Page 176 - Unit 731 Testimony

and rubber gloves. Since we'd go into bacteria infested areas, we couldn't go
to the toilet because of the danger of our getting infected ourselves. We'd
have to go back to the unit, get into a tent for a disinfectant shower over our

rubber clothes, and then wait a while. After that, we could finally take off
the protective clothing. Then, we'd have to get into a disinfectant bath, then
another bath with different water. When that was over, we could at last get
dressed. I didn't know what kind of bacteria was being used at the Anda
testing ground.

I want people who come to this exhibition to tell their children and
grandchildren that there is nothing more stupid and fearful than war.

Nurse attached to Unit 731 (Sakumoto Shizui)

There was a hospital in Harbin for treating members of Unit 731 who
became sick or infected from working with the experiments. I was assigned
there in the summer of 1942, and I worked there for about a year. People
infected with plague were also sent to us. With plague, as you know, many
people die in three days to a week after infection occurs.

When I was there, a nineteen-year-old by the name of Ishii Ichiro
[almost certainly General Ishii's son] who had contracted plague was sent to
us from headquarters. Plague is a very serious problem, so all

communicable disease cases in our hospital were taken to another hospital.
There were twenty-five of us nurses, and five of us were picked to take care
of Ishii. There's no telling when a patient like this could die. The medical
officer in charge told us, "If he has a lung hemorrhage, you get outside
quickly." But there was no coughing up of blood, and in a month the patient
recovered.

During that month, we all worked with the feeling that we never knew
who among us might be the next one to be sacrificed. We couldn't eat. And,
when we had night duty, we had to stay in the same room with the patient.
Thinking about it now, that was fearful work. But I came through it, and
I've lived a long life.

When we were first called to serve, it was for a hospital ship. That was

in July 1941. With the outbreak of the war, it was decided that hospital ship