China's Central Archives on Saturday released a batch of newly declassified Soviet documents related to Unit 731 of the Japanese Imperial Army in World War II, adding new and compelling evidence to the historical record of Japan's notorious germ warfare crimes.
The archive copies, which China received from Russia, include trial records of Unit 731 members, investigation reports on the unit's crimes, and internal official correspondence of Soviet authorities, covering the period running from May 11, 1939 to Dec. 25, 1950.
During World War II, the Japanese invading forces established a biological warfare network across multiple Asian countries, with Unit 731 located in Harbin, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, serving as a top-secret base for biological weapons and human experiments.
At least 3,000 people from China, the Soviet Union and other countries and regions were used in human experiments conducted by Unit 731.
"This year marks the 80th anniversary of the victory in the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War. At this significant moment, the Central Archives of China has released the declassified Soviet interrogation files of Unit 731, which were transferred to China by Russia," said Zhao Cong, director of the Department of International Exchange and Cooperation of the Central Archives.
According to China's Central Archives, the archives provided by Russia reveal the Soviet investigation process during the early stage of the Khabarovsk War Crimes Trials in 1949, identifying more than 200 individuals linked to the crimes of Unit 731, and ultimately singling out 12 war criminals for public trials.
These individuals confessed to violating international conventions and to preparing and carrying out biological warfare.
According to Zhao, the newly released archives form a clear and comprehensive chain of evidence that lays out the full organizational structure of Unit 731, its capacity to research, develop, and produce biological weapons, and its horrific crimes, including human experiments.
"The archives provided by Russia, together with the preserved Unit 731 sites and existing evidence in China, reinforce and corroborate one another, further confirming the crimes committed by the Japanese militarists during their war of aggression against China. The materials include interrogations of Unit 731 personnel, interrogation notes, and personal testimonies," she noted.
Experts believe that these archives provide concrete historical evidence of Japan's biological warfare crimes in China, further confirming that Japan's biological warfare was a top-down, state-organized war crime and offering irrefutable proof for restoring historical truth.
China releases historical evidence from Russia on notorious Japanese Unit 731
A video featuring a former member of Unit 731, a notorious Japanese germ-warfare unit during World War II (WWII), was released on Thursday in northeast China's Harbin, revealing details of how the unit used meteorological data to conduct horrific bacterial experiments on human beings.
The video was released by the Exhibition Hall of Evidence of Crimes Committed by Unit 731 of the Japanese Imperial Army, in which former Unit 731 member Tsuruo Nishijima detailed how the unit used meteorological data to carry out a bacterial dispersal experiment.
The video was recorded in 1997 by Japanese scholar Fuyuko Nishisato and donated to the exhibition hall in 2019, according to the hall, which was built on the former site of the headquarters of Unit 731 in Harbin, the capital city of Heilongjiang Province.
Jin Shicheng, director of the Department of Publicity, Education and Exhibition of the exhibition hall, said that Nishijima joined Unit 731 in October 1938 and served in the unit's meteorological squad. The squad was not a simple observation section but rather an auxiliary force supporting the unit's field human experiments by measuring wind direction, wind speed, and other conditions to ensure optimal experimental results, according to Jin.
Nishijima confirmed in the footage that "the meteorological squad had to be present at every field experiment." He testified to the "rainfall experiments" conducted by Unit 731, which involved aircraft releasing bacterial agents at extremely low altitudes.
At a field-testing site in Anda City, Heilongjiang, Unit 731 aircraft descended to about 50 meters above the ground. They sprayed bacterial culture liquids onto "maruta" -- human test subjects -- who were tied to wooden stakes. Each experiment involved about 30 people, spaced roughly 5 meters apart. After the experiments, the victims were loaded into sealed trucks and transported back to the unit, where their symptoms and disease progression were recorded over a period of several days.
"Unit 731's bacterial weapons were dropped by aircraft from a height of 50 meters in the open air. Therefore, the meteorological squad needed to observe wind direction and speed, which directly affected the precision and accuracy of the bacterial weapons deployment," said Jin.
Nishijima recounted the harrowing experience of the human test subjects.
"They were fully aware that inhaling the substances would certainly lead to death, so they closed their eyes and held their breath to avoid breathing them in. Their resistance prevented the experiment from proceeding. To compel them to comply, they were forced at gunpoint to open their mouths and lift their heads," said Nishijima.
These experiments, disguised as "scientific research," were in fact systematic tests of biological warfare weapons conducted by the Japanese military. The data generated from these inhumane activities became "research findings" shared among the Japanese army medical school, the medical community, and the military at large.
"At that time, the entire Japanese medical community tacitly approved, encouraged, and even participated in the criminal acts of Unit 731. The unit comprised members from Japan's medical and academic sectors who served the Japanese war of aggression against China. Thus, Unit 731 was not just a military unit but represented an organized and systematic criminal enterprise operating from the top down," said Jin.
Unit 731 was a top-secret biological and chemical warfare research base established in Harbin as the nerve center for Japanese biological warfare in China and Southeast Asia during WWII.
At least 3,000 people were used for human experiments by Unit 731, and Japan's biological weapons killed more than 300,000 people in China.
Video offers details of Japan's germ-warfare crimes in northeast China
