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Exclusive: Scholars trace Imperial Japanese Army’s germ-warfare outrage across Asia, calling for preventing atrocities from recurring_我的网站

会痛的十七岁

一 |

Photo: screenshot of the CNA documentary Inside Unit 731: Japan's Secret Human Experiments
A documentary revisiting the Imperial Japanese Army's lethal human experiments and biological warfare program has attracted more than 1 million views online, bringing renewed global attention to one of World War II's darkest chapters and a history still little known outside Asia.
Produced by Singapore-based Channel NewsAsia (CNA), Inside Unit 731: Japan's Secret Human Experiments features historians and descendants of survivors from countries including the UK, the US, Japan and Singapore. Through their accounts, the documentary details the germ warfare, human experimentation and other crimes against humanity committed by Unit 731 - officially known as the Epidemic Prevention and Water Purification Department of the Kwantung Army - during Japan's war of aggression.
Several US, Singaporean and Japanese scholars featured in the documentary recently told the Global Times that the evidence of Unit 731's crimes against humanity is irrefutable. The atrocities represent a shared trauma not only for Asian countries subjected to Japanese fascist aggression, but also for all humanity. "More than 80 years after the war, reviving the collective memory of affected countries is essential to safeguarding peace," they said.
Victims of germ warfare
For much of his life, Katsutoshi Takegami knew only that his father had once worked in China. It was not until years after his father's death that a discovery in the family storehouse prompted the 78-year-old resident of Komagane, Nagano Prefecture, Japan, to investigate what that work had involved.
Several thick photo albums had been packed into boxes marked "Nara Army Hospital." Across the black-and-white photographs were references to the "Epidemic Prevention Section" and the "Central China Epidemic Prevention and Water Purification Department."
"My father worked at a local public health center after World War II. He had mentioned that he had worked in China, but never revealed any details," Takegami told the Global Times. "When I saw those photographs, I desperately wanted to know what my father had done in China."
Determined to find an answer, Takegami closed the café he had spent years building, began examining historical records and consulted researchers. He even traveled to China in search of clues.
His investigation eventually revealed that his father had been a member of Unit 1644, also known as Unit Ei 1644, a germ-warfare formation based in Nanjing. The discovery came as a profound shock.
"When people talk about the Imperial Japanese Army's germ warfare, Unit 731 is usually the first thing that comes to mind. In fact, the Japanese military operated many such units," Takegami said.
"The general public knows almost nothing about them, and very few scholars study them. Historical evidence shows that the areas victimized by germ warfare extended far beyond Harbin, where Unit 731 was headquartered. China was by no means the only victimized country," he added.
For Singaporean independent scholar Lim Shao Bin, the realization that this biological warfare network had reached Southeast Asia came on February 14, 2016.
That day, Nobuyoshi Takashima, professor emeritus at the University of the Ryukyus, and his wife took Lim to the former Tampoi Mental Hospital on the outskirts of Johor Bahru, Malaysia. Pointing to a row of buildings, Takashima told him: "This was a wartime production base for Unit 731's plague bombs."
"That cut deeply into me," Lim told the Global Times. "I had studied in Japan since the 1980s and believed I knew a great deal about the crimes committed by the Japanese invaders in China. But I never imagined that Singapore and Malaysia - right on our doorstep - had also suffered at the hands of Unit 731."
From that day forward, Lim began systematically tracing the activities of Japanese germ-warfare units in Southeast Asia.
He explained that the Epidemic Prevention Research Laboratory of the Imperial Japanese Army Medical School established the Epidemic Prevention and Water Purification Department of the Kwantung Army in Pingfang, Harbin, which became known as Unit 731.
Photo: screenshot of the CNA documentary Inside Unit 731: Japan's Secret Human Experiments

Photo: screenshot of the CNA documentary Inside Unit 731: Japan's Secret Human Experiments
Using Unit 731 as the center of its operations, the Japanese military established the North China Expeditionary Army Epidemic Prevention and Water Purification Department in Beijing, known as Unit 1855; Unit Ei 1644 in Nanjing; and Unit Nami 8604 in Guangzhou.
''Yet this network still contained a major missing piece - Southeast Asia,'' Lim said.
The Japanese military established the Epidemic Prevention and Water Purification Department of Southern Expeditionary Army in Singapore under the code name Oka Unit 9420. Together, these interconnected germ-warfare formations constituted what Lim described as the "Unit 731 system."
A map compiled by Lim marks five branches of Oka Unit 9420 across Southeast Asia: the Malaya, Java, Manila, Indochina and Thailand branches. These facilities produced plague bacilli and fleas on a large scale, supplying the Japanese military with biological warfare materials and forming a regional germ-warfare network.
Historical documents indicate that Oka Unit 9420 was the largest Japanese germ-warfare unit operating outside the China theater.
In May 2025, Lim and Wang Xuan, president of the Zhejiang Provincial Historical Society's research association on the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1931-45), published a book on the Japanese Army's Oka Unit 9420 after five years of extensive research and writing.
The book offered the first comprehensive account of this nearly forgotten unit and was also the first historical monograph devoted to the Southern Expeditionary Army Epidemic Prevention and Water Purification Department.
Work far from over
The CNA documentary traces the origins of Japan's biological warfare ambitions to the 1925 Geneva Protocol, humanity's first major post-World War I attempt to prohibit the use of chemical and biological weapons.
Instead of treating the prohibition as a moral boundary, Shiro Ishii, the notorious commander of Unit 731, recognized the enormous military value of such weapons and regarded them as "a decisive means of winning future wars," according to the documentary.
Unit 731 presented itself publicly as an epidemic-prevention and public health organization. Its real purpose, however, was to conduct secret human experiments in support of biological warfare.
The experiments included infecting victims with plague-bearing fleas, injecting them with dysentery pathogens and subjecting them to frostbite tests in temperatures dozens of degrees below zero.
Japanese soldiers referred to prisoners of war and civilian victims as maruta, meaning "logs," stripping them of their humanity before using them as experimental subjects. Everyone sent into the laboratories eventually died.
As Lim's research shows, the system supporting these experiments extended far beyond Unit 731's headquarters in Harbin.
In February 2018, Lim obtained exclusive access to a reel of wartime film footage shot after 1942 by Tomosada Masuda, a close associate and former schoolmate of Ishii who later became a core member of Unit 731. The footage documented the activities of Oka Unit 9420 in Southeast Asia.
"Harbin's severe winters made it impossible to breed plague-infected fleas on a large scale throughout the year, so Unit 731 urgently needed a warm and humid cultivation base," Lim said. "The optimal conditions for breeding the fleas were temperatures of 27 to 30 C and humidity of around 90 percent. Singapore's climate met all of these requirements."
Another document preserved in a Japanese archive showed that Japanese military "researchers" had successfully isolated a new virus from rats in Singapore and planned to transport it to Unit 731's headquarters in Harbin.
Lim said the virus was not originally native to Singapore but had been deliberately cultivated and introduced by the Japanese military. The Japanese Imperial Army recorded the body temperatures, symptoms and other experimental data of 70 test subjects in detail.
"The documentary examines in depth the crucial role Singapore played in the broader biological warfare operation," Alexis Dudden, a professor of history at the University of Connecticut, told the Global Times. "This not only expands the geographical scope of research into Unit 731's criminal activities, but also makes one point clear: This history cannot simply be characterized as a dispute between China and Japan. At its core, it was a transnational crime done by Japanese imperial expansion."
Dudden also pointed to the testimony of Hideo Shimizu, a former teenage recruit of Unit 731 who appeared in the documentary. Accounts by those who directly witnessed the unit's activities demonstrate that "the work of exposing this dark history is far from over," she said.
The documentary also highlights the stark disparity in postwar accountability.
After World War II, the victorious Allied powers conducted international trials of leading Nazi war criminals and criminal organizations in Nuremberg, Germany. Yet many of Unit 731's "executioners" returned to Japanese society, where they resumed ordinary careers in medicine and other professions.
"In a sense, this forces all of us to ask: How could a person commit such horrifying crimes, then return home and continue to act as a caring partner, a kind friend or a responsible parent?" Dudden said.
Understand history, learn from it
As of press time, "Inside Unit 731: Japan's Secret Human Experiments" has attracted more than 1.13 million views on YouTube and other platforms, with the figure rising.
Its reception raises a broader question: Why has a history rooted in wartime Asia resonated so strongly with audiences across national borders?
"Many people outside China know little or nothing about this history," Dudden said. "For a long time, international understanding of Unit 731 has not merely contained blind spots. It has been marked by widespread historical ignorance - people simply do not know this history."
Dudden cited an example from the university where she teaches. An accomplished professor who held a doctorate from Kyoto University and had spent years living and working in Japan was stunned after watching the documentary.
"I grew up in Bosnia and worked and lived in Japan for many years. My own grandparents died in Nazi concentration camps, yet I had never heard of this history," the professor said.
The professor urged Dudden to introduce the documentary in her classes and help disseminate the historical truth about Unit 731 because "everyone can and must understand this history and learn from it."
At the same time, Dudden emphasized that "understanding history and learning historical knowledge does not mean hating Japan or the Japanese people."
Asked by the Global Times what lessons remembering and reflecting on history can offer for preventing past tragedies from recurring and safeguarding peace and justice, amid Japan's accelerating rightward shift and mounting conflicts worldwide, Dudden said that "choosing silence in the face of atrocities is, to some extent, tantamount to abetting evil."
"Collective numbness and inaction can all too easily give rise to further harm. If humanity is unwilling to reflect together and defend our shared human values, similar tragedies will very likely happen again. Therein lies the answer," Dudden said.
For historians, years of work with archival materials are essential to identifying decisive evidence and exposing the falsehoods of historical denialists, Dudden said.
"But the challenge remains: Distorted and sanitized narratives have already hardened into mainstream opinion in some countries," she noted. "From this perspective, the historical truth about Unit 731, including that presented in CNA's documentary, deserves to be disseminated widely."
Da Zhigang, a research fellow at the Institute of Northeast Asian Studies of the Heilongjiang Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times that the Imperial Japanese Army's germ warfare, chemical warfare and other atrocities were not confined to China.
They also spread across Southeast Asia and the Pacific theater, inflicting profound suffering on people in numerous countries, he said.
Da said the Japanese government has long pursued historical revisionism by deliberately confining its wartime crimes to a bilateral China-Japan framework. It has even substituted concepts and reversed right and wrong, portraying a deliberately launched war of aggression as "an act of self-defense under a complex international environment," he said.
Such narratives seek to reduce the perceived geographical scope of Japan's atrocities and dilute its responsibility for wartime crimes, Da noted.
"Japan's historical revisionism is, in essence, a flagrant violation of the spirit of the UN Charter, international human rights norms and the principles of Japan's own Constitution," Da said.
"The current Sanae Takaichi administration uses AI and other means to manipulate public opinion, continually poisoning the Japanese public's understanding of history and fundamentally distorting the purpose of peace education," Da said.
"This erroneous view of history is highly transmissible and has serious spillover effects. It undermines the foundations of Japan's relations with regional countries and risks triggering a chain of negative consequences with lasting repercussions," the expert warned.
Many Asia-Pacific countries share memories of suffering under Japanese militarism as well as a strong emotional resonance rooted in that history. This provides a solid foundation for building a multilateral system of historical accountability, Da said.
Victimized countries across the region should preserve their shared historical memory, work together to expose false narratives promoted by Japan's right wing and fully restore the historical record of Japanese aggression, he added. Such efforts would provide a firm historical basis for upholding regional peace and justice.
For Lim, turning that goal into reality requires overcoming serious obstacles. The countries of Southeast Asia were ruled by different colonial powers during the war, and their archives were consequently preserved in different languages. Records relating to Singapore and Malaysia were largely written in English under British colonial rule, those in Indonesia in Dutch, and those in Vietnam in French.
Already scarce documents are therefore scattered across different countries and divided by linguistic barriers, leaving researchers with very limited material, Lim added.
"Unit 731's germ warfare, human experimentation and other crimes are not only a source of pain for China. They are a shared trauma for all Asian countries that suffered Japanese aggression, and for humanity as a whole," Lim said. "Researching this history is therefore not the responsibility of any one country, but a common responsibility of the international community."
Lim called on countries to strengthen archival sharing and academic cooperation, break down linguistic and national barriers, and jointly uncover more historical truths that have remained buried.
"More than 80 years after the war, reviving the collective memory of affected countries is essential to safeguarding peace," Lim said. "Only by facing history squarely and reflecting on it can we prevent such tragedy from recurring and build a solid foundation for peace."
。 AI摘要福建开展专项规划编制，通过部门协同、统一底图，厘清耕林重叠地块，形成“四个空间”互不重叠的规划成果，有效化解长期存在的“耕林争地”矛盾，优化农用地布局。东南网8月19日报道（福建日报记者徐士媛通讯员颜志忠郑与国）初秋时节，走进邵武市城郊镇山口村溪东地块，茂密竹林隔绝燥热，清风穿林而过，蝉鸣与鸟语交织回荡。“这块地靠近城区、水源充足，最适合耕种。

二 | 以后每年种一季水稻，再种两季其他作物，每亩收益至少2000元！”山口村村委会副主任涂君算起了经济账。而不久前，这片地还是“说不清是按耕地管理还是按林地管理”的耕林重叠地块。改变，始于我省耕地保护和国土绿化空间专项规划（以下简称“专项规划”）编制工作的启动。

三 | 如今，山口村溪东地块已被划入耕地补充空间，涂君放心地规划起未来的耕作。

四 | 福建素有“八山一水一分田”之称，特殊地貌决定了耕地保护与生态保护的双重重要性，“耕林争地”成为长期困扰福建的难题。随着专项规划工作的推进，越来越多“地类管理不清”的地块有了归属。耕林矛盾之困名实不符权责不清驱车驶入邵武市水北镇龙斗村，上溪头机耕道两旁杂木高低错落，风一吹枝叶翻涌，蓬勃绿意扑面而来。

五 | 这片杂林的另一侧是连片的平整耕地，同一地块仿佛被分割成“两个世界”。 “村民陆续迁出，这片地慢慢就抛荒了。

六 | ”望着眼前植被丛生的土地，龙斗村村委会副主任姜彦华满是惋惜。随着农村劳动力持续外流，耕地抛荒，土地实际用途与官方地类认定存在脱节。邵武市自然资源局三级主任科员丁勇解释，对于耕地抛荒后自然长草长林的地块，自然资源部门仍按耕地属性认定。这种“名实不符”的错位现象，存在于我省部分山区乡镇。 “名实不符”直接带来管理困境，最突出的便是耕地流出图斑的机械复垦整改问题。 “耕地流出疑似问题图斑和保护目标任务下达后，不管地块位置多偏远、耕作条件多差，很多都要求限期完成复垦复耕。”丁勇说。2024年，邵武市某地曾投入四五十万元，对几处偏远荒芜的地块实施复垦，却引来村民嘲笑：“管这没人要的地干啥，没人种还是会荒。” 比抛荒错位更棘手的，是部门数据割裂导致的耕林重叠难题。长期以来，自然资源、林业两部门独立开展资源调查，因调查标准不统一、数据台账不互通，形成了互不兼容的“两张图”，导致“一地两籍”“一地两用途”的争议地块出现。同一块地，自然资源部门认定为耕地，林业部门却划入林地范畴，权责边界模糊不清。

七 | 耕林争地，最终影响的是基层群众，邵武市城郊镇山口村的种植户此前便深受其扰。

八 | “两个部门都认定是自己的地，这让我们怎么办？”涂君介绍，曾经村里一些种植户对闲置土地进行复垦复耕，却被告知地块属于林地，要求限期恢复原状，甚至面临处罚。

九 | “自然资源部门说可以耕作，怎么林业部门还来处罚？”村民满是困惑。多级协同破局宜耕则耕宜林则林今年初，自然资源部、国家林业和草原局部署开展省级耕地保护和国土绿化空间专项规划编制工作，为福建化解耕林矛盾提供了重要契机。简单来说，专项规划编制就是要将“四个空间”（耕地空间、耕地补充空间、林草空间、林草补充空间）划分清楚。

十 | 专项规划编制启动后，省、市、县三级同步成立由自然资源、林业部门共同组成的工作专班。

十一 | 依据基础数据，省级工作专班先形成包含“四个空间”的初划成果，但这一底图还需经过县乡多次复核完善。面对这项全新的工作，县乡基层干部最初有些手足无措。 “一开始没有经验，就怕对政策文件的理解与省里的实际要求有偏差。”这是许多基层干部的担忧。省自然资源厅相关处室专门建立工作微信群，随时答疑解惑。宜耕则耕、宜林则林的标准怎么把握，某个具体地块该不该划入耕地空间……基层干部的一个个疑问，在群里都得到了及时回应。经过多级联动，专项规划编制的核心原则——“宜耕则耕、宜林则林”愈发清晰。各地逐渐统一划定标准：地势平坦、毗邻现有耕地、具备灌溉条件、交通便利的地块，优先划定为耕地补充空间；坡度超过25°、位置偏远的，划入林草补充空间。但并非所有的争议地块都能够轻易划分清楚，若是遇上“既能够做耕地，也能够做林地”的地块，又该何去何从？面对这一棘手问题，武平县率先打了个样。在武平县岩前镇伏虎村，有一片约300亩的松树林，既可用于耕作，也可保留用作林地。“武平森林覆盖率达79.22%，耕地资源十分珍贵，如果我们一直抓着林地指标不放，工作就推不动。”武平县林业局资源站负责人王盛华说，最终这片300亩的松树林被划入耕地补充空间。在福建“林多地少”的省情下，优先保障耕地成了多地心照不宣的做法。在“宜耕则耕、宜林则林”的大原则下，除了考虑地块的实际地理条件，村民的意见同样重要。邵武市自然资源局干部苏旭告诉记者，在邵武市水北镇大乾村，有一块80亩左右的茶林，原定划入林地空间继续种茶。但随着茶叶种植效益下滑，茶农希望将其调整为耕地，改种收益更高的农作物。收集到诉求后，工作组实地核查，最终将这块地纳入耕地补充空间。目前，邵武全市2万多亩耕林重叠地块已全部精准厘清，武平县1.98万亩耕林重叠面积也全部完成“身份”确认。耕林地尽其用总量稳定质量提升土地“身份”明确后，沉睡的资源被盘活，经济价值逐渐显现。正午时分，烈日当空，漳浦县赤湖镇半石村的种植大户陈春南蹲在田垄间查看苗情。“行情好的时候，一亩收益一两万元不是问题。”陈春南承包了40多亩田地，可自由轮种大葱、地瓜、胡萝卜等多种经济作物。这片总面积300多亩的田地也曾深陷耕林重叠争议。漳浦县城乡规划中心负责人林丽娜介绍，因该地块确实适合耕作，专项规划编制完成后，这片地被划入耕地空间。 “我们早有意向耕作这块地，但就是碍于土地性质不明确，不敢轻易复垦，现在终于安心了。”陈春南说，村里还有五六户种植大户也在积极对接这块地的复耕事宜。据悉，漳州多地采取“边规划、边整治、边见效”的模式，尽快整出耕地，同步对接有意向的种植大户，尽早释放土地效益。