At the important moment of the 87th anniversary of the outbreak of the National War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, in order to profoundly expose the brutality of Unit 731 during the Japanese War of Aggression against China, the Evidence Museum of Unit 731 of the Japanese Army Invading China and the People's Government of Linkou County, Mudanjiang City, Heilongjiang Province jointly released the key historical file of the Linkou 162 Branch of the Japanese Unit 731 on July 6, 2024 - "Declaration on the Body of the 162 Branch" and other materials, from which it can be found that This Linkou 162 branch also participated in the development of Japan's bacteriological and biological weapons at that time, and was an important helper of Unit 731.
CCTV News reported on it in detail on July 6, and published a total of 177 pages of "Body Declaration", which is essentially a detailed personnel registration form, which can also be called a personnel resume record, which records in detail the basic information and service trajectory of 140 members of the 162 branch of Linkou.
For example, the report of Uenoji, the head of the health brigade of the branch, mentioned the rat hunting operation in Jiamusi and other places in April 1945 with the members of the branch.
The purpose of the rat hunt is to cooperate with and provide Unit 731 with the study of plague and the cultivation of plague bacteria or viruses, so these records also clearly indicate that the branch and Unit 731 have jointly conducted plague experiments and bacteriological weapons manufacturing activities.
In addition, the archives also reveal that there is a secret path for the recruitment and transfer of sanitary troops between the headquarters of Unit 731 and the 162 branch of Linkou, such as the records of Kunio Yamauchi and others show that they were not directly recruited in the name of Unit 731 or 162, but recruited in Japan in the name of Units 97, 177, and 201 in Manchuria, and then came to the headquarters of Unit 731 in Manchuria for three months of training, and then transferred to serve in the 162nd branch.
This recruitment route is very secretive! From the point of view, this path is to avoid the fact that it trains biological and chemical troops, and the purpose is mainly to enrich the human resources of Unit 731, and this path recorded in the data also shows the high degree of concealment of Japanese militarism in wartime criminal activities.
So what is the relationship between the 162 detachment of Linkou and the 731 unit? Back in December 1940, the Japanese Kwantung Army secretly deployed in Northeast China and set up four branches for the notorious Unit 731, which were stationed in Linkou, Hailin, Sunwu and Hailar, which means that it also had four detachments to assist in operations.
Among them, the Linkou 162 branch is the largest, and stands out with its huge scale and complete organizational setup, becoming the leader among these detachments, and its operation mode is highly consistent with the headquarters of the 731 unit, with the ability to independently carry out bacteriological warfare tasks, and in essence it is also a biological and chemical force.
According to reports, the 177-page "Body Declaration" file was originally stored in the National Archives of Japan, and its source is: After Japan's defeat in August 1945, the members of the 162 branch of Linkou failed to evacuate en masse, but returned to Japan separately. The "personal history report" submitted by them in accordance with the wartime regulations is the "personal declaration form" published this time.
After unremitting efforts and communication with various parties, it was finally successfully recruited back to China in 2022, and after careful collation, it was opened to the public, becoming a valuable material to expose the historical truth of the bacteriological and biochemical war crimes committed by Japan during its invasion of China.
In addition, the dossier indicates that nine members of Unit 162 in Linkou were tried in Boli (Khabarovsk) of the Soviet Union after being captured by the Soviet Red Army. Previous sources have only documented the trial of one member of Unit 162 in the Soviet Union, but the dossier released this time shows that nine other members were also tried in Boli between April and September 1950 and sentenced to prison terms ranging from 10 to 25 years. This also shows that after the war, the Soviet Union also continued to investigate and try Japan's bacteriological warfare crimes.
The full name of Japan's Unit 731 was the 731st Epidemic Prevention and Water Supply Unit of the Japanese Kwantung Army in Manchuria, which was mostly called the Ishii Unit or Kamo Unit to the outside world at that time, and it was also secretly called "Manchurian Unit 659" in 1939.
In fact, under the pretext of researching the prevention and treatment of diseases and the purification of drinking water, the unit actually used live Chinese, Koreans, and prisoners of war of the allied forces to conduct experiments on the effects of biological weapons and chemical weapons, and many researchers believe that the number of people persecuted or killed by its experiments exceeded 10,000; the unit also owned a bacteriological warfare agent factory of the Japanese invading army, covering an area of more than 300 acres.
During the Japanese invasion of China, the unit threw plague and other bacterial and viral agents in many places on the mainland, causing plague in many places and the death toll is difficult to calculate.
Unit 731 was one of the main incriminating evidence of the Japanese fascist conspiracy to launch bacteriological warfare to commit genocide. After Japan's unconditional surrender in August 1945, Unit 731 blew up most of the buildings, including barracks and preparation factories, when it was defeated, but some ruins still exist.
The "Body Declaration" of the Japanese 162 Detachment released this time is not only a valuable material for studying the composition of the personnel of the 162 Branch of Linkou and its post-war flow, but also profoundly reveals the extensive and systematic nature of the bacteriological warfare crimes of Unit 731 of the Japanese Kwantung Army, which is ironclad evidence that Japanese imperialism committed organized and premeditated crimes at the national level in those years. This discovery is of inestimable value for comprehensively and accurately exposing the truth of history and reminding the world to remember history and cherish peace.
Source: "CCTV News" reported on July 6 that "the first disclosure of the files of 140 members of Unit 162 of Unit 731"