Source: CCTV news client
Masaji Kitano: The criminal transaction behind extradition
On August 15, 1945, Japan surrendered in defeat. Prior to this, Unit 731 received orders to withdraw all its members, and finally withdrew to Japan almost as a whole. However, one key member remained in China: Masaji Kitano, the second commander of Unit 731.
From August 3, 1942 to March 1, 1945, Kitano Masaji succeeded Ishii Shiro as the second commander of the 731st Unit of the Japanese invasion of China. In March 1945, he was transferred to the military medical department of the 13th Army of the Central China Dispatch Army. On August 15, 1945, Japan surrendered in defeat and Kitano was captured in Shanghai and held in a prisoner-of-war camp. Later, under the coordination of U.S. military intelligence, On January 9, 1946, Kitano Masaji was extradited back to Japan. Why did the United States do everything in its power to extradite a Japanese war criminal?
Jin Sung-min, director of the 731st Unit Crimes Exhibition Hall of the Japanese Army invaded China: Kitano, as a (former) senior official, is the only person outside of Japan (after Japan's surrender) unit 731. If this person stays in China, he will definitely be tried by China. The United States believes that such a high-level person, who holds the core secrets of Unit 731, has served as a unit commander, and who knows the facts of Unit 731 best, must not be exiled outside the United States, so this person is extremely important. Therefore, under the coordination of the intelligence departments and the military circles, he was extradited from Shanghai by special plane and special personnel. The so-called extradition is to protect him.
After Returning to Japan, Kitano was investigated by the U.S. military on bacteriological warfare on February 6. On April 1, 1947, Kitano submitted a 17-page confession to the U.S. military.
The original of Masaji Kitano's confession is now in the Second Building of the National Archives
At the beginning of this confession, Kitano Masaji wrote: Lieutenant General Ishii Shiro is the founder of Unit 731; the task of the unit is to carry out the prevention of infectious diseases, the manufacture and supply of various vaccines, the study of water supply, the manufacture and supply of water supply equipment, the study of infectious diseases, the prevention of epidemic water education, etc. in accordance with the provisions of the Kwantung Army Service Order; in addition, Ishii Shiro also ordered Unit 731 to conduct research in other aspects.
Jin Sung-min, director of the Museum of Evidence of the 731st Unit of the Japanese Army invading China: He (Kitano Masaji) said that Ishii Shiro had studied the projects that were not required for the service of the Kwantung Army, that is, beyond the normal function of work, beyond the development of bacteriological weapons. It clearly states that it is contrary to humanitarianism, and in fact he is also acknowledging that Unit 731 has developed germ weapons.
In addition, Kitano Masaji's confession also includes the staffing of Unit 731, research results, introduction of bacteriological weapons, etc., and Kitano Masaji also secretly submitted information related to germ warfare and human experiments to the US military, and used this as a chip to secretly trade with the United States, so that he escaped the post-war trial under the protection of the United States. So why did the United States trade with a germ war criminal?
Jin Chengmin, director of the 731st Unit Crimes Exhibition Hall of the Japanese invasion of China: It (the United States) wants to know more about the secrets of Unit 731, which the United States believes is the need of the US national security strategy. In fact, this was also a game between the United States and the great powers at that time, it was a cold war after the end of a smokey battlefield, so the United States thought that this was a strategy, this was something that had to be done, so Kitano went to Japan smoothly and quickly realized his so-called freedom.
According to archival information, from November 1945 to December 1947, the United States sent four investigators from Fort Detrick base to interrogate at least 25 members of Unit 731, and obtained data on unit 731's human experiments, bacterial experiments, germ warfare, and poison gas experiments on the condition of exemption from war responsibility.
Bacteriological war criminals who are inconsistent in words and deeds
At the end of his confession, Kitano Masaji said that germ weapons are "out of the right track of medicine, a kind of reverse use, contrary to international humanitarianism, and should not be used." He also believes that "it is of great significance to devote energy to the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases for the benefit of mankind." In reality, Kitano Masaji's behavior is the complete opposite.
Jin Chengmin, director of the Criminal Evidence Exhibition Hall of the 731st Unit of the Japanese Army invading China: Kitano served as the commander of the 731 unit from August 3, 1942 to March 1, 1945, and during this period was the period of time when the so-called scientific research and development of bacteriological weapons of the 731 unit were carried out, including the largest number of human experiments, the largest number of "achievements" and the largest scale of human experiments carried out for this purpose.
Jin Chengmin said that through transnational evidence collection and file collation and analysis in recent years, he has now mastered some evidence of Kitano Masaji's tenure as commander of Unit 731, under the guise of medical epidemic prevention research, through human experiments to secretly carry out bacterial warfare-related research. In the Journal of the Japanese Infectious Disease Society, published in 1944, an academic paper by Masaji Kitano "A Study on Epidemic Haemorrhagic Fever" was published, which contained such a description.
△ Translation: On November 6, 1942, a large number of rats were captured in the Sun Wu area where the epidemic troops were located, and 203 ticks parasitic on these rats were collected, and they were made into emulsions and injected into monkeys, and the monkeys fell ill. Blood from the affected monkeys was injected into the second monkey on 26 November, showing typical symptoms of the disease, and on 14 December, the epidemiological observation also confirmed the epidemic hemorrhagic fever lesions, and the virus has been obtained so far.
Jin Chengmin, director of the Criminal Evidence Gallery of the 731st Unit of the Japanese Invasion of China: It is mentioned here that this experiment began on November 6, 1942, and they captured a considerable number of rats in the local area and extracted an injection from 203 parasites. He said that the note (shooting) was actually a human, but he wrote above it was a monkey (body).
In October 1947, Fort Detrick sent Edwin Hill and others to Japan to investigate germ warfare and wrote the Hill Report, which recorded Kitano's confession to the U.S. military about the experiment.
△ Translation: Since November 1942, human experiments have been conducted, and all tissues have been sent to Dr. Ishikawa... Among Japanese soldiers, when this natural disease was first detected, the mortality rate was 30%, and with symptomatic treatment, the mortality rate dropped to 15%. However, the mortality rate in experimental cases was 100%.
In his confession, Kitano admitted to conducting human experiments in his research, but in his published paper, he replaced the subjects from humans with monkeys. Jin Chengmin introduced: In fact, in the papers published by the members of unit 731 at that time, such papers that used words such as "monkey" to conceal human experiments were by no means unique, and this kind of cover-up was clear to medical professionals, but such articles could be published in speeches in the authoritative society of the Japanese medical community and repeatedly published in professional medical journals, which showed that the human experiments of Unit 731 had become an "open secret" in the Japanese medical community at that time, and the academic community acquiesced to this kind of "academic research" that violated medical ethics. Under the influence of wartime militarist ideas and collective atrocities, the Japanese medical community has completely abandoned medical ethics and moral norms, and this kind of disguise also reflects that the human experiments carried out by these so-called medical experts are not a temporary unintentional act, but a distorted medical ethics and autonomous crimes under human nature.
Jin Chengmin, director of the Exhibition Hall of Evidence of the 731st Unit of the Japanese Army invading China: The elites of the Japanese medical community, who deviated from the purpose that medical science should serve mankind, also deviated from the moral code and track, engaged in such acts against humanity, which not only satisfied their so-called scientific research, but also boosted the research and development of germ warfare, which actually served Japan's war of aggression.
The national crime behind the military-academia collaboration
Kim Sung-min said that during the war of aggression against China, Japan's medical and military circles always maintained close ties in order to conduct research on germ warfare. This can be seen in Kitano Masaji's resume. Before becoming the head of unit 731, in August 1936, Kitano Masaji was transferred to the then Manchurian Medical University as a professor of microbiology. Founded in 1911, the school was a private school established in Shenyang by the Japanese colonial organization South Manchuria Railway Co., Ltd., and trained a large number of medical personnel to serve Japan's war of aggression. The relevant archival documents of this transfer were also published for the first time in recent days.
Jin Chengmin, director of the Museum of Evidence of the 731st Unit of the Japanese Army invading China: Matsuoka, then president of the South Manchuria Railway Co., Ltd., proposed to the Japanese Army Ministry that he hoped to transfer Kitano to The Manchurian Medical University. However, such a request was actually approved by the Japanese Minister of War and reported to the Japanese cabinet, and the Prime Minister and the Japanese Minister of War jointly submitted it to the Emperor in the form of a newspaper, and obtained the Emperor's permission, so this (there is) a "can" word.
Kitano Masaji retained his military status while teaching at Manchuria Medical University, which was a special case at the time. As a dual military and medical professor, Kitano has made many conveniences for the university to conduct human experiments through military forces, and the military has also received assistance from the university in germ warfare research and technology. Under the unified coordination and mobilization of the state, schools and scientific research units and the army system formed the so-called military science coordination system at that time, and applied it to the war, which further proved that the implementation of Japan's germ warfare was a bottom-up state act and an unquestionable national crime.
(CCTV reporter Wang Haiqiao, Chen Zhitong)