Khabarovsk War Crimes Trial

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The Khabarovsk war crimes trial was a series of long-forgotten court hearings against twelve members of the Japanese Kwantung Army in the city of Khabarovsk in late December 1949.

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The trials were directed against individuals who were involved in the development of biological weapons .

Among the defendants were the last commander of the Kwantung Army Yamada Otozo and five other generals of the Kwantung Army, eight of them were members of units 731 (six) and 100 (two), the remaining higher commanders to whom these units were subordinate. The majority (eight) of them were physicians or biologists and were sentenced to prison terms of between two and twenty-five years for war crimes in connection with the development, production and use of chemical and biological weapons in the Chinese scene of World War II .

Although the Soviet Union tried to bring the results of the process to the attention of the world public, which did not succeed in the cold war that had begun in the meantime. For one thing, only Soviet reporters took part in the process; for another, the United States tried successfully to portray the negotiations as mere communist propaganda; the US High Command for Japan spread the claim that the trial was just an attempt to divert attention from the remaining 375,000 Japanese soldiers in Soviet captivity. It would also have been embarrassing for the Americans if it had become known that they had exempted the bioweapons specialists who had fallen into their hands, provided that they continued to research weapons of mass destruction for the United States.

Even during the trial, the Japanese accused were employed as experts in Soviet research. In 1956 all prisoners who were still alive were released from the USSR and deported to Japan.

Composition of the court

The session was chaired by the Soviet Major General of Justice DD Chertkow , while Colonel of Justice ML Ilnitsky and Lieutenant IG Vorobyov were appointed assessors . The indictment was represented by the third-tier Judicial State Councilor LN Smirnov. The accused generals each had a lawyer. The two staff officers and the two officers were each represented by a lawyer. The lawyers were appointed by the Moscow Bar Association and the Khabarovsk Regional Bar Association. The three accused NCOs and corporations were defended by the chairman of the Primor Region Bar Association.

The expert opinion on bacteriological and medical questions was prepared by an expert commission, consisting of: NN Zhukov-Vereshnikow (member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR ), VD Krasnow (chief physician), Prof. NN Kosarew (head of the microbiology department at the Medical Institute of the University of Khabarovsk) , JG Liwkina (lecturer at the Department of Microbiology, State Medical University of the Far East ), NA Alexandrow (senior field veterinarian) and OL Koslowskaja (parasitologist).

The defendants and their convictions

judgment

The verdict was pronounced on December 31, 1949, the defendants were sentenced to labor camps between 2 and 25 years. The reasoning for the judgment reads as follows:

"With regard to the personal guilt of the accused in the present criminal case, the military tribunal considers it proven:"

  1. Otosoo Jamada [Otozō Yamada], Commander-in-Chief of Japan's Kwantung Army from 1944 until the surrender of Japan, directed the criminal activity of his subordinate divisions 731 and 100, which prepared a bacterial war , and approved the brutal murder of thousands of people who died in these departments were killed in all possible experiments on the use of bacterial weapons.
    Jamada took steps to ensure that divisions 731 and 100 were fully prepared for the bacterial war and that their capabilities were sufficient to meet the army's needs for the bacterial weapon
  2. Kioshi Kawashima [Kiyoshi Kawashima], from 1941 to 1943 head of the production department of Department 731, was a senior staff member in the department, participated in the preparations for the bacterial war, kept abreast of the activities of all subdivisions and personally directed the breeding of fatalities Bacteria in quantities that were completely sufficient to supply the Japanese army with the bacterial weapon.
    In 1942 Kawashima participated in the organization of the combat use of bacterial weapons in the territory of central China. Throughout his tenure in Division 731, Kawashima personally participated in the violent mass killing of inmates in the inner prison through criminal attempts to infect them with serious infectious disease bacteria.
  3. Tomio Karasawa was the head of a group in the production department of Section 731, one of the active organizers of the activity aimed at creating the bacterial weapon and thus a participant in the preparation for the bacterial war.
    In 1940 and 1942 Karasawa took part in organizing expeditions that spread disease among the peaceful population of China.
  4. Riudsi Kadsituka [Ryūji Kajitsuka] advocated the use of the bacterial weapon since 1931. As head of a department of the sanitary administration of the Japanese War Ministry, he promoted the establishment and expansion of a bacteriological special formation in 1936, which Colonel and later General Ishii took over at his suggestion .
    In 1939, Kadsituka was appointed chief of the medical service of the Kwantung Army and directly directed the activities of Department 731, which he supplied with everything necessary for the production of the bacterial weapon.
    Kadsituka regularly visited Department 731, was fully informed about all of its activities, knew of the bestial crimes committed in the experimental infection of humans with bacteria, and approved of these crimes.
  5. Toshihide Nishi was head of Branch 673 of Section 731 in Sunu City from January 1943 until Japan's surrender and was personally involved in the manufacture of the bacterial weapon.
    As deputy head of sub-division 5 of division 731, Nishi trained cadres of specialists for the special units in the army units to wage a bacterial war.
    He personally participated in the murder of imprisoned Chinese and Soviet citizens by infecting them with bacteria of acute infectious diseases.
    In order to cover up the criminal activities of Branch 731 and Section 731, when Soviet troops approached Sunu City in 1945, Nishi ordered all the branch's buildings, facilities, and documents to be burned, which was carried out.
  6. Masao Onoue was the head of Branch 643 of Division 731 in Chailin City . He researched new types of bacterial weapon and provided materials for Division 731.
    Under his direction, cadres of specialists were trained to lead the bacterial war.
    Onoue knew of the mass killing of those detained in Section 731 and, through his activities, aided this monstrous crime.
    On August 13, 1945, In order to cover up the traces of the criminal activity of the branch, Onoue burned all buildings, supplies and documents of the branch with his own hand.
  7. Shundsi Sato [Shunji Satō] was from 1941 head of the bacteriological department in the city of Canton , which had the code name Nami , and in 1943 was appointed head of the analog department Ej in the city of Nanjing . Standing at the head of this department, Satō participated in the creation of the bacterial weapon and in the preparation for the bacterial war.
    As the later chief of the medical service of the 5th Army, which belonged to the Kwantung Army, Satō headed the branch 643 of the department 731 and, knowing of the criminal nature of the activities of the department and the branch, granted her his assistance in the production of the bacterial weapon.
  8. As chief of the veterinary service of the Kwantung Army, Takaatsu Takahashi was one of the organizers of the production of the bacterial weapon , directly directed the criminal activities of Division 100 and was responsible for conducting brutal experiments through which inmates were infected with bacteria of acute infectious diseases.
  9. Dsensaku Hirasakura [Zensaku Hirazakura], a staff member of the Department 100, did personal research in the field of the creation and use of the bacterial weapon.
    He took part on several occasions in special explorations along the borders of the Soviet Union, with the aim of clarifying the most effective methods for a bacterial attack on the USSR, and in the process poisoned waters, especially in the Three-River Basin.
  10. Kadsuo Mitomo [Kazuo Mitomo], employee of Department 100, took part directly in the manufacture of the bacterial weapon and personally tested the effect of the bacteria on living people, whom he killed in this painful manner.
    Mitomo was a participant in bacteriological sabotage operations against the USSR in the Tri-River area.
  11. Norimitsu Kikutschi [Norimitsu Kikuchi] worked as a medical intern in the laboratory of Branch 643 of Department 731, was directly involved in researching new types of bacterial weapon and in cultivating abdominal typhus and dysentery bascilli . In 1945, Kikutschi attended a special retraining course where specialists were trained in waging a bacterial war.
  12. Judsi Kurushima [Yūji Kurushima] worked as a laboratory assistant in a branch of Department 731. As a specialist, he participated in the cultivation of cholera and typhus bacilli , as well as bacteria from other infectious diseases and in the testing of bacterial bullets.

"On the basis of the above, the military tribunal of the military district has found the guilt of all the listed defendants for crimes that fall under Article 1 of the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of April 19, 1943, and in accordance with Articles 319 and 320 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the RSFSR sentenced the defendants taking into account the degree of their personal guilt: "

- Judgment of the military tribunal.

Effects

As soon as the Americans arrived in Japan, the US knew that Japan had made its first attempts at biological warfare, both against its Asian neighbors and against the US. Murray Sanders was designated as the special investigator . Upon his arrival, one of the heads of Unit 731, the doctor Naitō Ryōichi ( 内藤 良 一 ), offered himself to him as a translator. As an accomplice, he was now able to directly influence the interrogations. With the results, Sanders succeeded in getting Douglas MacArthur , the then Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers in Japan, to stand up for Naito and the other war criminals of Unit 731.

The head of the biological warfare department within the Kwantung Army, Shiro Ishii , who was able to flee to mainland Japan, received immunity after negotiations with Douglas MacArthur . In return, he gave the Americans everything he knew and could save in terms of material. In addition to Ishii, all other doctors in Unit 731 received immunity. Ishii was prepared by the USA for interrogation with the Soviet investigators, and his daughter was also prepared so that she would not divulge any information about the friendly relationship between the Americans and the wanted war criminals.

See also

literature

  • Soviet Union (Ed.): Trial materials in the criminal case against former members of the Japanese army for preparing and using the bacterial weapon . Foreign Language Literature Publishing House , Moscow 1950.
  • Sheldon H. Harris: Factories of Death. Japanese Biological Warfare, 1932-1945, and the American Cover-up . Revised edition. Routledge, New York NY et al. a. 2002, ISBN 0-415-93214-9 .
  • Daniel Barenblatt: A Plague upon Humanity. The Secret Genocide of Axis. Japan's Germ Warfare Operation . Harper Collins, New York NY 2004, ISBN 0-06-018625-9 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Sören Urbansky: " Criminal Attempts on Humans: The Chinese Pingfang - Memorial and Icon of Japanese Terror ", Neue Zürcher Zeitung of January 14, 2006.
  2. ↑ a b c “Bacteria: atom bomb outdated”, Spiegel 2/1950 of January 12, 1950, p. 15 ff. Available here.
  3. ↑ a b Takashi Tsuchiya: "The Imperial Japanese Medical Atrocities and Its Enduring Legacy in Japanese Research Ethichs", contribution to the 8th World Congress of Bioethics, Beijing, August 8, 2006 ( [1]  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this note. , Pdf ).@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.asahi-net.or.jp  
  4. ↑ Jing-Bao Nie: “The Western Dismissal of the Khabravsk Trail as 'Communist Propaganda': Ideology, Evidence an International Bioethics”, Journal of Bioethical Inquiry, Springer Netherlands, Vol. 1, no. 1 (April 2004), p. 32 ff., P. 34.
  5. ↑ All rankings according to: Soviet Union (Ed.), P. 4; All information on the judgments according to: Ibid., S 610f; Romanization changed according to the Hepburn system
  6. ^ Soviet Union (ed.), Trial materials in the criminal case against former members of the Japanese army for the preparation and use of the bacterial weapon , Verlag für fremdsprachige Literatur , Moscow 1950, pp. 606–610.
  7. ↑ a b Christoph Neidhart: "The devil wore smocks", Die Weltwoche No. 31/06
Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . Thus, Yamada is the family name, Otozō the first name.