Further evidence of the dubious nature of the Japanese role during their occupation of parts of China in the 1930s and 40s is highlighted here in Harbin.
| The Japanese army took the city in 1932, part of the colonization policy that had already claimed Korea and other parts of the newly set up Manchukuo state (Manchuria) with its puppet emperor.
Many Japanese historians even today refute much of the evidence that has been mounting up since the war years, although it is now fairly commonly accepted that the strictly drilled Japanese forces and seemingly polite civilians were less than civil. |
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| The Japanese Germ Warfare Experimental Base (Riben xijun shiyan jidi) was set up in 1939 to “research”, presumably, the capabilities of the soul and the endurance of the human body. Run by the Japanese army’s Unit 731 (Qi san yao budui), the research center experimented upon many of the captives of the viscous war in Northeast Asia, including Soviet, Korean, British, Mongolian and mostly Chinese prisoners of war (POWs).
As with other examples of the demonic brutality that such oppressive authoritarian societies can be stretched to doing, from Auschwitz to Nanjing, the Germ Warfare Experimental Base nowadays shows little of the grisly senselessness that its recent past should emphasize. The sight is said to have witnessed the execution of over 3000 POWs in the most horrific way: frozen, bombed, roasted, infected, injected, dissected…alive until dead. Almost as chilling and sad as the events themselves is the umbrella of denial that now has spread over much of this period of history, with allegations and misinformation coming from many sides. Just before the 1945 retake of the city by the Soviets the Japanese apparently did their utmost to cover up the evidence of this area, blowing up the site. Allegedly, the Americans also gave the Japanese scientists who worked in the base, prominent in their respective fields, immunity from prosecution in return for research findings. It was not until the 1980s that a Japanese journalist published his findings of the role of the army in the Northeast that, seemingly, the whole truth came out. Nowadays many Chinese are adamant, and with good but possibly overzealous reasons, in their hatred of the Japanese. “Is said to”, “apparently”, “allegedly”, “seemingly”, “possibly” are words that appear with frequent maddening regularity here. The museum that now commemorates this site is situated near to the spot that the original base stood, some 30km south-west of Harbin, near to the little town of Pingfang. The site is interesting for those into history, although the museum is small (two rooms) and has, see above, little evidence of the true past. There are, however, a few photographs, with Chinese captions, and the unearthed site of the original base that could be worth a look. How to get there: take bus number 338 from the railway station to the terminal in Pingfang District. Related Information |
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