Page 57 - MaterialsTrial-JapaneseArmy-1950

RECORD OF INTERROGATION
OF ACCUSED KIKUCHI NORIMITSU

December 6, 1949 City of Khabarovsk

Interrogation conducted through interpreter Poluyanov, who was warned of his liability to
prosecution under Art. 95 of the Criminal Code of the R.S.F.S.R.

Signed: Poluyanov

Question: You are presented with the order to take proceedings against you for crimes
punishable under Art. 1 of the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R.
of April 19, 1943, the substance of which has been explained to you. Do you plead guilty to
the charge brought against you?

Answer: I plead guilty to the charge under Art. 1 of the Decree of the Presidium of the
Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R. of April 19, 1943.

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

Answer: I plead guilty to having, while serving in Branch 643 of Detachment 731 in the
period from April 1943 to the day I was taken prisoner, engaged in the cultivation of the
germs of typhoid, paratyphoid, dysentery and tuberculosis for the purpose of research on
these germs and of studying their properties and ability to cause epidemics. While engaged in
the cultivation of bacteria I studied the media on which they bred in order to procure a
medium on which they could be cultivated faster and preserve their vitality for a longer
period.

I also tried to devise a faster method of preparing the medium for these bacteria. The
objects of my work in cultivating bacteria and in studying media for them was to enable me,
and the 1st Research Section as a whole, quickly to produce bacteria on a mass scale when
orders from my superiors to do so were received.

I knew that the Japanese Kwantung Army was preparing to conduct bacteriological warfare
against the Soviet Union, that preparations for this were also being made by Detachment 731
and Branch 643, which helped Detachment 731 in its preparations to conduct bacteriological
warfare, and that the object of my work in the 1st Research Section of the branch . . . was also
to prepare to conduct bacteriological warfare. Consequently, I myself took part.in the
preparations to conduct this warfare, and to this I plead guilty.

I committed this crime not of my own free will, but by order of my superiors whom I
obeyed. I could not refuse to obey their orders, for I would have been punished for refusal to
obey orders.

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