Page 50 - Unit 731

weapons remain a threat to Chinese civilians. The largest number to date were found in Dunhua city in Jilin province, where 747 civilians died due to
exposure to biochemical weapons. In 1974, three individuals were seriously harmed by abandoned biochemical weapons in Jiamusi city of Heilongjiang
province. In 2003, in Qiqihaer in Heilongjiang province, leftover bacterial liquid killed one civilian and injured forty-three more.
According to informal records, since the end of the war, abandoned biochemical weapons have killed more than 2,000 civilians and caused widespread
harm to property, the climate, and ecosystems. In 1995, Chinese civilians organised the Litigation Campaign for Chinese Victims Suffering from Japanese
Poison Gases in Bacteriological Warfare. In Tokyo District Court on 15 May 2003, facing the evidence of numerous oral narratives, the Japanese had to
admit that ‘During war against China, the Japanese Army produced and used abundant amounts of biological weapons’.
The Japanese claimed that ‘the Japanese government did not have effective means to prevent harm from happening’, so the Chinese desire for an
official apology and compensation from the Japanese government failed. The grassroots campaign was not supported or funded by the Chinese
government, which made it difficult to sustain without the backing of organised authority. Questions persist: victims went to the abuser’s country to litigate
on behalf of their country with assistance from attorneys of the abuser’s country. What is the percentage of success under these circumstances? What is the
future of the litigation?

The Harm of War: Spread of Plague in Pingfang

In preparing and launching bacteriological warfare, Unit 731 purchased a large number of animals for experimental use. Due to the length of time, scale,
and number of species, domestic animal life systems and ecosystems were widely violated. Plague and other bacteria turned the Pingfang area into living
‘gunpowder barrels’. When Unit 731 escaped from Harbin after the end of the Second World War, and although the Japanese bombed most of the facilities
and animals, a number of mice, fleas, and other experimental animals fled the cages. The exploration of ‘bacterial gunpowder barrels’ led to the wide
outbreak of plague in Pingfang.
In July 1946, Dong Xu, wife of Hongyou Xu, from Erdaogou of Pingfang area was the first to die of plague. Later, Ruxian Jing was infected by plague,
and his wife, Song Jing, and their children, ages five and two, died of plague. Seven of nineteen members of the Jing family died within twenty days. Jing’s
son Jing Fuhe recalled the disaster:
My home in Pingfang area was the severely affected area. Within no more than 20 days, 12 out of 19 members of my family were killed by plague. When my father, older sister and younger brother
fell down, the other family members were also infected. Those who were alive could not take care of them much, and they got infected eventually. My mother was taking care of my father, and I was
with my younger brother. My father and my younger brother stayed in the same bed and there was no space for my sister. So we put her on the grass, like she was waiting for death. My older sister’s
symptom was a low fever. There were bumps on her neck and swellings. She could not speak. She lay on the grass, no one stayed by her side, and she died alone screaming. The hearse had not yet
arrived wen my father died as well. Before we took his body out of the bed, my younger brother spat black saliva twice. He died with his eyes open. I was with my younger brother. I yelled his name
and tried to talk to him, but he never replied. I watched my younger brother lose his life. Whenever I think of the disaster, I cry and I feel extremely sad. The screams of my father, the way my older
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sister died alone, and my younger brother wide open eyes, I can never forget. [See Fig. 34.]
In total, fifty people died from plague in Erdaogou. The youngest was two years old and the oldest was seventy-one. In some families, all members
perished. Plague outbreaks also took place in Yifayuantun (forty-one cases) and Dongjingzi (thirty-eight cases) at the same time.
According to the ‘Report on Plague Prevention in Harbin’ maintained by the Heilongjiang Provincial Archive in 1946, there were no basic epidemic
prevention facilities, doctors, or clinics in villages in Pingfang. The city of Harbin started epidemic prevention, isolation, disinfection, and vaccination two
months after the plague outbreak, and by 1945, the plague was finally under control.
Although Unit 731 disbanded in 1945, the harm to Harbin did not vanish along with it. From 1946 to 1954, 143 people died of plague. The Chinese of
Harbin suffered heavy mental pressure and serious economic harm, and the violated ecosystem and the change in conditions of mice continued to cause
plague in Harbin area. Post-war Pingfang became the world’s sole centre suffering from human-caused plague.
From 1954 to 1994, the city of Harbin applied human resources, facilities, and financial support to improve protection against plague. Finally, in 1994,
according to the report on plague monitoring issued by the epidemic protection station in Harbin, ‘the result of plague testing of mice in Harbin is negative,
which means the outbreak of plague in Harbin is finally under control after 49 years’.