Page 59 - Unit 731

funding of the Unit was also the largest. In addition to a dormitory for families, a dormitory for singles, a dormitory for officers, and facilities that supplied
water and heat, the compound also contained a school, post office, hospital, library, sport ground, restaurant, brothel, and the Tougo Shrine. The public
facilities such as the library, hospital, sports ground, and post office served as mentally healing spots for the army surgeons, ‘experts’, and ‘experimenters’
attempting to help normalise their cruel routine duties.
These former sites of Unit 731 are all listed under the general planning of the city of Harbin as well as the ‘Plan for Protection of the Former Sites of
Unit 731 of the Japanese Army Invading China’ (侵华日军第七三一部队旧址保护规划) announced by Heilongjiang Province in 2014.

Unit 731 Museum
The surrender of Japan and the end of the Second World War on the Eastern Front occurred on 15 August. Unit 731 Museum chose 15 August for its three
openings: the first in 1985, the second opening of the new building, south-east of former sites, in 1995, and the renewal of the museum in 2015.
New Building

The new building south-east of the former Unit 731 sites is 24,000 square metres and covers 11,000 square metres of land. Construction started in
November 2014. It was designed by the School of Architecture of South China University of Technology with He Jingtang as chief designer. The
exhibition was designed by Luode Cultural Engineering Co. Ltd.
As an academic advisor for the exhibition in the new building, I was responsible for designing the layout and content, as well as descriptive writing.
When the first draft for the exhibition was confirmed, designers from Japan, Korea, Britain, and Canada were invited to evaluate and comment on the draft.
The finalised ideas of the design were ‘Simple, Plain, Real, Objective’ (see Fig. 44).
Exhibits

Most of the exhibits are genuine artefacts from the former Unit 731 sites, including pictures, graphs, maps, models, videos, and touchable screens. The
setting is based on traditional historical museum design incorporating modern exhibition methods. The exhibition display texts are supported by the
objects, historical materials, and oral narrative that reveal the facts of Japanese biological warfare as it took place in Harbin.
The new museum is 4,500 square metres, comprising six sections: Japan’s biological warfare against China; Unit 731 as the headquarters of the
biological warfare; human experimentation; creation of biological weapons; implementation of biological warfare; and the destruction of evidence and
post-war trial. These sections uncover and display the historical truth, the cruelty of the Imperial Japanese Army in biological warfare, in order to relate war
crimes and war responsibilities of Japan to the public and to emphasise our mission: ‘remember the history, never forget the past, love peace and build the
future’.
The new building houses more than 10,000 artefacts from the ruins, more than half of them directly related to Unit 731. The building utilises historical
sources from China, the US, and Japan, especially the documents about the ‘special transfer’ available only in China, records of commands with regard to
biological warfare existing in Japan, and the recently declassified confidential documents about Unit 731 made public by the US. The entire exhibition is a
combination of academic research and common exhibition that used an abundance of photographic, graphic, and simulated scenes to recreate the actual
sites that allow visitors to explore history by stepping inside the sites.

The Meaning and Values of Sites Protection
Since war’s end in 1945, remaining ruins can reveal the truth of history. Along with city development, it is essential to re-evaluate the historical and social
values of the historical sites and learn the historical messages that the ruins bring to the present. To protect and make use of the remaining sites of Unit 731
will therefore be invaluable to facilitate patriotic education and to highlight the important message of peace and the hatred of war.
In summation, the protection of former Unit 731 sites can be seen as generating the following meanings and values:
1. The former sites display invaluable messages and serve as evidence of war crimes. These remaining sites are huge, facilitating inhuman activities
ranging from human experimentation to animal and insect breeding. The Japanese scientists and technicians conducted research on bacteria weapons by
murdering thousands of living ‘marutas’ from China, Korea, Russia, and the United States. It was the place where Unit 731 created, stored, and
distributed the biochemical weapons of massive destruction that could wipe out the entire human race. All cruel and gruesome functions of Unit 731
were well-planned and well-equipped.
2. The former sites are well-preserved. Today, viewers are able to comprehend the original structure and function of the Unit 731 compound. The natural
erosion of the sites is now under control. As such, we are able to study and understand the complex organisation and activities within this highly
restricted and mysterious campus.
3. Unit 731 is an integrated zone that combined experimental research, armament production and storage, outdoor experimental fields, animal breeding,
and living areas. The effective design of the zone allowed Unit 731 to become the headquarters for planning, organising, and execution of biological
warfare for Japan, making it also the largest biological weapons production field in human history.
4. The former sites of Unit 731 are incontrovertible evidence that biological warfare was the main purpose of the Unit. By secretly produced bacteria
weapons and poison gases, and supported by frostbite experiments and bacterial infection and prevention, Unit 731 was an inhumane and unethical
special division during the Second World War.
5. Unit 731’s former sites served as the living evidence of the Japanese’s war crimes in China. Many of the Chinese and foreigners who fought against
Japan, together with many innocent civilians, lost their lives in these sites. These sites will remain important artefacts for scholars to conduct research
on Japanese war crimes.
6. The former sites of Unit 731 are an important educational base to teach the world the importance of peace. This is a memorial site for the Anti-Fascist
War worldwide. Similar to Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland and Hiroshima Peace Memorial in Japan, Unit 731’s sites are there to remind the
world of the important message of ‘No more war but peace’.