In the late 1950s, when a farmer in Changchun City, Jilin Province, was working in his own field, he accidentally found that when he ploughed the land, he actually turned white bones out of the soil, and he was instantly startled.
He originally thought that these were the bones of animals such as cattle and sheep.
But when the clear skull appeared in front of him, he was shocked and hurried to report to the commune.
The police came and sealed off the scene and dug a pit of hundreds of square meters.
Countless white bones are buried in them.
After professional testing, these white bones are human bones, there are thousands of them, and they are all women, all in their early twenties when they die.
In order to find the truth, the police found a large number of experimental equipment, experimental samples, research records and so on around.
Later, after investigation, these were all evidence of the crime of Japanese Unit 731 in destroying bacteriological weapons, and these Chinese compatriots and experimental equipment were buried.
Turning over the morning fog of history, we return to that tragic period of history.
In addition to video records and archival materials, we only have a small number of surviving historical witnesses, the "old man with rotten feet", who tell the atrocities of the Japanese army.
First, the touting of germ weapons
Speaking of germ weapons, we have to mention a man. He is the infamous Shiro Ishii, the founder of the Japanese Kwantung Army's Epidemic Prevention and Water Supply Unit (Unit 731).
He inhumanely conducted many human experiments on chinese compatriots, and even developed bacteriological weapons that are explicitly prohibited by international law.
Shiro Ishii was born in 1892 to a wealthy family of powerful men in Chiba Prefecture, Japan, and belonged to a large family that was second to none.
He showed a strong memory of learning from an early age, and was even able to memorize an entire text in just one night.
Later, at the age of 28, Shiro Ishii graduated from the Faculty of Medicine of Kyoto Imperial University in Japan and came to the Army to become a military doctor.
His research field brought great disaster to the Chinese people.
Shiro Ishii has his own set of sayings.
He believes that the biological, chemical and bacteriological weapons he has studied can be used as important weapons and can play a greater role on the battlefield, and he can definitely become a general of the Japanese army by virtue of this alone.
Therefore, he vigorously marketed his secret weapons to the japanese high-level in order to gain the favor of the high-level.
And he only knows that these germ weapons can help him gain fame and fortune, but he does not care how much disaster it will bring to the Chinese people, and countless "old people with rotten feet" are even more disabled for life.
At that time, the Japanese army advocated the spirit of Bushido.
The so-called Bushido, that is, absolute obedience, relying on real swords and guns to achieve merit.
The japanese military top brass believed that biological, chemical and germ weapons were the left side of the door, and using such a despicable means when passing through the enemy would damage their honor.
Therefore, Ishii Shiro's sales work naturally did not go well.
As an island country, Japan's domestic resources are extremely poor, and it cannot turn stones into iron, and digging soil cannot be used as coal, and many strategic resources such as coal, iron, and oil needed for national development must be turned to foreign countries.
In World War I, the French and German armies fired tens of millions of shells in a single battle, and the United States also stopped exporting steel to Japan. These factors have deeply stimulated the Japanese.
If a country wants to develop and expand abroad, it must have reliable resources as a guarantee.
Northeast China is sparsely populated, and there are natural resources such as coal, iron and petroleum, which makes Japan hungry.
Nagata Iron Mountain vigorously advocated the modernization of weapons and equipment, and he was deeply shocked to travel to Europe during World War I to see all kinds of advanced weapons and equipment, such as aircraft, cannons, chariots, submarines, and even poison gas.
Second, cruel human experiments
The Dongxiang army was first established on the outskirts of Harbin on the Beiyin River, and this unit later built Zhongma City in a prison on the outskirts of Harbin, which was convenient and very hidden.
This force has carried out many inhumane human experiments here, and the crimes are chilling, indescribable, and beyond human imagination.
Later, due to the riots in the prison and the discovery of the anti-coalition team, Ishii Shiro closed the city in order not to let the secret of the germ weapon leak.
He went to the bungalow area closer to Harbin, re-established a new facility, and continued the chilling experiments with human germs. The infamous Unit 731 was born.
At that time, the Japanese military department ordered Unit 731 to develop bacteriological weapons as soon as possible so that they could be put into use on the battlefield as soon as possible.
After receiving the order, Unit 731 was engaged in intensive research and development work.
All the bacterial weapons that can be used against animals and plants, they studied them one by one, and eventually targeted the main bacteria such as anthrax and rhinomycetes.
(Dead bones of ordinary Chinese people killed by the Japanese army)
Unit 731 injected these bacteria into animals for testing, but not for epidemic prevention, but to create bacteriological weapons that could be put into actual combat. At first, it was only tested on animals, especially mice and horses.
Later, the Japanese army was no longer satisfied with experimenting only on animals.
In Harbin, Changchun and other places in northeast China at that time, hundreds of young girls were arrested here every day, and what awaited them was the beginning of bad luck.
The Japanese army tested them as guinea pigs, injected various illegal drugs, observed various reactions, and recorded the data needed for the test.
After the test, these girls became the dry bones at the beginning,
Shiro Ishii and others conducted bacterial infections, dissected biochemical experiments on living people, and developed bacteriological weapons that were thrown into the Chinese battlefield, causing tens of thousands of Chinese military and civilian casualties.
The war criminal made deals with the United States after the war, escaping trials before the International Court of War. He died of laryngeal cancer in Tokyo, Japan in 1959.
They stocked the food of imprisoned Chinese people with experimental bacteria.
These kind people thought that this was just ordinary food, but they did not know that what they swallowed was a deadly poison.
Shiro Ishii and others were outside the laboratory observing the various reactions of these ordinary Chinese people after swallowing food.
After obtaining the data needed for the experiment, they brutally murdered the Chinese people.
These germ weapons were also put on the battlefield by the Japanese army.
Unit 731 conducted many field bacteriological experiments in Hailar and other places in northeast China, and also conducted germ warfare against the Soviet Army in the Battle of Nomonkan.
They fired shells at Soviet positions, which contained high-intensity infectious diseases such as plague and cholera.
At that time, there was a rare plague in northeast China, countless innocent people were affected, and Unit 731 had a responsibility that could not be shirked.
Japan used a large number of bacteriological weapons on the battlefield of World War II, and these anti-human weapons not only caused a large number of military and civilian casualties, but also caused great trauma to the hearts and minds of the victims, and also caused irreparable damage to the natural environment.
At that time, some bacteriological weapons dropped by Unit 731 on the Battlefield of China caused a large number of people and animals to be infected and killed, and rivers, grasslands and forests were also deeply polluted.
On the eve of the defeat, the Japanese army also released bacteria-infected animals in the laboratory, which harmed hundreds of people.
Innocent old people who have been ravaged by bacteriological weapons
In 1940 and 1942, when the Invading Japanese Army fought on the battlefield in Zhejiang and parts of Jiangxi, it used a bacteriological weapon, anthrax, against Chinese soldiers and civilians.
Japanese aircraft armed with germ weapons dropped germ bombs directly over the battlefield or over towns.
After these ceramic bacteria bounced to the ground, the various fleas wrapped in them ran towards the crowd like joy.
Dig mass graves
The local people all ran to see it curiously, and then they were unfortunately infected by these bacteriological weapons.
"Rotten foot disease" broke out.
At the beginning of the infection, there will be a lump with itching sensation on the person, and then the skin will slowly begin to ulcerate, and black rotten flesh will appear in the center of the ulcer, which is a phenomenon unique to anthrax infection.
Anthrax penetrates into the human circulatory system through necrotic skin and muscle tissue, and patients will have symptoms such as fatigue, fever, chills, and prostration.
If treatment is not taken in time, it will lead to the death of the patient.
Experimental instruments left over from the Japanese army
Some people get "rotten foot disease", which is extremely itchy, and their feet begin to fester, and they basically lose their mobility.
Even, some patients who could not stand this torture chose to end their lives by suicide.
Those who endured could only watch as the rotten flesh of their feet fell off piece by piece.
They could not work in the field all their lives, and they lost their dependence on life, so they could only lie in a bed in a remote corner, let the pain and pain be tormented, and eventually die alone.
The germ weapons used by the frenzied Japanese army brought heavy disasters to the Chinese people.
After Japan surrendered, these 731 demon groups exchanged benefits with the United States, evaded the trial of the war tribunal, and finally died at home in Japan.
The Japanese army was stationed in the countryside of the mainland
Looking back at history, we cannot bear to open this heavy and painful page, let alone look directly at the Chinese compatriots who died innocently.
History cannot be forgotten, and the blood and tears of our ancestors make us unforgettable.
We can't choose to forgive the devils for them, because their sins are too numerous to describe. All we can do is to be angry and strong, so that the national shame will not be repeated!
Resources:
- DING Xiaoqiang. Unveiling the Dark Curtain of the Japanese Army's Germ Warfare: Reading Harris's Death Factory[J].Research on the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, 2001(03).
- ZHANG Limei. A Review of the Research on Bacterial Warfare of the Japanese Army Invading China in the Past 10 Years[J].Journal of Beihua University (Social Science Edition), 2006(08).
- BAO Xiaofeng. A review of the Japanese army's bacteriological warfare crimes in Zhejiang during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression[J].Zhejiang Archives, 2015(09).
- LIU Shuo,ZHANG Boyu. Testimony of Suffering: Unveiling the 100th Unit of Germ Warfare of the Japanese Army Invading China[J].Military Digest, 2018(11).
- YANG Yanjun. Archive Collation and Research on Bacterial Warfare Documents in Japanese Collections[J].Northern Cultural Relics, 2017(04).
- DING Xiaoqiang. The Japanese anthrax attack on Zhejiang[J].Archives and History,2002(01).
Edit: Laid-back brother
Editor-in-Charge: Thalia