Shinozuka Yoshio

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Shinozuka Yoshio ( Japanese 篠 塚 良 雄 ; born November 1923 in Chiba Prefecture ; † April 20, 2014 ) was a member of Unit 731 of the Imperial Japanese Army during the Second Sino-Japanese War .

In 1939, at the age of 15, he joined the army. Two months later he was assigned to Unit 731 of the Kwantung Army , primarily responsible for biological warfare . After basic training in medicine, hygiene and infection studies, he was engaged in rearing plague fleas on living rats .

At the age of 20 he took part in the dissection of several prisoners infected with typhoid , who were cut up alive for the purpose of obtaining tissue samples that were as fresh as possible.

In contrast to his superiors, who moved to Japan before the Japanese defeat and later returned to some management positions, Shinozuka was imprisoned by the Chinese for a year and then released in China. Lacking other options, he joined the People's Liberation Army and served there for six years until his past came to light and he was interned in a re-education camp until 1956 . He then returned to Japan and worked in local government until he retired.

He became known after the war because, unlike many other participants, he confessed to participating in the human experiments, described this as a "very serious crimes against humanity " and testified in favor of the victims, as in 1997 in the case of 180 Chinese who sought damages from Japan. In 1998 he wanted to speak at peace conferences in the USA and Canada, but as a war criminal he was refused entry.

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Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . Thus Shinozuka is the family name, Yoshio the first name.
personal data
SURNAME Shinozuka Yoshio
ALTERNATIVE NAMES 篠 塚 良 雄 (Japanese)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Japanese war criminal who later stood up for the victims
DATE OF BIRTH November 1923
PLACE OF BIRTH Chiba prefecture
DATE OF DEATH April 20, 2014