The Khabarovsk War Crimes Trial:
Unearthing Biological Warfare in WWII
3607 members of Unit 731, 12 brought to trial at Khabarovsk. Did justice ever prevail?
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Although the west often dismissed the Khabarovsk War Crimes Trial as "Communist Propaganda," it was the first time the scientists from the "Epidemic Prevention and Water Purification Department" of the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) came forward with the crimes they committed during World War 2.
The Khabarovsk War Crime Trials were hearings held between 25–31 December 1949 in the Soviet Union's Stalinist courts, and it lasted for five days. It was after the 10-month long Nuremberg trials and the two-year-long Far Eastern War Crimes Tribunal in Tokyo. Although it was a shorter war crimes trial, it unearthed cruel biological weapon development and human experimentation practices by the Japanese Imperial Army. This book is a short version of the full trial. It highlights the precise points of the testimonies as well as the proceedings. |
