New book recreates war crimes committed by Japan's Unit 731

A book presenting extensive evidence of war crimes committed by the Japanese Imperial Army's Unit 731, including previously unreleased historical photographs, was released on Sunday in Harbin, Heilongjiang province.

Unit 731, the Japanese Imperial Army's notorious germ warfare unit during World War II, conducted human experiments during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1931-45).

Titled Black Box 731, the book was written by Jin Chengmin, curator of the Exhibition Hall of Evidences of Crime Committed by Unit 731 of the Japanese Imperial Army in Harbin.

Blending historical documentation with literary storytelling, the book reconstructs the shocking crimes committed by Unit 731. It also examines postwar lawsuits filed by bereaved families and victims of chemical weapons, while documenting the efforts of Chinese and international scholars to uncover the truth and safeguard peace.

More than 100 historians, researchers and experts attended the launch event, which was co-hosted by the museum and Shanghai Jiao Tong University Press. Jin shared insights from his decades of research.

Over more than 30 years, Jin devoted himself to researching the history of Japan's germ warfare, preserving historical sites and promoting public education. He has made dozens of trips to Japan to collect evidence and interview former members of Unit 731.

His research has yielded more than 400 hours of oral history and video recordings, more than 20,000 physical artifacts and 300,000 pages of historical documents.

The book serves as a powerful documentary record. Among its most significant features are rare historical photographs that are being made public for the first time.

"The 'Black Box' in the title refers both to the core secrets and the dark confines of the human experiments conducted by Unit 731 and, metaphorically, to the secret deals struck by the United States with Japanese war criminals after the war to obtain germ warfare data and conceal the truth," Jin said.

"The book also focuses on postwar lawsuits and victims of chemical weapons. It documents the complex journey of scholars from China and abroad in their pursuit of truth and peace," he said.

Experts at the launch said the book transforms the latest research findings into accessible documentary literature, making a significant contribution to the study of wartime history and patriotic education.

"The book retraces the establishment, expansion and downfall of Unit 731, while comprehensively examining and vividly documenting its crimes, including germ warfare, human experimentation and field frostbite experiments," said He Weizhi, former director of Heilongjiang's Communist Party of China history research office.

"With undeniable facts, the book shows that the activities of Unit 731 were not the actions of a few medical fanatics, but large-scale, organized crimes carried out through a top-down system," he said.

Unit 731 served as the nerve center of Japan's biological and chemical warfare program in China and Southeast Asia.

Historical estimates suggest that at least 3,000 people were killed in direct human experiments, while more than 300,000 people across China died as a result of the biological weapons deployed by the unit.

zhouhuiying@chinadaily.com.cn