Page 28 - Unit 731 Testimony

and everything else was put to the torch. An area of five hundred square
meters was designated a restricted military zone, and brick buildings started
going up. The tract of land to the south was also forcibly appropriated and

made into a Japanese military airport.
Chinese laborers were recruited and driven hard at wages low even by
local standards. Their Japanese overseers argued that low pay was sufficient
because the cost of living was low. But with large families the general rule
in China, the pay for construction workers was barely enough to feed the

mouths that depended on them.
With typical Japanese efficiency, the construction—comprising several
hundred rooms—was finished in less than one year. Everything was veiled

in secrecy. During construction, the laborers were under constant watch by
Japanese guards, and their movements were limited. The number of
laborers varied each day according to the work to be done. There were two
sections to the complex. One contained offices, living quarters, dining
areas, warehouses, and a parking lot. The other section contained the heart
of the organization. In sequence as it concerned the victims, there were
prisons, laboratories, and crematoria. There was also an area for munitions

storage.
The area containing the lab was especially restricted to Chinese
workers, but at times they had to enter to carry in materials or large boxes.
In such cases, precautions bordering on the comical were taken to assure

that the Chinese would see nothing. They were ordered to get under huge
willow baskets that covered their bodies. They would then pick up their
loads, be led in by Japanese guards, deposit their burdens, and be led out of
the restricted area. Then they could come out from under the baskets.

The new facility was astounding to look at. It became known as
Zhongma Fortress. (The character for fortress has also been translated as
"castle," and it does, in fact, have that meaning in Japanese. In the original
Chinese, however, it is applied to an entirely walled-in fortress city, a
protection against enemy attacks. This is surely what the Japanese facility
must have looked like to the outsiders.) A three-meter-high wall was topped

with barbed wire and high-voltage electric wire. A twenty-four-hour guard
was posted outside. Twin iron doors swung open to a drawbridge. The road
in front of the facility was declared off-limits to the citizens, and people had