Page 98 - MaterialsTrial-JapaneseArmy-1950

method as being highly effective.

Question: Give the contents of the report Kitano made at the Kwantung Army
Headquarters on the employment of plague-infected fleas.

Answer: I do not remember exactly when this report was made; it was either at the end of
1944 or the beginning of .1945. Kitano reported to Yamada upon the latest achievements in
studying methods of employing plague-infected fleas as a combat weapon. I do not remember
the details of this report. Present at this report were: Yamada, Kasahara, Chief of the Medical
Administration Kajitsuka, myself, Miyata, Ikeda, and Kitano, who delivered the report.

After Kitano's report a special film about experiments in spreading infection by using
plague fleas was demonstrated. However, I did not see the film, since I was called out to the
Operations Division on business.

Question: What relation did staff officer Lieutenant Colonel Miyata (Prince Takeda) have
to the work of Detachment 731?

Answer: Miyata was especially detailed from the Operations Division for liaison between
the Operations Division and Detachment 731. Besides, other staff officers were also
sometimes sent to detachments 731 andJ00 so as to keep posted on the work of these
detachments and maintain contact with them. As a rule, through these persons various daily
instructions were passed on and fulfilment of these instructions was controlled.

Question: In your testimony of November 16, 1949, you said that it was from General
Tamura you heard that Detachment 731 had a prison in which prisoners were confined. State
more explicitly where the above-mentioned Tamura worked.

Answer: About the prison in Detachment 731 and about the experiments carried out upon
the inmates of this prison I heard from my predecessor, the former Chief of the Operations
Division, Colonel Tamura Yoshitomi, who later became a general. I do not know exactly who
gave the sanction for experiments on human beings, but I think that these experiments were
first sanctioned by Commander-in-Chief Ueda, or by his successor Umezu. While Yamada
was Commander-in-Chief these experiments were also carried out, and Yamada did not
revoke this previously-given sanction.

Question: By whom was the order to trap rodents and deliver them to Detachment 731
sanctioned?

Answer: In 1945 practically all the land units of the Kwantung Army engaged in trapping
rats and delivering them to Detachment 731. It follows quite naturally that this work was
sanctioned by Commander-in-Chief Yamada, since without his permission the units could not
have engaged in it.

The Chief of Staff could have given the instructions to the units in the Commander-in-
Chief's name, but undoubtedly only with the permission of the Commander-in-Chief. How
this permission was issued practically, I do not remember.

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