New evidence of historic Japanese bio-warfare unit uncovered across China

A total of 177 pages of Japanese military personnel registration forms detailing their work in Unit 731, a Japanese biowarfare unit during World War II, were released in Harbin, the capital of northeast China’s Heilongjiang province, on Saturday.

The forms contain the personal details of 140 unit members, including doctors, lieutenants, medical soldiers, soldiers and others, who belonged to the Linkou Division, the largest of the four divisions formed from Unit 731 on 2 December 1940. It is also known as the 162nd Manchurian Unit.

According to Jin Shicheng, a researcher at the Evidence Report Room of the Crime Committed by Unit 731 of the Imperial Japanese Army, the documents show that the work of these people covered bacterial experiments and production, laboratory animal nutrition, education and training, health and the epidemic prevention, and so on.

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In one of the publications, Japanese military personnel are shown conducting rat-catching operations in Jiamusi, Heilongjiang and other places, further proving Unit 731’s role in plague-related experiments.

Unit 731 was a top-secret biological and chemical warfare research base established in Harbin as the nerve center for Japanese biological warfare in China and Southeast Asia during World War II.

The victims, referred to in Japanese as “marutas,” or wooden logs, were deliberately infected with typhoid, typhoid, cholera, anthrax, and plague, among many other bacterial diseases, to serve the goal of perfecting biological weapons.

The forms also show the links between Unit 731 and other units. For example, some soldiers were recruited under the names of other units and transferred to the Linkou Division after three months of training in Unit 731.

“This shows the deception of Unit 731, who were recruiting in the name of infantry as a disguise for their war crimes,” Jin said.

Experts believe that the forms provide key evidence for a comprehensive understanding of the composition of the Linkou Division, their wartime transport, as well as their post-war activities, and are of great importance for expanding academic understanding and research prospects of Section 731 issue.

The new evidence proves once again that the Japanese invasion of China was a top-down, large-scale and organized state crime.

The records were found at the National Archives of Japan. Copies of the files were returned to China in 2022 after negotiations and discussions.