Excerpt From Record Of Interrogation Of Yamada Otozoo (Part 2)
EXCERPT FROM RECORD OF INTERROGATION OF YAMADA OTOZOO (Part 2)
November 5, 1949
City of Khabarovsk
Question: When did you visit Detachment 731?
Answer: I visited Detachment 731 only once. After taking over the post of Commander-in-Chief of the Kwantung Army I inspected all the units and sub-divisions under my command, including Detachment 731. This was in August 1944.
I was accompanied on my inspection of the detachment by staff officer of the Kwantung Army Lieutenant Colonel Hara I left Harbin for the detachment’s headquarters not in the evening, as I stated before, but at 12 noon, and stayed in the detachment about an hour and a half. I made an entry in my diary about this visit.
At the entrance to the detachment’s premises I was met by Chief of Detachment 731 Major General Kitano and all the officers. After the welcome ceremony I proceeded to Major General Kitano’s office where he informed me that the detachment consisted of seven divisions: General, Clinical, Materials, Production, Research and Training. I have forgotten the name of the seventh division.
In reporting on the detachment’s objects and functions, Kitano said that the detachment had two functions, one of which was connected with the antiepidemic service and water supply of the Kwantung Army, while the other was to study various problems connected with preparing means for conducting bacteriological warfare. Furthermore, General Kitano informed me in broad outline of the detachment’s numerical strength, but I do not remember the figures now.
Dealing with the character of the activities of each division he said that the Research Division studied forms and methods of employing bacteriological weapons. I understood that in the event of it being necessary to employ bacteria for sabotage purposes, they would be used on land, and for the extensive employment of bacteriological weapons, they would be used with the aid of aircraft.
Concerning the Production Division, General Kitano informed me that it was engaged in preparing special bacteria substances in large quantities, sufficient for conducting offensive operations.
Later, after I had fully acquainted myself with the activities of Detachment 731, I was convinced that its output capacity was sufficient for the employment of bacteriological weapons on an extensive scale, concerning which I gave evidence at the previous interrogation.
According to what General Kitano said, the Training Division of Detachment 731 trained cadres of medical’ men who were afterwards distributed among all the detachment’s divisions, including those which devised and manufactured bacteriological weapons.
The Materials Division supplied the necessary materials and medical supplies needed by Detachment 731.
When General Kitano finished his report I proceeded to inspect the detachment. It is difficult for me now to recall what I saw in each division separately; I can describe what I saw only in general outline, without saying definitely which division carried out any particular process of the detachment’s work. Nevertheless, I distinctly remember that I learned the character of the work carried on by all the most important of the detachment’s divisions. In one division (production, I think) I saw the process of breeding bacteria in large quantities. That division had high-capacity equipment-boilers and other apparatus necessary for the mass production of bacteriological weapons.
In other premises I saw special boxes containing a vast quantity of live fleas. I was informed that these fleas were to be infected with plague, after which they could be used as carriers of plague epidemics. What I saw in other premises I cannot now recall.
After I had inspected the detachment’s chief premises, I, and the officers who accompanied me, went up into the detachment’s tower, from which I viewed the aerodrome, concerning which I gave detailed evidence at the previous interrogation.
After I had fully inspected the detachment’s work and had gained an impression of the character of its activities, I was extremely amazed at the scale on which the research work was conducted and at the detachment’s colossal potentialities for manufacturing bacteriological weapons.
Yamada
INTERROGATORS
Military Prosecutor, Lieutenant Colonel of Jurisprudence BAZENKO
Members of the staff of the Office of the Ministry for Internal Affairs for the Khabarovsk Territory
Senior Lieutenant BRAVE
Senior Lieutenant GOIKHMAN
Interpreter TSVIROV