Page 267 - MaterialsTrial-JapaneseArmy-1950

Question: I should like to refresh your memory, accused

Onoue, and read your testimony of October 27, 1949.

"It is necessary to point out that at the beginning of 1945 I received from the Materials
Division, on the orders of Major General of the Medical Service Kitano, Chief of the
detachment, three carloads (25 tons each) of materials consisting of peptone, agar-agar, meat
extract and sodium chloride for storage in my branch."

(The testimony is read in Japanese.)

Does this testimony correspond to the facts? Do you confirm it?

Answer: I confirm that this took place.

Question: Hence, 75 tons of different kinds of materials necessary for preparing the culture
medium for breeding bacteria were concentrated in your branch?

Answer: That is correct.

* Question: And shortly before this, six big boilers were brought to the detachment, is that
right?

Answer: That is correct.

Question: Thus, had the boilers been assembled and these materials used, the detachment
could have started producing bacteria on a mass scale? Is that also right?

Answer: Yes, it is.

Question: Along what lines were the activities of your branch directed after Lieutenant
General Ishii was reappointed Chief of the detachment. To be more concrete, what functions
did Lieutenant General Ishii Shiro assign the branch?

Answer: In the beginning he did not set the branch any assignment. But in April-May he
informed us that our job would be the breeding of fleas on a mass scale.

Question: Go into greater detail.

Answer: I received the order regarding the fleas round about April-May 1945. I recall that
similar instructions were issued to all branches of Detachment 731. As I have already stated I
received the order in April-May. However, I did not immediately carry it out because, due to
a number of circumstances, I could not at once send the men to the headquarters of
Detachment 731 to be trained for the purpose. It was only in June, when I received a coded
telegram instructing that such men immediately be sent, that 1 did so and sent two members

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