Page 143 - Unit 731 Testimony

Some time after the war, K-san formed a group with other former Unit
731 members. Some former unit members are planning a trip to China to
apologize to surviving family members. K-san remarks on this by quoting a

Buddhist teaching: "'The Buddha is never far away; he is always near.' It
isn't necessary to go to China; visiting Tama Cemetery is all right."]

K-SAN: We were the Youth Corps; that is, we were transferred into a special
environment. So when talk started in the postwar years about forming our
association, there were voices against it. In 1953, we held a large
Buddhist memorial service with some former Unit 731 members,
including those who were active in the headquarters under Ishii and
Kitano. We later formed a Memorial Service Association and have kept

the group going ever since. We published a newsletter, and it has now
reached more than one hundred issues.
In 1955, our association erected a cenotaph in the Tama Cemetery

in Tokyo and held a memorial service to console the spirits of the
sacrificed maruta. Since then, we have held a service every year on the
first Sunday following August 15, and this has gradually brought the
existence of Unit 731 out before the public. But this is only a once-a-
year event.

Then, in 1993, we held a large meeting of members from all over
Japan. We plan to hold more, sending out the word for any former Unit
731 people to come together and join us.
T-SAN: When I was in elementary school, a former student of our school
about six years senior to us came flying over in a trainer and dropped a
message in the schoolyard. It read, "Underclassmen! Come and follow

us!" That got us enthusiastic about joining the Youth Corps of the armed
services. Then we were told that if we came to Unit 731 we would get to
ride in planes. I was excited by airplanes, so I applied. Our school had a
three-month-long "Manchuria and Mongolia Development Volunteer
Corps" educational program, and after finishing that we were sent over to
China. We were fifteen and sixteen years old, the youngest in our town to
go overseas.

We rode a night train for Niigata, our port of embarkation. When
we reached the harbor, there were reports of American submarine
activity in the Japan Sea and our ship was kept in port for one week. It

would have been all right if we had left right away, but the waiting got