Some members of Unit 731 of the Japanese invasion of China announced the "Body Declaration".
The Evidence Museum of Unit 731 of the Japanese Invasion of China announced a batch of new files on the 4th - the "Body Declaration" of the Headquarters of Unit 731, which records the detailed information of some members of Unit 731 after World War II. Experts believe that this is an important first-hand historical material for the study of Unit 731, and is the key evidence for its scale and shape, personnel circulation, coordinated crime, post-war trajectory and war responsibility, and is of great significance for deepening the study of Japanese bacteriological warfare.
Researchers at the Unit 731 Evidence Museum of the Japanese Invasion of China display the "Body Declaration" (photocopy) (taken on April 29). Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Zhang Tao
"In Japanese, 'body' means 'life history and experience', 'declaration' means 'declaration', and 'personal information declaration form' means 'personal information declaration form'. Jin Shicheng, a researcher at the Evidence Museum of Unit 731 of the Japanese Army Invasion of China, said that the files found and sorted out this time have a total of 69 pages, recording the personal information of 52 members of Unit 731. In the column "Units to which they belonged at the end of World War II", they were written with the words "Unit 731 of the Epidemic Prevention and Water Supply Department of the Kwantung Army".
According to reports, compared with the previously discovered "Left-behind List Book" of Unit 731 and "Alias List of Units Not Returned to the Soviet Union", the content of the "Body Declaration" is more complete. In addition to the seven types of identical information such as name and place of origin, it also records the job title and resume at the end of the war, that is, each "personal declaration" clearly records the team member's involvement in a series of crimes since joining the team, as well as the trajectory of his activities from the defeat of Japan in August 1945 to his return home.
This is the "Body Declaration" (photocopy) taken at the Evidence Exhibition Hall of Unit 731 of the Japanese Invasion of China (taken on April 29). Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Zhang Tao
This means that these 52 team members did not follow the 731 unit as a whole and withdrew to Japan, which changed the previous understanding of its evacuation issue and improved the authenticity and accuracy of historical research. Jin Shicheng analyzed that some of them were detained in the Soviet Union, and some of them hid their identities and wandered around China.
After preliminary collation and research, a series of new clues surfaced. According to the "Body Declaration", in the "Boli Trial" held in December 1949, in addition to the 12 war criminals who were tried publicly, Unit 731 members Yoshiro Eki and Shigeo Koseki were sentenced to 25 years in prison, which has not been disclosed in previous studies.
This is the "Body Declaration" (photocopy) taken at the Evidence Exhibition Hall of Unit 731 of the Japanese Invasion of China (taken on April 29). Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Zhang Tao
There is a turnover of personnel between Unit 731 and Unit 516. "They were the base camps for Japan's bacteriological warfare and chemical warfare, respectively, and they jointly carried out poison gas experiments on many occasions. Yoshito Hirakawa, a member of the discovery team, was transferred from Unit 516 to Unit 731 in 1945 and served as the chief of the health corps. This shows that their cooperation is very close and worthy of follow-up research. Jin Shicheng said.
According to the "Body Declaration", four team members were sent to Harbin Medical University in the puppet Manchurian State for three years of "medical training" as military students, the youngest of whom was 15 years old and the oldest was 21 years old. This is the key information of the Japanese military, government and medicine to train young soldiers, and once again proves that the implementation of human experiments and bacteriological warfare is a top-down, organized, premeditated, and systematic group crime of Japanese militarism. Jin Chengmin, director of the 731st Unit of the Japanese Invasion of China, said.
It is reported that this file was retrieved at the National Archives of Japan, and after many communications and negotiations, it was collected and returned to China in 2022.