China Discloses Wartime Unit 731 Records and Veteran Testimony

The Museum of Evidence of War Crimes by Japanese Army Unit 731 in Harbin has released 185 pages of wartime personnel declaration forms for Unit 731's Hailar branch, detailing 156 members. Alongside the official records, researchers publicized a 70-minute testimony from veteran medic Hitoshi Tanizaki, who described bacterial culture practices, field rodent trapping, and the burning of branch facilities coupled with the covert burial of chemical munitions at the close of World War II. Chinese researchers emphasize that the dual archival and testimonial records bolster evidence of a state-organized biological and chemical warfare program.

The synthesis of official wartime personnel records and perpetrator testimony provides primary evidence corroborating Japan's biological and chemical warfare activities in northeast China. This archival chain of evidence is relevant to historical research on postwar accountability and ongoing bilateral efforts to locate and safely dispose of abandoned chemical munitions.

The Museum of Evidence of War Crimes by Japanese Army Unit 731 has made public official personnel records from the Hailar branch of Unit 731, known as Detachment 543 of the Kwantung Army, according to state media reports. The released dossier, titled "Personal Declaration Forms" (Shenshang Shengaoshu), spans 185 pages and contains records for 156 branch members. The forms detail names, military ranks, enlistment dates, job responsibilities, transfer trajectories, and postwar whereabouts. According to archival researchers, the Hailar branch, situated in northeastern Inner Mongolia near the Soviet and Mongolian borders, served as an operational forward base against the Soviet Union. The records also reflect how biological warfare activities operated under conventional infantry designations, alongside historical documentation regarding postwar Soviet investigations into these units. In addition to the personnel documents, the museum released oral testimony collected in Japan in 2016 from Hitoshi Tanizaki (formerly Hitoshi Ozaki), a former medic in the Hailar branch. In the 70-minute recorded interview, Tanizaki recounted his recruitment at age 21, three months of initial training in culturing bacterial colonies in glass petri dishes inside incubators, and his assignment to capture and monitor wild rodents in field trenches. Tanizaki also described the destruction of evidence during the Japanese retreat at the end of the war. While Hailar branch installations were set ablaze, Tanizaki testified that chemical warfare units secretly buried significant quantities of poison gas munitions rather than bacterial agents, specifically noting the presence of a chemical warfare unit stationed in Fulaerji. Museum researcher Jin Shicheng noted that Tanizaki's account provides perpetrator-source oral confirmation regarding the abandonment and concealment of chemical munitions at the war's conclusion, offering historical context for lingering chemical contamination risks.