Page 57 - Unit 731

7
Protection of Sites and Museum

In 1945, just days before the official end of the war, members of Unit 731 destroyed most of the buildings and facilities on the site. Remaining structures
were later destroyed by urban development, social changes and natural disasters, business growth and individuals, and other complicated processes.
Seventy years later, more than eighty buildings remained, twenty-three of which were designated Major Historical and Cultural Sites Protected at the
National Level.

Protection Process

Proper protection of remaining sites of Unit 731 by both central and local governments began in 1950, following the establishment of the People’s
Republic of China. In the spring of 1956, Zhikun Wang (王之堃) of Harbin produced a film of nine minutes and ten seconds; this was the first
documentary showing the ruins remaining after the mass destruction. The surviving sites of Unit 731 were largely destroyed between 1957 and 1981 (see
Fig. 37).
In the 1980s, many government-approved Japanese history textbooks omitted the Japanese invasion of China and attempted to whitewash the war
crimes committed by the servicemen of the former Japanese imperial forces. This prompted the Chinese to consider the importance of preserving the
remains of Unit 731.
In August 1982, an investigative team created by the Harbin government started research on preservation of Unit 731 sites and interviewed war victims.
On 17 September, Japanese writer Seiichi Morimura visited the sites and met with Yan Xia (夏衍), the former chair of the Ministry of Culture of the
People’s Republic of China in Beijing. During the meeting, Morimura made suggestions regarding protection of the ruins, which were taken seriously by
the Chinese government.
On 25 December 1982, the Harbin government officially issued an administrative order ‘About Protection of the Sites of War Crimes by the Former
Japanese Kanto Army’, followed by the establishment of the Administration of Cultural Relics of Pingfang, charged with the clean-up, research,
excavation, and organisation of the ruins. This is the first time a Chinese local government mandated protection of relics as a civic duty.
On 7 March 1983, Heilongjiang Province government decreed the former sites of Unit 731 a Major Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the
Provincial Level. On 15 August 1985, the museum was opened to the public. From 1991 to 1993, twenty-two areas of ruins were designated as protected
areas. On 15 August 1995, a new museum, located 300 metres east of the main building, opened to the public. From 1999 to 2011, 143 residences and
twelve public housing units were removed from the site, and eleven areas of ruins (10,400 square metres) were opened.
In 2006, the museum became a Major Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the National Level. In 2011, the city of Harbin announced the Harbin
Unit 731 Sites Protection Regulations and systematised protection of the ruins. In September 2012, the former Unit 731 sites were included on the
preparation list of World Heritage Sites in China. The main museum wing was remodelled in 2015, and a new wing and additional preserved ruins in
surrounding areas were opened to the public.

The Museum’s Current Collection
Based on the former function of each site in Unit 731, there are five different categories within the protected areas: main basic facilities, bacteria and
poison gas laboratories, bacterial weapon research and production facilities, experimental animal breeding facilities, and dormitories.
Main Basic Facilities
This includes the central building, facilities supply division and weapons storage, south guard gate, boiler room, railway, water tower, and aviation
divisions—totalling seven sites.
The main building, referred to as Building One (一棟) during the war, served as the head office as well as administrative heart of Unit 731. Originally a
rectangular two-storey brick and concrete structure, Building One is 170.8 metres long, 13 metres wide, and 15 metres high. From right to left on the first
floor were human resources, the duty room, public work division, photography office of the investigation division, office for the head of the investigation
division, investigation division general affairs office, warehouse, gendarmerie office, general affairs office, printing room of the investigation division, and
the clinic. From right to left on the second floor were rooms for the division and vice-division heads, the planning division, spiritual activities, general
affairs, accounting, conference, and artefacts exhibition.
The location of the facilities supply division and weapons storage was referred to as Building Two (二棟) in the old days. This place supplied and
housed all the equipment and medical materials. This building was destroyed in the 1970s. Part of the roof was elevated while another part of the building
was levelled out. The whole site was remodelled in 2015 (see Fig. 38).
The weapons store kept knives, guns, and ammunition. South guard gate, the only gate out of the original five that remains on the site, served as
security checkpoint for entrance to the main building. The boiler room supplied heat and electricity to the main building; only one wall and two chimneys
remain. One underground pool for collecting the backwater from the boiler, two remaining walls and thirty-nine heat emission holes still exist. In 2015, the
Archaeology Research Center of the Heilongjiang provincial government conducted a comprehensive excavation of the sites of the boiler room and nearby
facilities.
The railway built in 1935 connected to Pingfang station and was mainly used to transport staff, experimental animals, and other commodities. The
water tower supplied water for the entire complex. The aviator division established in 1938 served field experimentation and biological warfare. This
division and the bacteria experimental division conducted many human experiments in the Anda and Chengzigou fields.
These seven places comprised the comparatively well-preserved sites of the basic facilities in Unit 731. They were well-planned and well-equipped
with functions that supplied weapons, facilities for experimental use, fuel supply, and field experimentation. They were supported with railways, roads, and
aviation facilities that allowed each research centre to enjoy abundant resources and protection. From administration, heat, water, and electricity supplies,
transportation to communication, Unit 731 was Japan’s efficient core organisation for planning and launching biological warfare.