Page 124 - Unit 731 Testimony

soldiers afflicted. The brass at Japanese headquarters saw their soldiers
falling to venereal disease, and the problem became grave."

The Marco Polo Bridge Incident and the Rape of Nanjing took place in
1937. There were twenty thousand recorded incidents of rape against
Russian women during the period [in the five-month span] between those
events alone. With the spread of venereal disease among the ranks and its
threat to the discipline and efficiency of the army, it was natural for the high
command to look to an army medical unit for a solution to the problem, and

Unit 731 was called upon.
Infection of venereal disease by injection was abandoned, and the
researchers started forcing the prisoners into sexual acts with each other.

Four or five unit members, dressed in white laboratory clothing completely
covering the body with only eyes and mouth visible, handled the tests. A
male and female, one infected with syphilis, would be brought together in a
cell and forced into sex with each other. It was made clear that anyone
resisting would be shot. Once the healthy partner was infected, the progress
of the disease would be observed closely to determine for example how far
it advanced the first week, the second week, and so forth. Instead of merely

looking at external signs, such as the condition of the sexual organs,
researchers were able to employ live dissection to investigate how different
internal organs are affected at different stages of the disease.
The victimization and suffering of women under Unit 731 had not

been given much attention in accounts of Unit 731's activities until the
comfort women issue was brought to the surface. The focus was largely on
a racial basis, how the Chinese and Russians and Koreans were victimized.
Now it has become clear how women have suffered as women, and
attention is being directed to this issue also.

Another issue being brought closer to the fore now is that of children.
Yoshimura Hisato, who later became head of the Kyoto Prefectural
University of Medicine, was in charge of frostbite experiments. He was
known as an outstanding scholar and researcher. One of his experiments
was with a three-month-old baby. A temperature-sensing needle was

injected into the baby's hand and the infant was immersed in ice water, then
temperature changes were carefully recorded. After the war he issued a
paper on this experiment and the results. Since it would have been
impossible to conduct an experiment like this in postwar years, it became