Page 150 - Unit 731 Testimony

the unit members was there in labor, and there were soldiers with lots of
medals. Surrounded by those high-ranking officers, I delivered the baby.
That was August 15, 1945. We were passing through Xinjing. The train

engineer ran away, and we couldn't move. Planes were flying overhead,
keeping lookout; soldiers were around us. I was trembling in fear. This, I
felt, was really war.
Then, we heard the emperor's words ending the war. We were always
told to "work hard and Japan will definitely win." When I heard that we had

lost, I was sad.
It grew dark. Ishii came over to us carrying a big candle and said, "I'm
sending you all back home. When you get there, if any one of you gives

away the secret of Unit 731, I personally will find you, even if I have to part
the roots of the grasses to do it." He had a fearful, diabolical look on his
face. My legs were shaking. And not just at me—at everyone. "Even if I
have to part the grasses ..."
He told us never to go for a job in a public office. That order limited

my husband's chances of employment in Japan. He couldn't apply for a job
with a government agency, and he ended his life doing hard work. He
wasn't made for that.

Kenpeitai officer (Naganuma Setsuji)

[Naganuma was eighty-one years old at the time he gave this talk. He spoke
at Takatsuki City, Osaka Prefecture, in December 1994.]

I am a war criminal. I served in Manzhouguo [Manchukuo], that phony
country created by Japan.
In August 1945, the Soviets invaded Manchuria. I was captured and

imprisoned for five years in the Soviet Union, where I did forced labor on
very meager rations. I was in my early thirties and still strong, so I managed
to survive. A lot of those in their fifties and sixties died of malnutrition and
exhaustion. There were too many prisoners for the Russians to handle—
some six hundred thousand. They returned most of the prisoners to Japan
and kept about one thousand of us considered to be war criminals.