Page 83 - MaterialsTrial-JapaneseArmy-1950

for Internal Affairs

for the Khabarovsk Territory.'

Senior Lieutenant BRAVE

Interpreter PL YACHENKO

EXCERPT FROM RECORD OF INTERROGATION
OF KAWASHIMA KIYOSHI

October 24, 1949 City of Khabarovsk

. . . There is no doubt that the conduct of experiments on human beings and the
procurement of prisoners from the gendarmerie for this purpose could not have taken place
without the knowledge of the Commander of the Kwantung Army, who was at the same time
the Japanese Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Manchuria, that is, the virtual
master of the country. .X .

. . . The need to procure prisoners from the gendarmerie was determined in each particular
instance by General Ishii personally on the basis of reports made by the direct executors of
the experiments on people. When the Chief of the detachment considered it necessary to
replenish the number of prisoners designated for experimentation he gave an order to this
effect to the Chief of the Office of the General Division, who contacted the gendarmerie and
received prisoners from it. .

. . . Proceeding from the history of the detachment's origin and its practical activity over
the entire period of its existence, I can say that the reasons for the existence of Detachment
731 precisely in Manchuria were the following:

a) The need to have, in proximity to the borders of the Soviet Union, a base of bacteriological
means of warfare for the purpose of a possible attack on the U.S.S.R., the Far East of which
was included in the predatory plans of the Japanese military.

In addition, the conduct of bacteriological warfare research in Manchuria enabled us to
carry out this work in climatic conditions identical with the climate of the Soviet Far East.

b) The possibility of obtaining in Manchuria a large amount of human material from among
persons of nonJapanese nationality for bacteriological experiments, as well as Manchuria's
large territory. . . .

Kawashima

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