer: The "secret of secrets" was research and other work in preparation for
bacteriological warfare, the results of this work and experiments on human beings.

Question: What did Ishii Shiro tell you in respect to this?

Answer: Ishii told me that there were various methods of waging bacteriological warfare,
and among these methods were: first—sabotage, second—use of artillery shells, and third—
use of aerial bombs.

Ishii Shiro further said that usually artillery shells and aerial bombs were made of metal,
but that if such bombs and shells are loaded with bacteria, when the metal bursts, the high
temperature developed by the explosion of the heavy charge kills the bacteria. The Ishii
Detachment had therefore decided to use porcelain bombs, on which they were now
conducting researches.

He said that if the method of spraying bacteria from aircraft is used, this has to be done
from'a high altitude and does not have the effect desired; if the bacteria are not to perish, they
have to be sprinkled from a low altitude.

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