Excerpt From Record of Interrogation of Yamada Otozoo
November 3, 1949
City of Khabarovsk
… The official name of Detachment 731 was “The Water Supply and Prophylaxis Administration of the Kwantung Army,” and served as some disguise for the detachment’s actual function. For the same purpose the members of Detachment 73l wore the ordinary army uniforms without the insignia of the Medical Service. We were afraid that the presence of a large number of medical servicemen would rouse undesirable suspicion concerning the actual character of the activities of Detachment 731.
… In August 1944, I visited Detachment 731 and inspected the work of all its divisions. During this inspection I received reports on the production processes in the cultivation and mass production of bacteria. I remember that in one of the divisions I saw a high-capacity system of special apparatus, with the aid of which it was possible to produce a large quantity of pathogenic germs. The chief of the division gave me the figures of the detachment’s output capacity, but I cannot quote them now.
I must say that in this division the production of bacteria was organized on an immense scale, and it could produce quantities sufficient to enable them to be used on a mass scale. In another of the detachment’s divisions, in which fleas were bred for the purpose of spreading epidemics of plague, I saw special repositories in which large quantities of fleas were kept. The officers of the detachment who accompanied me during the inspection informed me that the fleas were intended for the purpose of causing plague infection, and that they were one of the bacteriological weapons.
After I had inspected all the detachment’s divisions, I and the officers accompanying me went up into a tower to watch control experiments in spraying fleas from aircraft, and from which I viewed the aerodrome. One of the officers informed me that plague-infected fleas, which were one of the bacteriological weapons, were tested on a special proving ground by spraying from aircraft. At the same time I was informed of the results of these tests under different weather conditions.
While inspecting Detachment 731, I was extremely amazed at the scale on which the detachment’s research and production activities in preparing to conduct bacteriological warfare were carried on.
Question: Thus, Detachment 731 of the Kwantung Army was organized for the purpose of preparing for a bacteriological attack upon the Soviet Union?
Answer: I must admit that Detachment 731, posted in Manchuria, was formed for the purpose of producing weapons of bacteriological warfare to be used chiefly against the Soviet Union, but also against the Mongolian People’s Republic and China ….
Question: To what degree was Detachment 731 subordinated to the Kwantung Army Headquarters?
Answer: Detachment 731 was directly subordinated to me as the Commander-in-Chief of the Kwantung Army.
Detachment 731 was subordinated to the Commander-in-Chief of the Kwantung Army by order of the Japanese Minister for War at the time the detachment was organized.
Tactical direction of Detachment 731 connected with all questions concerning the production and employment of bacteriological weapons was exercised by me. This means, that if the necessity arose of employing bacteriological weapons against enemy forces, the order to do so could come only from me, for Detachment 731 was a special military unit under my command ….
Yamada
INTERROGATORS Members of the staff of the Office of the Ministry for Internal Affairs for the Khabarovsk Territory, BRAVE, GOIKHMAN
Interpreter TSVIROV