Japanese war criminal confesses to use of biological weapons on human

BEIJING - A Japanese war criminal confessed that he and fellow military surgeons "conducted live-body operations" on captives and performed "operation demonstrations by killing" two captives, according to the State Archives Administration on Wednesday.

Ken Yuasa

The second in a series of 31 handwritten confessions from Japanese war criminals published online features one by Ken Yuasa, who was born in Tokyo Prefecture, Japan in 1916. He joined the Japanese War of Aggression against China in January 1942.

According to the written confession of Ken Yuasa on Nov 20 1954, he "carried out vivisection demonstration" on captives, "forced down a large dose of anesthetic into the live body of a captive in order to check the symptoms when the victim was alive or dead" in late March 1942 in Lu'an Army Hospital in north China's Shanxi Province.

"I practiced a 'tracheotomy' on another captive," he confessed, adding that after the experiment, "I, together with another military surgeon, strangled him with a belt."

On 14 April 1942, in the First Army Engineering Team (POW internment camp) in Taiyuan, Shanxi province, Yuasa "let about 30 military surgeons living in all army hospitals and field hospitals in Shanxi province perform surgical demonstrations on live bodies of four captives."

In late August 1942, in the dissection room of the hospital, more than ten surgeons "conducted live-body operations on and killed" two captives, according to the confession.

"I cut open the trachea of a captive with field tracheotomy apparatus for practice," he said, adding "another captive was subject to intravenous injection of anesthetic and chloroform, in order to test how these drugs can cause people to choke to death."

In late March 1943 in the same hospital, more than ten surgeons performed "operation demonstrations by killing" two captives, he added.

From February 1942 to November 1943, he "got the inpatients' fresh bacteria of typhoid, Type-A paratyphoid and Type-B paratyphoid, and gave them to the Field Epidemic Prevention and Water Supply Department of the 36th Division stationed in the south side of Lu'an City," he said.

"It was provided regularly at least four times a year, and I supplied this unit with bacterin for bacterial warfare as many as eight times," Yuasa said.

In early April 1944, Yuasa used two captives as "materials for operation practice" for over 10 military surgeons.

In late September 1944, after two captives were sent to the hospital under escort, "I provided one of them as material for operation demonstration to about 10 military surgeons of the dissection room. The other one was given to the Hospital Director, who beheaded the captive," he confessed.

In late January 1945, Yuasa "provided" a captive "as material for live-body operation demonstration to the military surgeons of the dissection room of the hospital and about ten military surgeons of the 14th Independent Infantry Brigade."

In mid-March 1945, about 10 military surgeons used two captives in custody as "materials for operation demonstration in the dissection room," he said

A total of 31 confessions from Japanese war criminals will be published online starting Tuesday to expose crimes committed by Japan in China during World War II.

The handwritten confessions, along with Chinese translations and abstracts in both Chinese and English, have been published on the website of the State Archives Administration.

"These archives are hard evidence of the heinous crimes committed by Japanese imperialists against the Chinese," a State Archives official said.

The confessions, which have never been released before, detail crimes perpetrated by the Japanese, including killing, enslavement and poisoning of Chinese people, as well as the use of biological and chemical weapons on live human subjects.