We Took Down Two Today - Testimony about Japanese atrocities in China

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We Took Down Two Today

Posted on Thursday, January 8, 2004. From testimony by Yoshio Shinozuka concerning atrocities committed by the Japanese army in China during World War II. Shinozuka was a member of Unit 731, which conducted human experiments on more than 250,000 Chinese civilians and prisoners of war. Shinozuka testified on behalf of a group of victims' families who sued the Japanese government, which has refused to issue an apology or to provide any compensation. In August 2002 a Tokyo district court dismissed the lawsuit and said that it had no legal basis. Translated from the Japanese by Mihoko Tokoro. Originally from Harper's Magazine, April, 2003.

Please state how you joined Unit 731, the so-called Ishii Unit.

It was March 1939. Recruiters came to junior high schools, vocational schools, and agricultural schools, and I volunteered to join the unit. We were ordered to report to the Epidemic Prevention Laboratory of the Imperial Japanese Army's School of Military Medicine in Tokyo. When I arrived I was told, "You are a member of the Junior Youth Corps of the Ishii Unit. You will soon be transferred to Harbin, China. It is a wonderful place."

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We Took Down Two Today