Page 72 - MaterialsTrial-JapaneseArmy-1950

Ishii told me that the researches in this method had not yet been completed and, for
example, the question as to what area the fleas dropped from high altitudes covered had not
yet been cleared up.

Speaking about the infection of foodstuffs, Ishii told me that in the researches in this field,
the germs of cholera, dysentery, typhoid and paratyphoid were being used, and that
vegetables, fruit, fish and meat were so infected. Vegetables were found to be the most
suitable for bacteriological warfare: especially such as had numerous leaves, cabbage, for
example; root crops, having smooth surfaces, proved to be less suitable. The injection of
bacteria into food products, fruit, for example, was found to be more effective than infecting
their surfaces. The most suitable medium for spreading infectious diseases, according to what
Ishii said, were vegetables; next in order came fruit, fish and, last, meat. . . .

In confirmation of this, Ishii told me that his detachment was conducting practical
experiments: experiments with bacteria contained in artillery shells and aerial bombs; bacteria
were dropped from aircraft on to a proving ground next to the detachment's aerodrome at
Pingfan Station; experiments with the most dangerous kinds of bacteria were conducted on
some uninhabited territory, but where, Ishii did not say. He also said that Detachment 731
was conducting experiments on living people, but who these people were, and when and
where the experiments were performed, he did not say; he merely said that those people were
Chinese and added that he had no right to say who these people were because that was a
"secret of secrets."

In conclusion, Ishii told me that after all the experi. ments that had been conducted under
his direction, he had arrived at the conclusion that the deliberate spreading of epidemics was
not such an easy task as some people supposed, and as he himself had thought before. In
nature, epidemics spread very easily, but the artificial spreading of epidemics encountered a
number of obstacles which in some cases are overcome with great difficulty. In his opinion,
success in undertakings of this kind depended on the individual susceptibility of people to
various infectious diseases, and he had decided to study this problem.

... In March 1944, I had a similar conversation in my office with Major General of the
Medical Service Kitano Masazo, who from August 1942 to March 1945 was Acting Chief of
Detachment 731.

Supplementing what I had heard from Ishii, Kitano, in answer to my enquiry about the
work the detachment was doing, told me that some success had been achieved since he had
been in command of Detachment 731. In particular, he told me that a group of members of
Detachment 731 had gone to the Chinese front, to a district south of Shanghai, and had there,
from a high altitude, dropped a large quantity of plague-infected fleas on territory inhabited
by Chinese. These fleas remained alive and an epidemic of plague broke out in the place in
which they had dropped. Kitano added that it was not a big epidemic, but this method of
bacteriological warfare could be regarded as effective.

Furthermore, Kitano told me that in the region of Anta Station experiments had been
performed with delayed action bombs containing anthrax germs. The fragments of these
bombs, on wounding human beings and cattle, infected them with anthrax.

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