Page 74 - MaterialsTrial-JapaneseArmy-1950

of Jurisprudence DUBTSOV for Internal Affairs

for the Khabarovsk Territory, Lieutenant Colonel PAPKOV

Interpreter TSVIROV

EXCERPT FROM RECORD OF INTERROGATION
OF KAJITSUKA RYUJI

October 24, 1949 City of Khabarovsk

. . . Detachment 731 was reorganized in 1939-40 under a special secret decree issued by
Emperor Hirohito of Japan in 1939. I was acquainted with this decree at the Kwantung Army
Headquarters approximately in February 1940, signing a pledge of secrecy.

Besides this, by one or perhaps two secret decrees, issued by Emperor Hirohito in 1940,
four branches of Detachment 731 were set up additionally in the second half of that year, to
be located in the towns of Hailar andSunyu, and at Hailin and Linkow stations, the dates of
their formation being indicated. The appended tables of organization, signed by War Minister
Tojo, showed that each of these branches had a personnel of up to 300 men.

Orders issued by Japanese War Minister Tojo in accordance with the emperor's decrees
listed the hospitals and Detachment 731 which assigned a definite number of army medical
specialists, non-commissioned officers and privates. The orders also indicated that civilians
might be employed, but no more than 30 per cent of the entire personnel. . . .

Question: From whom did the idea of preparing for bacteriological warfare originate?

Answer: The idea of preparing bacteriological warfare originated from Ishii.

Ishii Shiro, born around 1893 in the Prefecture of Chiba, comes from the family of a
wealthy landowner, and in 191920 graduated from the College of Medicine of the Imperial
University in the town of Kyoto. He then entered the service of the Japanese Army as a
volunteer. Soon after, he applied for enlistment in regular army service. Half a year later he
received his first commission, as lieutenant, and was appointed army physician in an army
unit. From there he was transferred to the First Military Hospital in the city of Tokyo, where I
became acquainted with him in October 1922 as a colleague. From April 1924 to March 1926
he was a postgraduate student in pathology and bacteriology at the university from which he
had graduated in 1919-20. Then, until April 1928, he worked as resident physician at the
military hospital in the town of Kyoto, from where he was sent abroad on a mission, returning
at the end of 1930.

On his mission abroad he visited almost all the countries of Europe, including the U.S.S.R.,
where he acquainted himself with the work of medical research institutes in Moscow and
Leningrad.

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