Page 43 - Unit 731 Testimony

then be put to sleep with chloroform, and the boys would work at pulling
the fleas from their bodies with pincers. Then the fleas were placed into
containers with water, which prevented them from jumping around, and

from there the Japanese staff took over. According to Othman, test tubes
were prepared with one flea in each. The rats were injected with plague
pathogens, their bellies were shaved, and the test tubes were inverted over
the shaved area, allowing the fleas to feed on the rats and become plague
carriers. "All this work was done by the Japanese in the same room where I
worked," Othman recounted.

The infected fleas were then transferred to kerosene cans which
contained sand, dried horse blood, and an unidentified chemical. They were
left to breed for about two weeks. Finally, the adult fleas and their offspring,
all infected with plague, were transferred to flasks and shipped out.
Concerning their destination, Mr. Othman said, "A driver who drove the

trucks which transported the fleas to the railway station said that these
bottles of fleas were sent off to Thailand." This information supports
assertions that a Unit 731 branch operated in "neutral" Thailand, as well.
The Singapore operation was veiled in the same secrecy that covered

other installations. "During the two years I was working there," Mr. Othman
is quoted as saying, "I never knew the actual purpose of my work. We were
too afraid to ask."
Without being told so, the boys knew that they were working with

danger. Everybody had to wear white overalls, rubber gloves and boots, and
white headgear. On one occassion a rat bit through the rubber glove of a
Japanese staffer, and the man died. Another time, an Indian boy working
there was bitten on the finger by a rat, but he was saved by being rushed to
the hospital and having the tip of the finger amputated.

Othman left the laboratory in late 1944 for another job. After the war,
he read of a Japanese biological warfare attack on Chongqing using fleas,
and he stated in the article that "the thought that I could have been involved
in something related to that still troubles and worries me." In the years
intervening between the end of the war and his speaking to the Straits

Times, he never spoke of his employment at Unit 9420.
In Japan, historian Matsumura Takao of Keio University credited the
information from the former official with filling the gap between what had
been strongly suspected about the Singapore operation and the lack of