Recently, the Evidence Exhibition Hall of Unit 731 of the Japanese Army Invaded China released a newly discovered archival material to the public - "Unit 731 Headquarters Declaration".
△ The cover of the declaration form on the body of the headquarters of the 731 unit
This is the "personal information registration form" left by a small number of 731 members who did not evacuate and return home with the entire unit after Japan's defeat on August 15, 1945. What details of Unit 731 are revealed in this document?
Where did this file come from?
This file, titled "Report on the Body of Unit 731 Headquarters", was originally stored in the National Archives of Japan, and in 2023, it will be transferred to the Evidence Exhibition Hall of Unit 731 of the Japanese Army Invasion of China in Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, where researchers will collate, interpret and study.
Traditional research holds that after Japan's defeat on August 15, 1945, Unit 731 was evacuated and returned to Japan. However, the "Report on the Headquarters of Unit 731" released this time found that when the large force withdrew, there were still 52 people who did not return to Japan with the troops.
Jin Shicheng, a researcher at the Evidence Museum of Unit 731 of the Japanese Invasion of China, said that when Unit 731 received the order to retreat, they may not have been in Harbin and had no time to withdraw to Japan with the headquarters. After all Japanese troops overseas return home, they must register their personal declarations, otherwise their military status will not be realized, they will not be recognized, and there will be many pensions that cannot be cashed.
Of the 52 members who did not evacuate with the main force as a whole, 14 were detained in the Soviet Union, and 38 were hidden and wandered around China. After the end of World War II, they returned to Japan as individuals and filled out a personal registration form, which was the "Report to the Headquarters of Unit 731" that was made public.
△ Registration information on the physical application form
What was disclosed for the first time?
These 69 pages of files completely record the "names", "troops", "time of joining the team", "the unit to which they belonged before the end of the war", "resumes at the end of the war" and other information, and clearly restore the series of criminal activities that the reporter began to participate in and the circulation between different units when he entered Unit 731, as well as the trajectory and journey of his activities and journeys during the period from his defeat to his return to China in August 1945.
- From these trajectories, the researchers found clues about the transfer of personnel between Unit 731 and Unit 516 of Qiqihar.
According to Jin Shicheng, Unit 516 is the Chemical Department of the Kwantung Army, which is the base camp of Japan's chemical warfare against China, and Unit 731 is the base camp of Japan's bacteriological warfare against China. It is recorded in the declaration that a person named Yoshihito Hirakawa was in Unit 516 of the Chemical Department of the Kwantung Army from January 1 to December 1, 1944, and began to work in Unit 731 in January 1945, which proves that there was a transfer and flow of personnel between Unit 731 and Unit 516 between Japan's invasion of China and bacteriological warfare.
- The public body declaration also found evidence that Unit 731 and the puppet Manchurian National Harbin Medical University jointly trained young soldiers.
The archives show that four people, including Iwamaru Munehiko, came to Harbin from Japan as military students, and after joining Unit 731, they were immediately sent to the puppet Manchurian National Harbin Medical University for a three-year so-called "medical" study, and returned to Unit 731 after graduation.
△ Evidence in the body declaration about the joint training of young soldiers by Unit 731 and the puppet Manchurian National Harbin Medical University
△ Evidence in the body declaration about the joint training of young soldiers by Unit 731 and the puppet Manchurian National Harbin Medical University
Jin Shicheng said that the file information of these four people is very complete, which once again proves that the medical universities in the northeast region of the Japanese puppet period, represented by the puppet Manchurian National Harbin Medical University, were an extension of the medical crimes of Unit 731, and they cooperated with Unit 731 to carry out human experiments and bacteriological warfare, and Unit 731's human experiments and bacteriological warfare were not the case of one unit, but the result of the integrated operations of the Japanese military, academia, government, and medicine, and Unit 731 was a top-down, large-scale, and organized group crime.
Past historical research has found that Unit 731 is mainly composed of six identities: generals, trainee non-commissioned officers, quasi-noncommissioned officers, corporals, soldiers, and military dependents, as well as some unknown persons. However, it is not clear what kind of position the "unknown person" is engaged in.
- For the first time, it was revealed that Unit 731 also had a special "intelligence officer" position.
Jin Shicheng said that the function of the "intelligence officer" is to guide the bacteriological units in various localities to carry out bacteriological warfare and spy on intelligence for Unit 731, and it is recorded that he went to Beijing and Tianjin in 1938 to spy on intelligence, and in 1941 he went to Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province to spy on intelligence. In 1941, when he went to Hangzhou to spy on military intelligence, it was when the Japanese army carried out bacteriological warfare against Zhejiang.
The "Declaration of Unit 731 Headquarters" is a brand-new first-hand historical material and core file for the study of Unit 731, and an important evidence for the study of the overall shape, post-war trajectory, and war responsibility of Unit 731, which has extremely important academic value and practical significance for deepening the research on the problem of Japanese bacteriological warfare.
▌Source of this article: CCTV News WeChat public account