Interview: That's the hell on earth—— Interview with Qing Shui Yingnan, a former member of the "Youth Team" of the 731 unit of the invading Japanese army, about bacteria | Experience | Unit

Tokyo, August 14th (Xinhua) - That's hell on earth—— Interview with Qing Shui Yingnan, a former member of the "Youth Team" of the 731 unit of the invading Japanese army in China

Xinhua News Agency reporter Guo Dan and Li Guangzheng

"I often think, 'So many' big roads' have died, and Japanese team members have also been dissected, why did the 731 unit do so many evil things? 'As the only former member of the 731 unit of the invading Japanese army who was willing to publicly testify and expose the crimes of the Japanese bacterial army, 93 year old Hideo Shimizu recently recalled the terrifying experience 78 years ago in an interview with Xinhua News Agency.

From the end of March 1945 to August 1945, before Japan's defeat, they fled back to Japan. Although it was only a short period of just over four months, the horrific and hellish scenes witnessed by Unit 731 left a lasting impression on Shimizu.

"This boy is me," Shimizu said to reporters at his home in Nagano Prefecture, pointing to a black and white photo. This is a group photo of a member of the "Youth Team" of Unit 731 and an instructor.

This is the "Original Book of the First Army Hospital of the Japanese Army in Harbin" exhibited at the exhibition of evidence of bacterial warfare crimes committed by the invading Japanese army held in Mudanjiang City, Heilongjiang Province on August 5th.

He said, "I was born in Nagano Prefecture. At the end of March 1945, when I was 14 years old, I was recommended by school teachers to go to Harbin. The teacher said I was going to the military to become a 'trainee technician'. As for what kind of military and what I did specifically, I am completely unclear. This photo was taken when I first joined the team."

"There are a total of 34 people who joined the team with me, of which 3 were assigned to the 'Ministry of Education Internship Room', located on the second floor of this building." Shimizu pointed to the bottom right corner of a map of the Manchurian 731 Army Headquarters of the Kwantung Army's Epidemic Prevention and Water Supply Department. ". "We started learning the basic knowledge related to various pathogens, and later extracted body fluids from mice to check for the presence of pathogens. If so, we cultured these pathogens. I was completely unclear at that time about what the cultivated pathogens were used for."

"After a while, the instructor asked me if I wanted to become a specialized technician in bacterial warfare or a surgeon after my internship. If I wanted to become a surgeon, I would need to dissect at least three corpses." Shimizu paused for a moment.

"I said I wanted to become a surgeon, so the instructor took me to the specimen room on the second floor of the headquarters, only me." Shimizu paused for a moment.

"I saw many specimens of human organs, all kinds of them, soaked in bottles filled with formalin and placed on several shelves. At this point, the instructor told me that these organs were obtained after conducting live dissection experiments on 'Road Big'."

"The road is big," in Japanese, it means logs or wood materials. But here, it refers to living people captured by the Japanese army for experiments. According to the data, these individuals who were captured for live experiments included both Chinese anti Japanese soldiers and ordinary civilians, including women and children, as well as North Korean, Soviet, and American prisoners.

On June 1st, Japanese scholar Masayoshi Matsuno presented a photocopy of the personnel list of the 731st Army of the invading Japanese army to the International Peace Archive of Heilongjiang University of Foreign Languages.

When it comes to the specimen room, Shimizu can't continue. After a brief pause, the reporter began to ask further questions.

Q: I heard that there are still children among these specimens?

Answer: Yes, there are children. There are many specimens of the fetus in the mother's belly and the children's specimens.

Question: More than one child, right?

Answer: There are many, not just one. The child was dissected and all the organs were taken out.

Q: How many are there?

Answer: This... countless. Only a lot of this word can be used. I dissected the child, really, I still... I can't even imagine taking action on an innocent fetus in my abdomen.

Q: Does it mean that there are children from a few months old to older ones?

Answer: Hmm. From a fetus that has been in the womb for several months to a newborn baby. I really think 731 has done all sorts of bad things, all innocent children!

The scene in the specimen room shocked the young man at that time, Shimizu. Shimizu said that after returning that day, he had nightmares all night and woke up covered in cold sweat. The hellish scene lingered in his mind, and even decades later, whenever Shimizu saw his beloved grandson, he would recall the terrifying scene of the past. Recalling this terrifying past made him shudder.

This is a bacterial culture incubator displayed in the Criminal Evidence Exhibition Hall of the 731st Army of the Japanese Invasion of China in Harbin, Heilongjiang Province.

At the end of December 1949, the Soviet Union established a military court in its coastal city of Khabarovsk in the Far East to try 12 Japanese prisoners of bacterial warfare. In court, Kiyoshi Kawashima, who had previously served as the head of the Bacterial Production Department of Unit 731, confessed that Unit 731 had killed no less than 3000 soldiers and civilians from China, North Korea, the Soviet Union, and other countries due to experiments.

At that time, in the clear water of Unit 731, it was unimaginable that I had also been an experimental subject of bacterial warfare. He recalled: "I once ate Mantou with bacteria given by the army. I didn't know that I was' tested 'until I saw the reportage" The Full Food of Demons "written by the writer Seiichi Morimura based on interviews with a large number of former members of the 731 Army, and then I knew that I was' tested' at that time."

He said, "After that meal, I suddenly had a fever of 42 degrees Celsius, which lasted for a week. During that week, I vaguely felt that a health guard came to measure my temperature and pulse every day, and besides that, I no longer felt alive."

Shimizu said that in the winter of the year he fled from China to Japan, he caught typhoid fever. The clinic doctor gave him a blood test and told him that he had very few red blood cells in his blood. If left untreated, he might not be able to withstand that winter.

Shimizu said that in addition to conducting bacterial experiments on Japanese team members, Unit 731 will also conduct live dissection on team members infected with bacteria during the experiment. "Yoshio Shinotsuka is also a member of the 'Youth Team'. He joined the team earlier than I did. He once said in Seiichi Morimura's book" The Feast of the Devil "that his good friend Sanxiong Hiragawa was dissected alive because he was infected with pestis. He stood beside him and saw the whole process with his own eyes."

"I believe what Yoshitaka Xiaozuka said is true." Shimizu rested his arm on the table, propped his chin, and looked out the window.

This is the "Anti Human Atrocities" wall written in six languages in the Criminal Evidence Exhibition Hall of the 731st Army of the Japanese Invasion of China in Harbin, Heilongjiang Province.

Looking back on his experience in the 731 unit, Shimizu said, "Although I have only been in the 731 unit for over four months, when I later found out that the unit I joined was an invading unit that carried out human anatomy and bacterial warfare, I deeply regretted it."

In 2016, Shimizu and his family went to see the peace exhibition held by the Peace Information Collection Committee of Fantian City. They saw surgical knives and other evidence left by former member of the 731 unit, Hu Taoze Zhengbang. He made up his mind to publicly disclose the identity of a member of the "Youth Team" of the 731 unit, participate in peace activities, and expose the crimes committed by the Japanese bacterial troops invading China. He constantly gives public speeches, sharing his experiences in the 731 unit, and has given six public speeches in 2023 alone.

"There are many forces in Japan now, only mentioning their own 'victimization' in the war they encountered, but not mentioning aggression and harm to other countries at all. The testimonies and materials of the former members of the 731 unit are also not allowed to be displayed under the pretext of 'not wanting to tell the children such a cruel reality'. I want to say that Japan has indeed carried out cruel acts of harm. Isn't what we are telling the children the truth?"

"Facts are facts, and we should accept them correctly! The most profound lesson to learn is not to engage in war anymore!" said Shimizu. Thinking of the present, he is deeply concerned about Japan, which has continuously strengthened its military strength in recent years.

"Facing history and praying for peace" is the most sincere voice of a Japanese war witness 78 years after the end of the Japanese invasion of China.