Page 49 - Unit 731

eventually lost. According to the Japanese National Archive, at 12 p.m. on 7 July 1939, Kanto Army Command Number 78, Kanto Army commander Ueda
Kenkichi, issued commands to Army Surgeon Colonel Shirō Ishii: ‘… must depart for General Temple at Hailar District on July 8 and give assistance to
the epidemic prevention and water supply division there. In order to bring facilities and supplies, 50 [men] of officer rank or below are allow to go along. It
is necessary to report all the names who go with you’ (see Fig. 30). 9
Unit 731 launched the first bacteriological warfare at the direction of the Kanto Army. With the assistance of the Kanto Army, Lt-Col. Kichiro
Yamamoto and Tsuneshige Ikari of Unit 731 put cholera, typhoid fever, and shigella into the water supplies, including the Halha River. Yoshitaka Tamura
of Unit 731 stated:
… under the command of technician Yamaguchi of the Kanto Army epidemic prevention and water supply division, around six members produced bacteria-[treated] shrapnel and about 2000 bullets.
Members of Yamaguchi division shot the bacteria bombs in front of Khalkhin Gol. From early July to late August 1939, I joined the bacteria production division at Kobayashi, which was responsible
for producing typhoid, cholera and epidemic typhus bacteria. I transported 1000 grams of bacteria to General Temple, Hailar District. I and the other three members from Tabei division put 1ml of
bacterial liquid [which included 30 mg of typhoid] into two kerosene barrels. The next day I and the other two members brought the two barrels to General Temple and handed them to warrant officer
10
Namba of the Kanto Army epidemic prevention and water supply division. Those bacterial agents that I brought were all spread into Halha River and started the bacteriological warfare. [See Figures
31, 32, and 33.]
Unit 731 launched at least four bacteriological attacks in the battles of Khalkhin Gol. The preceding photographs from the National Institute for Defense
Studies capture the work of Unit 731 in those battles. Since water was polluted by bacterial agents, Unit 731 carried out large-scale water filtration to
prevent Japanese soldiers being infected. The contribution of Shirō Ishii to Khalkhin Gol earned him a medal from Kanto Army headquarters.

Changde Bacteriological Warfare
On 4 November 1941, Japanese planes flew over Hunan Changde and dropped fleas, fringe, wheat, cotton, paper, and other things. The chief targets were
Guandi Temple Street, Poultry Lane, and East Gate in Changde. On 11 November, the first case of plague infection was found. The victim was an eleven-
year-old girl, Cai Taoer, who lived on Guandi Temple Street; Cai died on 13 November. More cases of plague infection and death were found in Changde.
Chen Wengui, director of the health officer training team, went to Changde to investigate the case, and his ‘Report on Plague in Hunan Changde’ noted the
extent, harm, and effects of plague.
Chen’s report stated:

Since November 11, seven days after the attack by the Japanese Army, plague was widespread in Changde. All reports from Papanicolaou tests were checked by Dr Chan Wengui and Dr Tan Xuehua.
From the medical record, dissection and bacteria check, victims were plague infected. There were six cases of plague infected, and until November 24, a total of seventeen individuals died in the
spread of plague. 11
‘The Xiangxi Plague Prevention Report’ by Rong Qirong, former chairperson in the Central Department of Health and Epidemic Prevention Department of
Republic of China, claimed: ‘Between November 11, 1941 and July 9, 1942, there were total 42 plague infected victims in Changde and 37 of them died’.
Due to lack of sanitation facilities in Changde, epidemic prevention was seriously delayed. People in Changde did not cooperate well, which led to the
failure of plague prevention and inaccurate official data. The numbers in reports by Chen Wengui and Rong Qirong were too low. After the initial outbreak
of plague in 1941, there were still fatalities as late as 1945. Chen’s and Rong’s reports recorded the spread of plague, which was attributed to fleas and
plague-infected material dropped by Japanese planes. The outbreak of plague occurred seven days following the large-scale aerial bombardment.
According to the investigation by Chen and Rong, the outbreak was due to this attack by the Japanese Army.
In November 1996, the Investigation Organisation of Bacteriological Warfare Victims was established in Changde. The civil organisation was formed
by retired teachers, doctors, workers, and victims’ families. According to statistics provided by the organisation from 1996 to 2002, more than 300,000
individuals from nine areas in Changde were interviewed. About 15,000 statements of accusation were collected. A total of 7,643 individuals from more
than seventy towns and 486 villages died of plague. The investigation organisation published ‘Name List of Victims and Surviving Dependents’ that
recorded the name, gender, and time and place of deaths in detail.
One case among the oral narratives from family members of victims had a deep impact on me. The case of Fang Yunsheng was written by Liu Yi from
Hunan University of Arts and Science in ‘12 Cases of Oral Historical Research of Victims in Changde Bacteriological Warfare’:
… my elder brother Fang Yundeng died in the 1941 plague in Changde. He died at age 8. After my brother died, my grandmother was very depressed and suffered a mental breakdown. She often
walked along the streets and shouted my brother’s name. She hoped my brother would come home. When I was a kid, my grandmother held my hand and shouted my brother’s name on the street… 12

Quzhou Bacteriological Warfare
According to the narrative of Mingxuan Qiu, former supervisor in the health and epidemic prevention station in Quzhou:

… at 9 o’clock on October 4, 1940, Japanese planes spread plague-infected fleas, wheat, soybeans, wheat bran, cloth, cotton and flyers. The plane flew back and forth twice and left Quzhou at around
half past 9. In early December, the first plague happened in the history of Quzhou, and it spread all over the village area. On May 26, 1942, the Japanese army launched the second attack of
bacteriological warfare in Quzhou. The Japanese [used planes to] spread plague-inflected fleas, sent expedition troops to transportation lines between Zhe and Gan to spread fleas, as well as put
cholera, typhoid and paratyphoid, dysentery and anthrax in the wells and on food of the civilians. 13
In early September, sites along the transportation line between Zhe and Gan, such as Jiangshan, Quzhou, Kaihua, and Longyou, suffered outbreaks of
plague, cholera, typhoid, paratyphoid, dysentery, malaria, and anthrax. At the same time, the Japanese Army began indiscriminate bombing of Quzhou,
which worsened the work of epidemic prevention. Not until 1948 were the diseases thoroughly suppressed.
From 1998 to 2000, a few investigations were carried out in Quzhou. Aspects widely studied included source of infection, the spread of bacteria, and
infected victims.
According to an investigative report about Quzhou, 5,294 people were victims of Japanese bacteriological warfare: 1,501 of plague, 909 of cholera,
2,272 of typhoid, 407 of dysentery, and 205 of anthrax; 3,748 were male and 1,546 were female; and 871 were children less than ten years old. The oldest
victim was eighty-three and the youngest was three months. A large number of pregnant women died with their unborn babies.
In addition to causing large-scale plague in the Quzhou area, the Japanese Army launched bacteriological warfare in Jinhua, Yiwu, Ningbo, and Lishui
in October 1940. According to the investigative report ‘Name List of Victims in Bacteriological Warfare in Yiwu, Zhejiang (1941–1943)’, 1,315 people
there died due to Japanese bacteriological warfare.
Yunhe Zhejiang’s ‘Name List of Victims in Bacteriological Warfare in WWII’ records 781 fatalities of Japanese bacteriological warfare. Based on the
previous information, 15,033 victims died in bacteriological warfare in Changde, Yiwu, Yunhe, and Quzhou. Additional infected areas were left
uninvestigated. The number of Chinese civilians, including women and children, is believed to be much higher than the number in the records.
Biochemical weapons were abandoned by the Japanese in more than 100 areas among nineteen provinces in China. The harmful effects of such