Page 179 - Unit 731 Testimony

flat, and that I'd be better off staying there than returning home. But I
headed home and they helped me clear out when I left.

The Manchurians must already have known about Japan's losing the
war when I first heard about it. They already had documents for
appointments issued by either the army of Jiang Jieshi or Mao Zedong. We
Japanese knew nothing about what was happening. Looking back at it now,
it seems like a joke.

[In 1981, two reporters from the Mainichi newspaper sought out former
members of Unit 731 for interviews. They concluded their coverage by

noting that "naturally, some people did not want to talk. Some former
members we approached said, 'You're mistaking me for someone else.' At
the homes of others, they said, 'I can't talk about that,' and sent us away.
One former technician, a lieutenant during the war, said that he would talk
with us, but not in the house, so we interviewed him standing outside."

The interviews were carried in the November 27 issue of the
newspaper. The following testimonies are excerpted from this article.]

Army major and pharmacist attached to Unit 731

(Anonymous)

[This resident of Hyogo Prefecture was sixty-six years old at the time of the
interview. After the war, he went on to become the head of a medical
research laboratory]

In April 1942, Units 731 and 516 joined together for tests near the
Soviet border on the outskirts of the city of Hailar. The tests lasted three
days and used approximately one hundred maruta. Four pillboxes were
used, and two to three maruta were placed in a pillbox at a time for each

test. Electrodes were placed on the victims and a desk and monitoring
equipment were set up about fifty meters away.
Canisters of liquefied phosgene gas were thrown into the pillbox. As
the gas spread and asphyxiated the victims, changes in their pulses and

other vital signs were observed and recorded up until death occurred.