JAPAN/FILE: Japanese government digs up alleged site of World War II human experiments

Record ID: 464910

  • Title: JAPAN/FILE: Japanese government digs up alleged site of World War II human experiments
  • Date: 23rd February 2011
  • Summary: (MUTE) HARBIN, HEILONGJIANG PROVINCE, CHINA (ORIGINALLY 4:3) (FILE) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF STILL PHOTOGRAPHS OF VICTIMS OF UNIT 731 ON DISPLAY IN A MUSEUM IN CHINA WAX FIGURINES SHOWING HUMAN EXPERIMENTS ON CHINESE IN A MUSEUM IN CHINA SLIDES OF GERMS
  • Embargoed: 10th March 2011 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Japan, China
  • City:
  • Country: Japan
  • Topics: War / Fighting,History
  • Reuters ID: LVA9Z6SH7WH5D3NG5GN9NUQ98ZVT
  • Story Text: Japan kicks off an investigation of a controversial site that some say contains remains of victims of biochemical experiments during World War II.
    The Japanese government on Monday (February 21) began excavating a site that was used as a military hospital in Tokyo during World War II.
    "We're now excavating this site to confirm the existence of any human remains, which I believe would be only bones now," said Welfare Ministry group official Kazuhiko Kawauchi, whose office owns the land.
    Unit 731, part of the Japanese military during World War Two, was based near Harbin in northeast China but headquartered on this site of the former Tokyo Army Hospital.
    The Unit has been accused of conducting biological and chemical warfare experiments on about 3,000 Korean, Chinese and Russian prisoners between 1937 and 1945 mostly in China.
    If this latest excavation turns up anything, it would be the second batch of bones found since 1989 at the site of Unit 731's former headquarters in Shinjuku, central Tokyo.
    Previously some Japanese historians have said that those bones were from cadavers used by the medical school located on the site, and a 1992 government enquiry cleared the bones of being those from biological experiments.
    This latest excavation was prompted by a former nurse recalling that there were bones at a different location.
    The Japanese government has neither denied nor acknowledged the activities of Unit 731, believed by many historians for conducting tests on humans to develop biological weapons, including anthrax and bubonic plague.
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