A former member of the Japanese germ warfare Army Unit 731 Youth Corps announced his decision to visit Harbin City in northeast China in August to apologize to victims of the horrific experiments on humans by the Unit during World War II (WWII).
Hideo Shimizu, the former member, said at a press conference held in the Iida City of the Nagano Prefecture in central Japan on Friday.
Hideo Shimizu, now 94, was conscripted into the army in March 1945, at the age of 14. He was sent to the headquarters of Unit 731 near Harbin where he witnessed first-hand the horrific and shocking atrocities committed by the Unit.
"I was taken alone to the specimen room where there were various human specimens that really terrified me. Some were parts of a human body. Some specimens were cut open with fetus in the womb. There were also dissected human organs, such as stomachs, hearts and lungs. I also saw heads cut open right in the middle. I just couldn't understand why we did cruel things like that," Shimizu said.
Shimizu's personal experience has made him aware of the horrific war crimes committed by Unit 731 and ignited his strong desire to pay tribute and apologize to victims in China. He has successfully raised money for his trip with the help of the Committee for Reflecting on the Iida City Peace Memorial Museum and planned to visit Harbin from August 12 to 15.
"Many innocent Chinese civilians were dissected for experiments. I feel that no matter how much we apologize, we can never atone for our sins. I feel deeply saddened for the victims. The Japanese government refuses to apologize for this. But I think I must do that," said Shimizu.
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.
The victims, referred to in Japanese as "marutas", or wooden logs, were deliberately infected with typhus, typhoid, cholera, anthrax and plague, in addition to many other bacterial diseases, to serve the goal of perfecting biological weapons.
A total of 177 pages of Japanese military personnel registration forms detailing their work in Unit 731 have recently been made public in Harbin, providing potent evidence for the war crimes committed by the Unit in the region during the war.
Former Unit 731 member to visit Harbin to apologize to Chinese people for war crimes
