Written on May 3, 2019, this text critically examines the problems surrounding NHK Special’s “The Truth of Unit 731” from the perspectives of the Khabarovsk Trial, Siberian internment, Soviet ideological re-education, and China’s anti-Japan propaganda strategy.
While arguing that historical verification regarding Unit 731 is necessary, it also points out that the issue is being arbitrarily used within China’s state-led propaganda campaign and calls for calmer, more multifaceted research.

2019-05-03
It is difficult to deny that, within the propaganda strategy deployed by China under state leadership, there exists a present reality in which the existence of Unit 731 is being used arbitrarily.

The following continues from the previous chapter.
What forms the framework of this program is the “audio record of the Khabarovsk Trial.”
The program begins from the claim that magnetic tapes recording the exchanges in the courtroom of that trial were newly discovered in the “Russian State Audio Archive” in Moscow.
Many of those who had belonged to Unit 731 became prisoners through the Soviet invasion of Manchuria and were forcibly taken to Siberia.
This is the so-called “Siberian internment.”
After that, they came to be prosecuted as war criminals in what is commonly called the “Khabarovsk Trial.”
The trial lasted six days, from December 25 to December 30, 1949.
It was a military trial led by the victorious Soviet Union.
In that courtroom, Japan’s military actions against the Soviet Union were broadly made the object of condemnation, and within that, Unit 731 was also dealt with.
On these magnetic tapes said to have been found in Moscow this time, the testimonies of those who had been members of Unit 731 and senior officers of the Kwantung Army were indeed recorded.
Since until now there had been many unclear points regarding the details of that trial, there is no doubt that this discovery is valuable in the sense that its contents have now become known.
What was found in those audio records were numerous direct voices saying such things as, “erosive gas was used in human experimentation,” “a Russian woman with a nursing infant was infected with bacteria,” and “bacteriological weapons were used against the Chinese army.”
The problem is how those contents are to be interpreted.

Ideological indoctrination by the Soviet Union.
As stated above, the Khabarovsk Trial began at the end of 1949, meaning that the defendants had already spent four years in internment.
As is widely known, thorough ideological education
(communist indoctrination)
was carried out against the Siberian internees.
At Maizuru Port, which became the port of repatriation for the internees, it is said that not a few of them shouted, “We have landed on Emperor Island!” the moment they stood in the port.
These were the so-called “red repatriates.”
As a result of prolonged and harsh ideological indoctrination, many among the internees became steeped in communism.
It is one of the sorrowful anecdotes of Shōwa history.
During internment, it is said that while some were influenced by communism in a short time, many others, in order to return home one day sooner, only pretended to have been reformed while outwardly submitting and inwardly resisting.
In any case, under the extremely special condition of internment, it was impossible to make claims or engage in conduct contrary to the intentions of the Soviet side.
The Khabarovsk Trial was a trial opened only after such a condition had continued for four years.
There could not possibly have been free speech in that courtroom.
This is an extremely important historical aspect.
If one ignores or treats this lightly, one cannot approach the historical facts in their true proportions.
This is also common knowledge in research on the history of Siberian internment.
Yet in that program, the discussion proceeds without any such perspective at all being applied to those recorded courtroom voices.
This manuscript will continue.

The following is from the “Major Special Feature: The Corruption of NHK” published in this month’s issue of Hanada.
Readers will surely recognize anew that my criticism of NHK is correct.
The emphasis in the text, apart from the headings, is mine.

Serious Questions About NHK’s “The Truth of Unit 731.”
Takashi Hayasaka
(nonfiction writer).

What was Unit 731.
On August 13 of last year, a program titled “NHK Special: The Truth of Unit 731 — Elite Medical Scholars and Human Experimentation” was broadcast.
According to NHK’s website, it was to “approach the mystery of the establishment of Unit 731 on the basis of hundreds of materials,” but below I would like to present some of the questions I felt upon watching the program.
First, let me briefly touch on the outline of Unit 731.
Unit 731 was one of Japan’s research institutions that existed in the final years of the Greater East Asia War.
Its formal name was the “Headquarters of the Kwantung Army Epidemic Prevention and Water Supply Department.”
Because the code name
(secret designation)
of this institution was “Manchuria Unit 731,” it later became widely known after the war by the name “Unit 731.”
The place where the unit was located was Pingfang, in the outskirts of Harbin in Manchuria.
As of 1945, more than 3,000 personnel belonged to that unit.
In terms of scale, it can be said to have been quite a large organization.
Their principal duties were to research the prevention of infectious diseases among soldiers and the establishment of hygienic water supply systems.
During the Nomonhan Incident, it is said that they saved many lives through accurate water supply support and sanitary guidance.
What was being advanced in parallel with these duties was research concerning biological weapons with bacteriological warfare in mind.
Japan had not ratified the Geneva Protocol prohibiting the use of biological and chemical weapons.
However, it is also true that many countries that had ratified the protocol were secretly advancing research on various such weapons.
Regarding the true nature of Unit 731, various controversies have been repeated since the war.
The main points at issue were such matters as “Were human experiments carried out?” and “Were biological weapons used in actual combat?”
Let me state at the outset that I am not one who asserts regarding Unit 731 that “there were absolutely no human experiments or bacteriological experiments.”
At the same time, however, I believe that the content now being asserted one-sidedly by the Chinese side contains many aspects that deviate from the historical facts.
It is difficult to deny that, within the propaganda strategy deployed by China under state leadership, there exists a present reality in which the existence of Unit 731 is being used arbitrarily.
Unit 731 has even been called a “taboo of Shōwa history,” and this program attempted an approach to the problem through “new materials.”
Then what kind of content was it, in fact.
The following continues from the previous chapter.

Within the propaganda war.
In such a situation, what kind of changes will this NHK program produce from here on.
After the broadcast of this program, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued the following comment without delay.
“It unearthed more than 20 hours of recordings in which Japan’s Unit 731 acknowledges its crimes, and completely restored the heinous crimes committed by that unit in the war of aggression against China.”
“During the Second World War, the Japanese invading army launched vile bacteriological warfare against the Chinese people, carried out cruel and inhumane human experiments, and committed heinous anti-human crimes.
This series of historical facts is incontrovertible and cannot be denied.”
For the Chinese side, it was no doubt a matter of saying, “After all, Japan’s own public broadcaster is saying so.”
It was a form of obtaining an “official certification” from Japan.
This is very similar to the structure of the controversies over the Nanjing battle and the comfort women issue.
For China, which uses history in its propaganda war, this program must have been like manna from heaven.
It is said that the exhibition hall in the outskirts of Harbin intends to pursue further expansion from here on.
They will surely strengthen the exhibition even further by riding on the content of this program.
For Japan, it is necessary above all to verify the historical facts carefully, to acknowledge what should be acknowledged, and yet to refute with firmness the points that should be refuted.
In that sense, this NHK program gave the impression, here and there, of lacking precision.
Calmer and more multifaceted research is required.
This manuscript will continue.