Page 32 - MaterialsTrial-JapaneseArmy-1950

Answer: Yes, I understand.

Question: Do you plead guilty to the charge brought against you in conformity with the
order of December 5, 1949, of which you have been informed?

Answer: I plead guilty to the charge brought against me, except that part which accuses me
of having directly guided the activities of Detachment 731 in making, testing and employing
bacteriological weapons, as that work was directly guided by the chiefs of Detachment 731,
Ishii and Kitano.

Question: To what, concretely, do you plead guilty?

Answer: Concretely, I plead guilty to the fact that, having shared since 1931 the idea of
Ishii Shiro that Japan must prepare to conduct bacteriological warfare, I, as head of the
Sanitary Division of the Medical Administration of the Japanese Ministry for War from 1934
to 1937, took an active part in forming within the Kwantung Army a special unit, Detachment
731, for the purpose of devising bacteriological weapons and for antiepidemic work, and also
in supplying that detachment with specialists in these lines, and helping to secure the
appointment of Ishii Shiro, one of the ideologists of bacteriological warfare, to the post of
Chief of Detachment 731. Being, from December 1939 to August 1945, Chief of the Medical
Administration of the Kwantung Army, I exercised general direction of the scientific research
work conducted by Detachment 731 for the comprehensive study and cultivation of bacteria,
for the study of insect disseminators of epidemic diseases, for the study of little-investigated
epidemic diseases, and for devising the most effective means and methods of healing and
preventing epidemic diseases.

I also admit that Detachment 731 conducted scientific research not only for antiepidemic
purposes, but also for the purpose of devising, making and testing bacteriological .weapons;
but the work of making, testing and practically employing bacteriological weapons was
conducted under the direct guidance of the chiefs of Detachment 731, Ishii and Kitano. In this
work, Ishii and Kitano were guided by the orders of the Operations Division of the Kwantung
Army Headquarters and of the Japanese General Staff.

I knew about the experiments conducted by Detachment 731 in devising and testing
bacteriological weapons, and in devising means and methods of healing and preventing
epidemic diseases, and I knew that these experiments were performed on living people.

Concerning the results of the experiments in testing bacteriological weapons, and the
practical employment by Detachment 731 of bacteriological weapons against the Chinese
Army and the local Chinese population in 1940-42, a verbal report was submitted to me by
the Chief of Detachment 731, Kitano. Concerning the results of experiments in devising the
most effective means and methods of healing epidemic diseases and in studying little-
investigated epidemic diseases, and concerning freezing experiments, the chiefs of
Detachment 731, Ishii and Kitano, periodically submitted to me written reports.

I took a direct part in forming, in 1940, along the frontier of the Soviet Union, four
branches of Detachment 731: in Hailin, Linkow, Sunyu and Hailar; I supplied Detachment

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