Page 280 - MaterialsTrial-JapaneseArmy-1950

Question: I ask you, witness, to relate what Ishii told you when inspecting Detachment 731
about the detachment's objects, on the one hand, and about the detachment's preparedness to
carry out combat assignments, on the other.

Answer: Ishii told me that the effectiveness of the bacteria had been tested by experiments
on living people under laboratory as well as field conditions and that the bacteriological
weapon is the most powerful weapon possessed by the Kwantung Army. He informed me
that Detachment 731 was quite ready for action and that, in the event of necessity, when war
broke out, the detachment would be able to hurl directly upon the enemy troops enormous
masses of lethal bacteria, that the detachment was also able, with the aid of aircraft, to carry
out bacteriological warfare operations in the enemy's rear, over his towns. -~

Question: Tell us, witness, what impression did you yourself have, after your inspection of
the detachment, concerning the scale of activities of Detachment 731 and of its readiness for
active bacteriological warfare?

Answer: After I had inspected all the premises of Detachment 731, after I had inspected
this detachment's equipment, I was extremely amazed at the scale of this detachment's work;
this scale exceeded all my expectations. Both the state the work was in and the equipment I
saw in this detachment convinced me of the truth of what Ishii had said, that the detachment
was quite ready for action.

Question: To whom did you report the results of your inspection of Detachment 731?

Answer: I reported to Commander-in-Chief Yamada.

Question: I ask you to reconstruct the content of the report you made to Yamada.

Answer: I reported to Yamada that there was equipment in the production premises and
that work was carried on for the mass production of bacteria, that work was carried on for the
breeding of rodents to be used for breeding fleas, and also for the production of bacteria
shells and aerial bombs. I reported to Commander-in-Chief Yamada what I had seen in the
prison, that in the part of the prison I saw there were 40-50 prisoners of Chinese and Russian
nationality, and that among them there was a Russian woman. 1 informed General Yamada
that these prisoners, as far as I saw them, were fettered by the legs and that according to what
the Chief of the detachment, General Ishii, said, they were used to test the effectiveness of
lethal bacteria as bacteriological weapons.

Question: Did you report to General Yamada that Detachment 731 was ready to conduct
bacteriological warfare?

Answer: Yes, I did.

Question: What did you report to him?

Answer: I reported to Commander-in-Chief Yamada that I knew from what General Ishii

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