TOKYO, Aug. 16 (Xinhua) -- A documentary recently released byJapan's public broadcaster NHK has triggered heated discussions andcalls for reflection upon the war history in Japanese society.
The documentary, titled "The Truth of Harbin Unit 731," revealedthe outrageous crimes committed by Unit 731, a covert biologicaland chemical warfare research and development unit of the ImperialJapanese Army during World War II.
OUTRAGEOUS ATROCITIES
Unit 731, notorious for cold-blooded lethal humanexperimentation among other crimes air max 97 gold for sale , is a subject seldom touched inJapan, with the authorities eager to cover up and even deny thatpart of history.
The documentary, released on Aug. 13 by NHK, however, throughtestimonies of Unit 731 participants and authentic records of theKhabarovsk War Crimes Trials in 1949, presents vividly the cruelyet irrefutable historical truth to the unwitting public.
Unit 731 was based at the Pingfang district of Harbin, thelargest city then in northeast China. The unit air max 97 white for sale , set up around 1936,conducted experiments on live human beings to test germ-releasingbombs and chemical bombs among other atrocities.
The majority of the victims they experimented on were Chinese,while a small percentage were Soviet, Mongolian, Korean, andsoldiers of the Allied Forces taken captive. Some of them werechildren.
"I have seen no one left the camp alive (after beingexperimented on)," testified Kiyoshi Kawashima air max 97 black for sale , an officer of Unit731, according to an audio record of the Khabarovsk War CrimesTrials in 1949.
Toshihide Nishi, a medical officer, testified at the trials thatthey had taken the captives outside where the temperature was belowminus 20 degrees Celsius, and fanned the victims to causefrostbites.
Kurakazu, another officer, testified that he had seen fingers ofthree Chinese victims in such an frostbite experiment turn blackand chip off in the freezing temperature.
Takeshi Misumi cheap air max 97 for sale , only 14 years old when he joined the unit as ajunior member, told NHK that he saw with his own eyes how the unitconducted lethal human experimentation.
He also testified that just before the war ended in 1945, inorder to cover up their atrocities, the unit, under the order ofJapanese military, killed all the people they were experimenting onand who were still alive.
Misumi was ordered to pour gasoline on the bodies and put themon fire. The horrible scenes have since haunted him for the rest ofhis life.
"The war is so cruel, so inhuman ... It is something that shouldnever have happened air max 97 shoes for sale ," he said with tears in eyes in thedocumentary.
HISTORY SHALL BE REMEMBERED
The documentary, while irritating the ultra-rightwing forces,exposed many Japanese people to the truth of the war, and manystart to reflect upon history.
Nobuo Okimatsu, veteran at World War II and head of a civilgroup dedicated to promoting Sino-Japanese friendship, said that inJapan, the truth about Unit 731 is a part of the history that hasbeen touchy to many wholesale air max 97 for sale , but it is also something that the people shallknow about.
"The Japanese people shall know about the crimes that Japan hascommitted in the past," he said.
Tamaki Matsuoka, a former primary teacher who has devoted 30years of her life conveying the historic truth about the 1937Nanjing Massacre to the Japanese people, said it was great for thedocumentary to make public the audio records about Unit 731 and theKhabarovsk Trials.
But she also pointed out that the documentary failed to ask thequestion why most of the officers and researchers responsible forthe crimes of Unit 731 went back to Japan untried and unblamedafter the war, and even enjoyed academic fame afterwards.
Instead of being tried for war crimes, the researchers involvedin Unit 731 were secretly given immunity by the United States inexchange for the data they gathered through human experimentation.Only those few that had been arrested by Soviet forces first weretried at the Khabarovsk War Crime Trials in 1949.
"Japan has been trying to cover up the history for over 70 years... Whitewashing the war crimes and highlighting its own sufferingsto pretend to be the victim instead of the victimizer, does no goodto Japan if it wants to rebuild relationship with its neighbors inAsia air max 97 for sale online ," she added.
AN ALARM FOR THE PRESENT
While calling for the war crimes of Unit 731 to be neverforgotten, scholars in Japan are alarmed about the currentsituation that has some similarities to those before the end of thewar, especially as the government is attempting to revise thepacifist Constitution, and is allocating more funds for militaryresearch programs in universities.
During the World War II, Japanese military and universities hadrather close bonds, with the military providing research funds forthe universities, while universities supplied the military with theso-called "research talents."
For instance air max 97 for sale china , according to NHK, Kyoto University sent 37 medicalresearchers to help the invading Japanese army in China in 1936,and the yearly number rose to 75 in 1942. Other universities suchas the University of Tokyo and Keio University were also sending anincreasing number of researchers to the army.
"As the documentary showed, the best universities at that timein Japan all provided research personnel for the invading army andbecame accomplices to the war crimes," said Hiroshi Onishi, aprofessor of economics at Keio University in Tokyo.
He added that the documentary sounded the alarm bell for thepresent, as Japan's Defense Ministry started a research fundingprogram called National Security Technology Research Promotion inthe fiscal 2015 air max 97 for sale , which assists and supports the research oftechnologies that could be used for military equipment.
"Budget for the program was 300 million yen (2.71 million U.S.dollars) in fiscal 2015, 600 million yen (5.42 million U.S.dollars) in
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