Page 68 - MaterialsTrial-JapaneseArmy-1950

INTERROGATORS

Military Prosecutor, Member of the staff

Lieutenant Colonel of the Office of the Ministry

of Jurisprudence BAZENKO for Internal Affairs

for the Khabarovsk Territory, Captain GOIKHMAN

Interpreter TSVIROV

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EXCERPT FROM RECORD OF INTERROGATION
OF YAMADA OTOZOO

December 1 1949 City of Khabarovsk

. . . Question: Why was the production of bacteriological weapons activized in 1945?

Answer: The production of bacteriological weapons by detachments 731 and 100 was
activized at that time because the preparatory period of the most effective bacteriological
weapons that had been tested had ended. I have in mind the employment of the Ishii bacteria
bomb, the spraying of plague-infected fleas from aircraft, and methods of bacteriological
sabotage on land, about which I had learned from the reports of Generals Kitano and
Takahashi, and from other persons.

In 1945, when all the preparatory work in perfecting the most effective means of
employing bacteriological weapons had been successfuly completed, the period set in of the
mass production of bacteriological weapons for the purpose of their practical employment in
any direction, as soon as the order to do so was received from the Imperial Headquarters. In
view of the aforesaid, and in conformity with the orders of the Japanese Deputy Minister for
War, I, in the spring of 1945, ordered detachments 731 and 100 to increase the mass
production of bacteriological weapons and, accordingly, to increase and improve the
equipment of Detachment 731 and to provide it with the necessary number of additional
specialists.

Furthermore, I think that the increase in the production of bacteriological weapons in 1945
was due to the worsening of the war situation in the different theatres of military operations.
This, however, is my own personal opinion, as I did not receive any official information on
this question.

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