Page 134 - Unit 731 Testimony

used in the development of biological weapons, and the total direction of all
our efforts was toward warfare.

On August 10, 1945, we boarded a train at Harbin. We heard talk about
an uprising in Korea, but in about ten days we made it back to Japan.
There is one thing I would like to mention about this exhibit. It is
stated that when the war ended, rats ran around infecting people with

plague. That is not true. I heard that the rats were all killed with chemicals
and did not infect the area. The maruta were also killed.

Hygiene specialist (Anonymous)

[The speaker gave this talk at Morioka City, Iwate Prefecture, in July
1994.]

Five people were selected from each prefecture to become hygiene
specialists, and I was one of Iwate's five. In January 1941, we arrived in
Dalian. We spent three months training in a unit there, and in March I was
transferred to Pingfang and entered Unit 731. I was eighteen years old.

At the former unit we were always hit around by the senior soldiers,
and it was rough. But at Unit 731, there was harmony. There were only
medical officers and civilian doctors. There was no seniority among
soldiers, no noncommissioned officers. The facilities and the food were
good, and we didn't get hit.

As soon as we came to Unit 731, I heard rumors about human
experiments. They told us, "You're in a unit that infects prisoners with
bacteria and dissects them. Get yourself ready for it."

From April to July, we had general education. There were about two
hundred of us in the same residence hall. Later, we worked at dissecting
dogs. After I opened up a dog, the instructor explained the organs.
Part of our work was growing bacteria in glass dishes. They warned us

not to touch the bacteria with our hands. We were told, "Don't remove the
cover until you get the order to do so." We were ordered to apply the
bacteria culture medium to the glass dish as a preparation stage and leave it
overnight. In twenty-four hours, the bacteria would generate. The medium