“Ro” and “Ha”
The buildings in number 7 and 8, nicknamed “Ro” and “Ha”, were very important since they housed the logs and were heavily guarded to ensure secrecy. Building 7 housed male victims while building 8 housed females and children. Depending on the type of research for which a victim was needed, the cell had either single or multiple occupants. Buildings 7 and 8 were designed to house 400 inmates, but most believe that an average of 200 inmates were housed at any given time. Each cell had windows near the floor to make it easier to draw blood samples and walls were 30-40 centimeters thick. The cells were kept clean to ensure the quality of research and each cell even had a flushing toilet.
Warfare Museum - Unit 731 - Harbin, Manchuria, China
Victims normally were brought to Pingfan in the dead of night in crammed freight cars with lumber logs on top or were delivered in grayish-green paneled Dodge trucks owned by the Kempeitai. The victims were then brought into the building via a secret tunnel. According to a witness, Fang Shen Yu, technicians in white coats handled the victims who were tied in bags so tightly that their head and feet touched each other. The way to secure victims was similar to the method of securing victims in the Zhong Ma Complex, but on a larger scale at Pingfan. Anyone charged with any type of crime such as anti-Japanese sentiment, opium smoking, espionage, communism, mental handicap or homelessness was sent to Unit 731 for experiments. Victims included mainly Chinese, stateless White Russians, Harbin Jews, Soviet prisoners captured at the borders, Mongolians, Koreans, and Europeans accused of espionage. During the Khabarovsk Trial, Major Iijima Yoshio admitted that he was personally responsible for subjecting at least 40 Soviet citizens to certain human experiments. The Chief of the Kwantung Army Kempeitai, Major General Shirokura, had issued Operational Order 224, which sent 30 prisoners to Unit 731.
"Lumber Mill" of Death
The diversity of prisoners ensured the reliability of the research data. Each prisoner was assigned a number that started with 101 and ended at 1500. Once 1500 was reached, they began again at 101, which made it impossible to determine how many actually fell victim to Unit 731. No one was allowed to survive Unit 731 alive. “If a prisoner survived the inoculation of lethal bacteria, this did not save him from repeated experiments, which were continued until death from infection supervened. The infected victims were given medical treatment in order to test various methods of restoring soundness. They were fed normally and, after full recovery, were used for the next experiment and infected with another type of germ. Ultimately, no one ever left this death factory alive. Since Unit 731 had been labelled a lumber mill to the locals, most either did not worry about the complex or were too afraid to do so. The role of prison warden was assigned to Ishii’s own brother, Mitsuo, to ensure no secret leaked out.
Operational order # 224 of the Kwantung gendarmerie about mass "special dispatch", page 1
As requested by the Command of the Japanese Air Force, Unit 731 also housed a pressure chamber to test the endurance of human organs at high altitudes. In this chamber, men died painful deaths. Many sacrificed their lives for scientific advancement and it was well known in the Japanese scientific community that humans were used as test subjects for their scientific papers. In fact, some scientific papers from Unit 731 researchers referred to their subjects as “Manchurian monkeys”, “monkeys”, “Taiwan monkey”, and “Formosan monkey”. It was an open secret in the Japanese medical society that they were using humans as experimental subjects.
Related Book
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Marutas of Unit 731: Human Experimentation of the Forgotten Asian AuschwitzEuphemistically labeled as the "Water Supply and Prophylaxis Administration" and "HippoEpizootic Administration" of the Imperial Japanese Army, Unit 731 and Unit 100, as well as their subsidiary branches, performed human experimentation on the innocent under the leadership of Commanding Officer and Doctor Ishii Shiro. The Kempeitai (military police) captured the "lab rats" for Unit 731's prison. The prisoners included Chinese patriots, nearby civilians, Russians, and Allied prisoners of war. Although the exact number of victims is unclear due to Japan's attempts to liquidate evidence of their heinous crimes at the closing of the war, it is estimated to have ranged from 3,000-250,000 innocent men, women, and children. The cruel experiments and medical procedures were carried out by the brightest medical students, scientists, researchers, and staff that Imperial Japan had to offer.
To dehumanize prisoners in their minds, the scientists of Unit 731 called their test subjects "Marutas" or logs. Unit 731 faculty's observation of Marutas included their reaction to bubonic plague, typhoid, paratyphoid A and B, typhus, anthrax, smallpox, tularemia, infectious jaundice, gas gangrene, tetanus, cholera, dysentery, glanders, scarlet fever, undulant fever, tick encephalitis, "songo" or epidemic hemorrhagic fever, whooping cough, diphtheria, pneumonia, erysipelas, epidemic cerebrospinal meningitis, venereal diseases, tuberculosis, salmonella, frostbites, and many more deadly viruses, germs, and bacteria. To observe the real-time effects of these harmful agents, these prisoners were often subject to vivisections without the use of anesthesia. In the case where a human experimental subject was exhausted from the experiments, they were to be killed one way or another. Some test subjects were handed potassium cyanide tablets, while others ingested porridge with heroin. These "medical doctors" who performed routine human experiments were allowed to escape persecution, unlike their Nazi counterparts in Europe. This affair became infamously known as the elaborate American cover-up of war crimes, offering these perpetrators of crimes against humanity-- including Emperior Hirohito and Ishii Shiro--immunity in exchange for US access to Unit 731 research. Instead of punishment, many of these criminals were rewarded handsomely with great careers after the war, while thousands of Chinese families mourned their loved ones' lives which had lost at Unit 731 or dealt with the permeating consequences of sustaining a bacterial attack in their village. |