Page 79 - Unit 731 Testimony

employee working in the Bacteriology Department of Chuzan University at
Guangzhou, and was quoted in the report as saying that in June 1941, "he
heard that Major General Ishii, Shiro was conducting experiments with

bacillus bombs at branch of Army Medical College in Harbin, Manchuria.
Previously, Major General Ishii had been head of Laboratory Section, Army
Medical College at Tokyo."
Other damning entries appear in the report, as well. One is an "extract
from loose handwritten sheets containing fragmentary notes on various

types of bombs. Undated and unclassified, owner and unit not stated,
captured Philippine Islands, December 1944: MK-7 bacterial bomb
(BYORYOKIN) 1 kilogram." Another item in the book shows a list of
Japanese possessions falling into American hands. One such item is a
printed manual of "Field Service and Supply" dated August 1941, and with
"many pages missing." A section of this document is listed in the U.S.

report as titled "Subject Matter—Bombing, Gas and Bacteria (these pages
torn out.)"
The end of the war did not mean an end to such reports. If anything,
the volume of information arriving at SCAP headquarters exceeded that

available during wartime, flowing in almost from the time of the beginning
of the Occupation. Moreover, Joseph B. Keenan, chief of the International
Prosecution Section (IPS), had received reports of biological warfare
activities. Nonetheless, no action had yet been taken to investigate whether
any of the participants in Japan's biological warfare activities should be
called up before the tribunal.

Moscow seemed to have stronger feelings on the issue than its
ostensible ally Washington. With the trials underway, the prosecutor for the
U.S.S.R. made a request to interview Ishii and two other leading
researchers, Colonels Kikuchi and Ota, in connection with biological
warfare experiments. Information from Japanese POWs captured by the

Soviets in Manchuria had suggested to them a need to investigate Japan's
biological warfare program further. The information that the POWs had
supplied to the Soviets concerned experiments by these men using Chinese
and Manchurians. The Soviets were assuming—or claiming to assume—
that supplementary war crimes trials would be authorized by the United

States. And, of course, they wanted to see all information relevant to Unit
731.