Hideo Shimizu, a former member of the Japanese germ warfare Army Unit 731 Youth Corps, arrived in Harbin City in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province on Monday evening to testify and expose the crimes committed by the unit during World War II and apologize to the victims.
He is expected to visit the Exhibition Hall of Evidence of Crime Committed by Unit 731 of the Japanese Imperial Army and the former premises of Unit 731 on Tuesday.
Shimizu, 94, was among the last batch of Unit 731 Youth Corps members sent by Japan to Harbin, China, where he spent more than four months witnessing the war crimes committed by the unit, including the cultivation of pathogens, human dissections and human experiments. He was conscripted into the army in March 1945, at the age of 14. He fled China with the retreating Japanese forces on August 14, 1945.
In 2016, Shimizu revealed his identity as a former Unit 731 member and began to expose the atrocities of the Japanese Imperial Army through public speeches and interviews.
Shimizu announced the trip last month. This visit is Shimizu's first return to Chinese soil in 79 years.
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 World War II.
At least 3,000 people were used in human experiments by Unit 731, while more than 300,000 people in China were killed by Japan's biological weapons.
Former member of Japanese germ-warfare unit returns to China to expose war crimes
Former member of Japanese germ-warfare unit returns to China to expose war crimes
