Page 60 - Unit 731 Testimony

I was fifteen years old at the time, and I remember everything clearly.
The Japanese plane spread something that looked like smoke. A few
days later we found dead rats all over the village. At the same time,

people came down with high fevers and aches in the lymph nodes.
Every day, people died. Crying could be heard all through the village.
My mother and father—in all, eight people in my family—died. I
was the only one in my family left. My mother had a high fever all
day. She was crying for water, and clawing at her throat. Then, she let

out a roar like a lion, and died before my eyes. Altogether, three
hundred eighty people in the village died. At times, as many as twenty
people died in one day.

As soon as the first people started dying, Japanese came into the
village wearing protective clothing and masks. The went around the
village for three days, giving injections to the people. They
administered two shots, one to the arm and one to the chest. Some of
the people who got these shots also died.

The Japanese researchers took over a house on top of a hill about a
kilometer away from the attack area to use as a vivisection laboratory.
Another plague attack survivor, Qian Tangjiang, gave his account of the

biological warfare experiment: "We were told that if we went to Rin's house
at the top of the hill, we would get treated. My friend told me that his wife
went to the house for treatment, and later was seen strapped to a table with
her body split open. Her feet were still moving; there's no doubt that she
was dissected alive."

A woman of the village, Wang Julian, also discussed the plague attack:
"Five members of my family died. My mother and father both suffered from
swollen lymph nodes, then a high fever. They died in agony. I was taken to
Rin's house, also, and I was there for two days. Then, the next day, the
Japanese went into the village again, and I ran away. The villagers gave me
herbal medicines, and in time my fever went down and I lived through it."

These successful air attacks showed that disease could be delivered by
air, and so the army doctors redoubled their efforts to produce and
accumulate rats and fleas. Still, imperfections remained in the system. The

early attacks had all been carried out by slow, low-flying planes that were
effective against peaceful, unarmed villages or cities. Battlefield conditions
would be far more demanding. Ishii wanted to have the ability to deliver