Page 25 - Unit 731 Testimony

As Japan continued expanding the breadth and depth of its power on
the Asian mainland, Ishii Shiro's career also continued to advance apace. In
1932, an Epidemic Prevention Research Laboratory was set up within the

army hospital in Tokyo, with Ishii in charge. The title of the laboratory was
as euphemistic as Manzhouguo's "independence" and the "Great East Asian
Coprosperity Sphere" banner under which Japan conquered neighboring
countries. Prevention of disease in the Japanese military was still an
objective of the research, but the center of gravity had shifted to
development of bacteriological and chemical methods of warfare. This
laboratory was Ishii's first major step in that direction.

Meanwhile, Japanese ascendancy in Manchuria was bringing the
Japanese medical community closer to unprecedented opportunities for
research. Ishii's goal of turning bacteria and gas into weapons of the
Imperial Japanese Army would require comprehensive research, and animal

research had serious limits in producing usable data. Growing control by
Japan over Manchuria would provide research materials in the form of
people, who could be plucked from the streets like lab rats. Toward the end
of 1932, Ishii applied to the army to be sent to Manchuria to expand his
research facilities. Then, the following year, Ishii's aggressive push for
biological warfare research resulted in a grant of land and a building in
Tokyo for his research. Coincidentally, this was the year in which Japan

withdrew from the League of Nations, which had judged it in the wrong for
its aggression against China. This severance of ties would be instrumental
in freeing Japan's hands from any remaining constraints on the way she
behaved in Asia.

The Japanese maintained control in Manchuria in a variety of ways.
Emperor Pu Yi's police force, obedient to the commands of its Japanese
puppeteers, was one law enforcement arm. In addition, there was a special
police force which engaged in intelligence work but was also skilled in
gaining confessions from suspected spies. Finally, perhaps the most
terrifying group in the service of the Japanese Empire belonged to the elite

group of military police known as the kenpeitai.
Substantial though Japanese capacity to maintain "public order" was,
there was no lack of work for it. Opportunities to detain people constantly

manifested themselves. The powers-that-were in Manchuria decreed anti-
Japanese activity a cause for arrest, and the oppressive nature of the
Japanese occupation created patriots who formed underground groups to