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fact that Japan had entered into a criminal conspiracy with Hitler Germany and fascist Italy
against peace and humanity.
The Tribunal further established that Japan had grossly violated the laws and customs of
war, inasmuch as brutal and inhuman treatment had been meted out by the Japanese military
to war prisoners and to .civilian inhabitants of the occupied territories.
The preliminary investigation in the present case has established that, in planning and
preparing aggressive war against the U.S.S.R. and other states, the Japanese imperialists
intended to employ on a wide scale for the accomplishment of their aims, and in part did
employ, a criminal means of mass extermination of human beings—the weapon of
bacteriological warfare.
Formation of Special Units for the Preparation
and Prosecution of Bacteriological Warfare
The preliminary investigation has established that, shortly after the seizure of Manchuria,
the Japanese General Staff and Ministry for War set up there a bacteriological laboratory
forming part of the Japanese Kwantung Army and headed by Ishii Shiro, who was well
known in Japan as an ideologist of bacteriological warfare and who was subsequently" made
a lieutenant general in the Army Medical Service. In this laboratory researches were
conducted in the use of the germs of severe infectious diseases for purposes of offensive
bacteriological warfare.
Accused Kawashima Kiyoshi, formerly Major General in the Japanese Army Medical
Service, has testified that, acting upon secret instructions from Emperor Hirohito, the
Japanese General Staff and Ministry for War already in 1935 and 1936 formed in Manchuria
two top-secret units for preparing and conducting bacteriological warfare.
For purposes of secrecy, one of these institutions, which had Ishii's laboratory as its core,
was given the name of "Water Supply and Prophylaxis Administration of the Kwantung
Army," and the other the name of "Hippo-Epizootic Administration of the Kwantung Army."
In 1941, after Hitler Germany's attack on the U.S.S.R. these institutions were given the code
names of "Detachment 731" and "Detachment 100," respectively. Detachment 731 was
placed in the charge of the afore-mentioned Ishii Shiro, and Detachment 100 in that of Major
General Wakamatsu of the Veterinary Service.
These detachments were composed of expert bacteriologists and their extensive research
and technical personnel was directed by some of the leading bacteriologists of Japan. The
scale of the work conducted by the bacteriological detachments is indicated, among other
things, by the fact that Detachment 731 alone had a personnel of about 3,000.
The Japanese Army Command allocated very considerable sums for the maintenance of the
detachments engaged in the production of bacteriological weapons. For example, for the
accommodation of Detachment 731, a large military cantonment, with numerous laboratories
and service structures, had been erected by 1939 in the vicinity of Pingfan Station, 20
kilometres from Harbin. Considerable stocks of raw materials were laid in. For purposes of
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