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Newly discovered document exposes evaluation system of technicians under wartime Japan's germ warfare unit

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Newly discovered document exposes evaluation system of technicians under wartime Japan's germ warfare unit

2024-09-18 23:48 Last Updated At:09-19 00:17

Japanese Army Unit 731, a biological and chemical warfare unit stationed in northeast China during World War II, had a strict evaluation and assessment system for technicians, allowing those who conducted live human experiments to be promoted, according to a newly discovered document of the notorious unit.

The new document was disclosed by Japanese scholar Seiya Matsuno, a specially-appointed professor at Heilongjiang International University, in September ahead of the 93rd anniversary of the September 18 Incident of 1931. The archive is important evidence for deepening the research on Japan's bacterial warfare system and is of great significance to fully exposing Japan's biological warfare crimes.

The September 18 Incident of 1931 taking place in the city of Shenyang in northeast China was a precursor to Japan’s launch of a full-scale invasion of China, and a key event ahead of the outbreak of World War Two in Asia.

The new files include the evaluation forms of Unit 731 technicians. On these forms, red words such as "excellent" and "good" are marked. For example, Yoshimura Hisato,a war criminal and leader of the unit’s frostbite study squad, has four "excellent" and one "good" ratings. During this period, Hisato compiled the relevant content of the experiments conducted in Unit 731 into a paper and published it in Japan.

"This paper is a confidential document written by Yoshimura Hisato, a technician with Unit 731, about frostbite. It was published on October 26, 1941. There is a table called Experiment 5, which contains the frostbite resistance index of people under various living conditions. The subjects are marked with ABCDE, and then the data of frostbite resistance indexes are counted under various living conditions, such as soaking in cold water, soaking in warm water, fasting for two days, fasting for three days, and the subjects staying awake day and night. Such data obtained through live human experiments can be seen everywhere in the paper," said Tan Tian, researcher at the exhibition hall of evidence of crimes of Unit 731 in Harbin, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province.

According to staff from the International Research Center of Unit 731 under the Harbin Academy of Social Sciences, Hisato joined Unit 731 in March 1938 as a sixth-class technician. While conducting frostbite research and experiments, he was also responsible for the management of the special prison where the subjects were detained, making him a researcher as well as a core secrets administrator of the of Unit 731. He was promoted to the rank of fourth-class technician in October 1942.

"From the perspective of Yoshimura Hisato, he joined Unit 731 in 1938 and completed a three-step career jump in less than four years until 1942. Lying behind such fruitful achievements were the bloody live human experiments he made. Yoshimura Hisato published at least 200 medical papers in his career. The Japanese medical community tacitly approved the anti-human atrocities and human experiments of Unit 731, which further reflects the organized nature of these crimes," said Gong Wenjing, director of the International Research Center of Unit 731 under Harbin Academy of Social Sciences.

Unit 731 was a covert biological and chemical warfare research and development unit of the Imperial Japanese Army that engaged in lethal human experimentation and biological weapons manufacturing in China during World War II. The unit is estimated to have killed between 200,000 and 300,000 people. It was based in the Pingfang District of Harbin, the largest city in the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo (now Northeast China, formerly named Manchuria) and had active branch offices throughout China and Southeast Asia.

Unit 731 was responsible for some of the most notorious war crimes committed by the Japanese aggressor troops. It routinely conducted tests on people who were dehumanized and internally referred to as "logs". Experiments included disease injections, controlled dehydration, biological weapons testing, hypobaric pressure chamber testing, vivisection, organ procurement, amputation, and standard weapons testing. Victims included not only kidnapped men, women (including pregnant women) and children but also babies born from the systemic rape perpetrated by the staff inside the compound.

Newly discovered document exposes evaluation system of technicians under wartime Japan's germ warfare unit

Newly discovered document exposes evaluation system of technicians under wartime Japan's germ warfare unit

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Russian tourists explore Chinese culture in picturesque historical sites

2025-03-11 04:10 Last Updated At:07:27

A group of Russian tourists recently visited a series of picturesque historical sites in east China's Jiangsu Province where they said seeing iconic locations reminded them of many classical Chinese movies and TV series.

The tourists, who included Russian landscape architecture experts and artists, traveled around many historical cities in Jiangsu, such as Suzhou, Nanjing, Wuxi, and Changzhou.

Jiangsu is known for its elegant and refined regional culture, in particular the classical gardens in Suzhou, which are famous for their exquisite designs and layouts.

"The first Chinese film I watched on a Chinese television channel was 'Journey to the West'. But, in fact, Chinese films are also highly welcomed in Russia and we know Russian cinemas have screened many Chinese movies, such as 'Hero'. I have been studying Chinese culture for nearly 30 years, so, every time I visited China, I always found something new in things like rituals and food. Today, I visited some parks, which were new to me, and I want to recommend them to everyone. They should come and see these gardens for themselves. Besides, modern parks in China are also worth visiting," said Elena V. Golosova, President of the Landscape Architecture Committee of Russia and CIS Countries.

Russian artists in the tour group said their first-hand experience of Chinese culture heightened their desire to learn more about the country's tradition and promote more cultural communication between Russia and China.

"Thanks to these historical TV series, we can see Chinese traditions, banquet rituals, and different traditions and etiquette used in interpersonal interactions and communication. Surely, there are some details that I have never known before and I want to read and study all the content related to Chinese culture. In addition, I want to say that many people in Russia have strong interest in Chinese movies and China's art of cinematic presentation. Next week, Moscow Asian Film Festival will start featuring a series of movies and one section of the film festival will be about Chinese movies and it will last a whole day," said Anna Donchenko, a Russian artist who has studied Chinese painting styles.

Russian tourists explore Chinese culture in picturesque historical sites

Russian tourists explore Chinese culture in picturesque historical sites

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