Has another World War II atrocity been uncovered?

The Guardian reports:

Authorities in Japan have begun excavating the former site of a medical school that may contain the remains of victims of the country's wartime biological warfare programme.

The school has links to Unit 731, a branch of the imperial Japanese army that conducted lethal experiments on prisoners as part of efforts to develop weapons of mass destruction.

Memorial plaque at site of Unit 731 facilities in Harbin, China
(image courtesy of Wikipedia)

. . .

Experts believe that if the excavation yields physical evidence that Japan conducted experiments on live humans, the government would face pressure to discuss the country's wartime conduct. "If bones or organs with traces of live medical experiments are found, the government would have to admit a wartime medical crime," said Yasushi Torii, head of a group that has been investigating the case for decades. "This is a start, although we will probably need more evidence to prove Unit 731's involvement."

Ishii, 88, broke her 61-year silence in 2006, claiming that she and colleagues had been ordered to bury numerous corpses, bones and body parts in the grounds following Japan's surrender in August 1945.

. . .

The site in Tokyo's Shinjuku district is close to another where the mass graves of dozens of people who may have been victims of wartime experiments was uncovered in 1989.

Investigators concluded, however, that the remains, which included skulls with holes drilled through them or sections removed, were not connected to Unit 731 and that there was no evidence of criminal activity.

The health ministry concluded that the remains were those of non-Japanese Asians that had been used in "medical education" or recovered from war zones for analysis in Japan.

Unit 731, based in Harbin in northern China, conducted experiments on tens of thousands of mostly Chinese and Korean prisoners, and a small number of Allied prisoners of war. Some historians estimate up to 250,000 people were subjected to experiments. The remains of some are thought to have been transported from China to Tokyo for analysis.

According to historical accounts, male and female prisoners, named "logs" by their torturers, were subjected to vivisection without anaesthesia after they had been deliberately infected with diseases such as typhus and cholera. Some had limbs amputated or organs removed.

Leading members of the unit were secretly granted immunity from prosecution in return for giving US occupation forces access to years of biological warfare research. Some went on to occupy prestigious positions in the pharmaceutical industry, health ministry and academia.

. . .

In 2004, a Chinese survivor described to the Guardian how his home on Zhejiang province, south-east China, had been attacked by plague-inflected fleas dropped by Japanese occupation forces. Records show that hundreds of thousands of Chinese civilians were infected with the plague and other diseases.

. . .

But some former members of Unit 731 have come forward to discuss the past. They include Akira Makino, a former doctor who in 2006 said he had been ordered to conduct experiments on condemned men while stationed on the island of Mindanao in the Philippines.

There's more at the link. An Internet search for Unit 731 atrocities will lead you to much more information, but be warned - a great deal of it is graphic, gruesome and ghastly! It's not for the faint of heart.

To me, one of the most shameful and inexcusable acts of the victorious Allies after World War II was to fail to prosecute many German and Japanese war criminals, on the grounds that their knowledge - gained at such horrendous human cost - was important to the Allies. It was believed that in order to persuade the perpetrators of these hideous crimes to freely share what they had learned, they would have to be given immunity. Some were allegedly brought to the United States and given new identities here.

There are many who have never forgiven the Japanese for their barbarity and cruelty to other races and nations. My own father found it very difficult. He was bound for Singapore in 1941, aboard a troop convoy. Very fortunately for him, he was taken off the convoy in Durban, South Africa, to help the South African Air Force with a technical problem (he was a Royal Air Force engineer officer). All those who sailed with him, including many of his friends, ended up as prisoners of the Japanese a few months later. Only about a third came home again at the end of the war. The rest died due to maltreatment and deliberate starvation. He found that impossible to forget, and very, very hard to forgive. I'm not sure that he ever fully succeeded in doing so.

The Japanese nation has avoided discussion of wartime atrocities. I hope this latest 'discovery' can be verified, if only because such physical evidence might possibly make some of the more nationalistic Japanese realize that their perspective on their country's past is wrong. However, I'm sure there will be many others who'll never admit that.

May all those who suffered and died under such atrocities, rest in peace.

Peter