Page 60 - Unit 731

EPILOGUE
East and West, Harbin to Auschwitz

Harbin, a city in north-east China, is cold for more than six months a year. The weather has shaped people who are bold, forthright, passionate, and
enthusiastic. This is a city that matured and expanded in the twentieth century when Russia began building the Far East Railway there, starting a new page
in global history.
Even Chinese find its pronunciation odd, and those arriving in Harbin often ask its meaning: the name is from the Manchu language used by Manchu
residents there since the seventeenth century, which literally means a place for drying fish nets. The city adjoins the Songhua River, which is famous for
fishing, and fishermen dry their nets nearby.
In addition to Chinese, a large number of Russians, Japanese, and Jews were residing in Harbin between 1900 and 1931. The often-frozen city enjoyed
foreign influences and was tolerant and open. On 18 September 1931, Japan began its invasion of China with the Mukden Incident (also known as ‘The 918
Incident’). Tragedy was set in motion on 5 February 1932 with the occupation of Harbin by the Japanese military. Then, in August 1933, the Japanese
Army created Unit 731, whose terrible and inhumane acts became an indelible nightmare for people of Harbin. Today, on 18 September every year, the air
defence alarm sounds three times to memorialise the disaster and to remind people who are living in peace that their beloved city was once filled with tears
and pain.
What befell Harbin has left marked effects on the past, present, and future of the city. In 1905, the Qing government set up the ‘Binjiang Guandao
Yamen’ (‘administrative office at Binjiang border’) at Harbin. After the collapse of Qing autonomy, the Beiyang government and later the local warlords
became its official administrators. Russia, which was building the Far East Railway through Harbin, became involved in the city’s political and economic
activities as well. Japanese involvement in Harbin also dates to the Russo-Japanese War (1904–1905).
Harbin expanded and developed under this tense situation: the city was filled with colonial and anti-colonial sentiments and tension between powers
increased continually with changing political circumstances. Although it is little-known by the public, Harbin was home to a large number of Jews in the
first half of the twentieth century.

The Historical Connection between Jews and Harbin
People without a country, Jewish people have survived through their strong will as an independent nation for millennia. In the twentieth century, many
settled along the Jordan River on the Arabian Peninsula and established the homeland of Israel. From the end of the nineteenth century to the beginning of
the twentieth century, a large number arrived at Harbin, where discrimination, rejection, and persecution were rare—it was a land where they were able to
use their talents and skills.
In 1899, S. I. Bertsel, the first Jewish settler in Harbin, was followed by others seeking a better place to live. As conditions worsened for Jews in the
larger world, especially after the defeat of Russia in the Russo-Japanese War, a group of enlisted Jews deserted from the Russian troops and settled in
Harbin. As the immigrants enjoyed recovery, their businesses benefited Harbin’s culture, economy, and civic development in many ways, repositioning the
Chinese city with a foreign colour. Today, many Jewish historical sites have been preserved in Harbin including a synagogue, Jewish secondary schools,
hospitals, and a cemetery.
Harbin’s resident Jews were actively involved in business activities in the first half of the twentieth century. Their rapid economic development became
their golden age, as from 1900 to 1920, Harbin was internationalised. To become an international city requires a strong economy, rising population, an
advantageous regional location, and mature development in city, culture, and facilities. Jews in Harbin established banks, enterprises, trading companies,
and industrial factories beneficial to the city. They also introduced social and natural sciences, culture, and art from Europe. Harbin was thus the most
permanent city in China to learn about and apply western culture to local growth.
When the Japanese invaded Harbin in 1932, they expelled Jews from the city. However, the Japanese sought to utilise talents and attract investment by
Jewish residents, so the Japanese Manchukuo started The Fugu Plan, proposing that Jews be encouraged to settle in Manchukuo to develop and establish
‘the New Order in Greater East Asia’. In 1940, when Japan allied with Germany, Gestapo Col. Josef Albert Meisinger visited China and demanded the
expulsion of Jewish people from China with the help of the Japanese Army. The Japanese plan to build a Jewish independent country in Northeast China
had no chance to succeed. What happened to the Jews on the European continent at the same period?

To Auschwitz
Long before I heard of Unit 731, I knew Germany killed Jews and others in the Holocaust. I first learned about Auschwitz and other death camps in high
school when I watched the film Schindler’s List directed by Steven Spielberg. The movie was a great shock to me.
Years later, on a winter night alone in Harbin, I watched Schindler’s List again. I learned about the fear and pain of people facing death, the cruel and
inhuman behaviour of man, as well as the mixture of kind-heartedness and evil. I believe ‘great’ is inadequate to describe Oskar Schindler. As a Nazi party
member, arms trader, public speaker, and expert in social skills, he saved more than 1,100 lives.
When I finished the movie at 1 a.m., I was thinking as to whether there had been a man who stepped out from Unit 731 and saved the victims
(marutas), especially the children—it would have been so great, so meaningful. My wish did not happen historically. History only shows endless torture
and death: no survivors and no last words from the victims.
I cannot sleep when this history crosses my mind. I feel hopeless and breathless. Only pain remains in the room. Films and reading about Germany’s
death camps were inadequate for me to understand them, the mentality of their leaders, and their commonality with what took place in China under the
Japanese. My first visit in summer 2012 to the concentration camp and museum in Auschwitz, Poland, was deeply disturbing.
Concentration Camp
The German Army constructed their first concentration camp in April 1940. To process a growing population of prisoners there, they then built No. 2 and
No. 3 camps at the site. These first three camps are now ‘Former Nazi German Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camps’, and the first two are open to