Page 62 - Unit 731 Testimony

was checking wind direction and velocity. We placed square boards,
fifty centimeters to a side, on the ground at regular intervals and had
the eggs sprayed from the air. Then, we studied the boards to see what

kind of dispersal and coverage we got.
Once we used the inside of a huge mausoleum-type structure and
a stopwatch to measure the rate of fall of rice husks in a windless
environment. We poured dyes into the Songhua [Sungari] River to see
how far they travel and what concentrations remain at various

distances from the source. This was to determine the effectiveness of
an attack by pathogens added to rivers.

Liquid would have done away with the problem of handling living
animals, such as the insects and rats discussed earlier, in battle conditions.
Other factors, however, apparently prevented its proving a suitable vehicle.
Okijima said that the Ningbo attack was the only time he handled liquid

pathogens.

Frostbite
Professor Tsuneishi has conducted nearly two decades of research into
the activities of Unit 731, and his knowledge of its history and activities is
encyclopedic. Of everything that went on in the prison cells, on the
dissection tables, and in the research labs, he has expressed his opinion that

the cruelest experiments of all were those which concerned frostbite
research.
These tests were directed by Dr. Yoshimura Hisato, a physiologist

from the same school, Kyoto Imperial University, as Ishii. According to
Yoshimura's memoirs, Ishii came to recruit him for the experiments in
Manchuria, and Yoshimura asked what a physiologist could do in a
bacteriological research unit. He said he could understand his being used in
submarine research, for example, or in high-altitude research for pilots. But
what, he asked, could he do for the Ishii unit?

Japanese military leaders were always looking at the possibility of
having to fight the Soviets. In 1905, after sacrifices and feats called
superhuman by foreign observers, Japan had crushed Russia's sea and land
forces and established herself solidly in Manchuria. Since then, Russo-
Japanese relations had remained icy, and Moscow remained on Tokyo's list

of potential adversaries. Now, Japan's incursion into China was again