Page 234 - MaterialsTrial-JapaneseArmy-1950

December 8, 1949, between witnessMatsumura, former Chief of the Operations Division of
the Kwantung Army Headquarters, and accused Kajitsuka shall be read out.

(The President reads the record of the confrontation between Matsumura and Kajitsuka.

The record is simultaneously read in Japanese.)

Accused Kajitsuka, will you please go up to the microphone.

State Prosecutor: Do you confirm these statements you made at the confrontation?

Accused Kajitsuka: I do.

Question: When you directed Detachment 731's research work on the properties of
bacteria, you knew that these experiments were being conducted on human beings?

Answer: I did.

Question: Does the name of researcher Yoshimura suggest anything to you?

Answer: It does.

Question: Will you tell the Court what_Yoshimura did in Detachment 731?

Answer: I first learned that researcher Yoshimura was working in Detachment 731 when I
made my first visit of inspection to the detachment in March 1940. While examining the
detachment's laboratories, I made the acquaintance of researcher Yoshimura.

Here, in this laboratory, I learned that Yoshimura was engaged in investigating frostbite, in
studying the causes leading to frostbite, in other words, the pathology of frostbite.

I subsequently familiarized myself with Yoshimura's scientific work. Essentially, the idea
was that the best way to cure frostbite was to immerse the frozen extremity in warm water at
a temperature of 37°. From this I knew that Yoshimura was engaged in researches on
frostbite.

Question: And Yoshimura's work on the pathology of frostbite came within the purview of,
and was of particular interest to, precisely the Medical Administration of the Kwantung
Army, of which you were the head, in the event of winter operations by the Kwantung Army.
Isn't that so?

Answer: Yes, they were of interest to us.

Question: And you knew about these experiments of Yoshimura?

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