Page 107 - Unit 731 Testimony

warfare. Admitting now that the bones are from Unit 731's victims would
amount to the admission of a half-century's worth of lies. It would also raise
the problem of compensation. Yet, until Japan makes some sort of concrete

acknowledgment of what it did during the war, it seems consigned to
permanent ostracism. In what could seem like a pathetically small act of
revenge from the grave, the victims may be thought of as having returned,
years after they were put to their agonizing deaths, to create minor torture
for Japan's political elite.

The Unit Leaders in Peacetime

By virtue, ostensibly, of their cooperation with their American
conquerors, the former leadership of Unit 731 lived relatively quietly and
undisturbed in the postwar period. The freedom they enjoyed stands in stark

contrast to the fates of other, better-known "Class A" war criminals, such as
Prime Minister Tojo Hideki and General Yamashita Tomoyuki (known as
the "Tiger of Malaya" for his conquest of British Singapore), both of whom
went to the gallows. Memories of the "good war" fought by America and
her allies, and the justice they meted out at Nuremburg and Tokyo, can only
provoke ironic smiles when recalled in juxtaposition to the happy lives
these men led after the smoke of war had cleared.

Ishii

Ishii Shiro spent his last years in relative and unwilling inactivity. He
was afraid of being taken by the Soviets for war crimes, and after
negotiating his way into immunity with U.S. authorities, he could not locate

meaningful work. His lack of what would today be called "people skills"
made him unwelcome to many of his former subordinates who had moved
on to lucrative positions of respect, and preferred to distance themselves
from Ishii. He wanted to work at Naito Ryoichi's company, but he was not
wanted there, either.

Ishii contracted throat cancer—there were rumors of former unit
members having a hand in it—and died in 1959 at sixty-nine years of age.
Kitano Masaji officiated at his funeral.

Naito Ryoichi, Kitano Masaji, and Futagi Hideo

The American military action in Korea brought a demand for blood.
Hearing opportunity knocking, Naito, Kitano, and Futagi decided to go into