Page 316 - MaterialsTrial-JapaneseArmy-1950

who had arrived with General Ishii, two or three, remained in Chuhsien. I, as an officer of the
13th Army Headquarters, know that these officers who remained behind, together with the
antiepidemic units of the forward detachments, sprayed plague germs at the front. Later I will
say how I know this. Army Headquarters retreated from Chuhsien and arrived in Kinhwa,
where it stayed for about two weeks, and then, September 18-19, set out for Shanghai.

I was given a document that had been captured by the units operating at the front. This was
a document of the Chinese Army, which I received in September. The document had been
captured by one of our units when it occupied the place where the headquarters of an
unknown Chinese division was located. This document speaks of the following.

As far as I remember it was dated beginning of September. It was a radiogram containing
an order by the Headquarters of the Chinese Army to a divisional commander. It was stated in
the order that the Japanese Army, on retreating during the Chekang operation, had infected
the localities in the region of Chuhsien with plague, that special attention had to be paid to
this and measures of precaution taken. This order was copied on a hectograph. In it special
emphasis was laid on the brutal character of the Japanese actions.

Question: Did you report to the Commander of the 13th Army about the Chinese document
in your possession reporting the employment by the Japanese troops of means of
bacteriological warfare in the Chekang operations?

Answer: Yes, I reported to the Army Commander and to the Chief of Staff.

Question: How did they react to your report?

Answer: They received my information,signed that they had read the document and did not
react in any way.

Question: Who, concretely, contaminated* with plague germs the locality that was
mentioned in the Chinese document?

Answer: I did not witness this operation, but the conference convened by General Ishii and
the Commander of the 13th Army on August 24 or 25, the fact that Ishii left three officers of
Detachment 731 with the 13th Army, and lastly, the fact that a special antiepidemic service
group from the Nanking Detachment Ei was attached to the 13th Army—all this gives me
ground for drawing the conclusion that this operation was conducted by the members of the
Nanking Detachment, under the general direction of Major General Ishii and under the
immediate direction of the officers he left behind.

State Prosecutor: I have no more questions to put to the witness.

President of the Court: In addition to the witnesses who have been examined, the witnesses
Kanazawa, Mineoi, Sakurashita and Fukuzumi have been summoned to the Court session. In
view~of the fact that the circumstances concerning which these witnesses were summoned
have been sufficiently cleared up and that the examination of these witnesses would be
superfluous, the Military Tribunal, in conformity with Art. 394 of the Code of Criminal

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