The Khabarovsk war crimes trials were the
Soviet
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...
hearings
In law, a hearing is a proceeding before a court or other decision-making body or officer, such as a government agency or a legislative committee.
Description
A hearing is generally distinguished from a trial in that it is usually shorter and ...
of twelve
Japanese
Japanese may refer to:
* Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia
* Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan
* Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture
** Japanese diaspor ...
Kwantung Army
''Kantō-gun''
, image = Kwantung Army Headquarters.JPG
, image_size = 300px
, caption = Kwantung Army headquarters in Hsinking, Manchukuo
, dates = April ...
officers
An officer is a person who has a position of authority in a hierarchical organization. The term derives from Old French ''oficier'' "officer, official" (early 14c., Modern French ''officier''), from Medieval Latin ''officiarius'' "an officer," f ...
and
medical staff charged with the manufacture and use of
biological weapons
A biological agent (also called bio-agent, biological threat agent, biological warfare agent, biological weapon, or bioweapon) is a bacterium, virus, protozoan, parasite, fungus, or toxin that can be used purposefully as a weapon in bioterrorism ...
, and human experimentation, during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
. The war crimes trials were held between 25 and 31 December 1949 in the Soviet industrial city of
Khabarovsk (Хабаровск), the largest in the
Russian Far East
The Russian Far East (russian: Дальний Восток России, r=Dal'niy Vostok Rossii, p=ˈdalʲnʲɪj vɐˈstok rɐˈsʲiɪ) is a region in Northeast Asia. It is the easternmost part of Russia and the Asian continent; and is admin ...
.
All twelve defendants pleaded guilty and were sentenced to prison terms ranging from two to twenty-five years, to be served in Siberian labour camps. In 1956, those still serving their sentences were released and
repatriated
Repatriation is the process of returning a thing or a person to its country of origin or citizenship. The term may refer to non-human entities, such as converting a foreign currency into the currency of one's own country, as well as to the pro ...
to Japan.
History
During the trials, the accused, including
Major General
Major general (abbreviated MG, maj. gen. and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. The disappearance of the "sergeant" in the title explains the apparent confusion of ...
Kiyoshi Kawashima, testified that as early as 1941, some 40 members of
Unit 731
, short for Manshu Detachment 731 and also known as the Kamo Detachment and Ishii Unit, was a covert Biological warfare, biological and chemical warfare research and development unit of the Imperial Japanese Army that engaged in unethical h ...
air-dropped plague
Plague or The Plague may refer to:
Agriculture, fauna, and medicine
*Plague (disease), a disease caused by ''Yersinia pestis''
* An epidemic of infectious disease (medical or agricultural)
* A pandemic caused by such a disease
* A swarm of pe ...
-contaminated fleas on
Changde
Changde ( ) is a prefecture-level city in the northwest of Hunan province, People's Republic of China. In addition to the urban districts, Changde also administers the county-level city of Jinshi and six counties. Changde is adjacent to Dongt ...
,
China, causing
epidemic
An epidemic (from Greek ἐπί ''epi'' "upon or above" and δῆμος ''demos'' "people") is the rapid spread of disease to a large number of patients among a given population within an area in a short period of time.
Epidemics of infectious ...
plague outbreaks.
Judges found all twelve accused war criminals guilty, sentencing them to terms ranging from two to twenty-five years in labour camps. In 1956, those still serving their sentences were released and repatriated to Japan.
In 1950, the Soviet Union published official trial materials in English, titled ''Materials on the Trial of Former Servicemen of the Japanese Army Charged with Manufacturing and Employing Bacteriological Weapons''.
These included documents from the preliminary investigation (the
indictment
An indictment ( ) is a formal accusation that a person has committed a crime. In jurisdictions that use the concept of felonies, the most serious criminal offence is a felony; jurisdictions that do not use the felonies concept often use that of a ...
, some of the documentary evidence, and some
interrogation records), testimony from both the accused and
witnesses
In law, a witness is someone who has knowledge about a matter, whether they have sensed it or are testifying on another witnesses' behalf. In law a witness is someone who, either voluntarily or under compulsion, provides testimonial evidence, e ...
, final
pleas of the accused, some expert findings, and speeches from the state
prosecutor and
defense counsel
In a civil proceeding or criminal prosecution under the common law or under statute, a defendant may raise a defense (or defence) in an effort to avert civil liability or criminal conviction. A defense is put forward by a party to defeat ...
,
verbatim
Verbatim means word for word.
Verbatim may also refer to:
* Verbatim (brand), a brand of storage media and flash memory
* Verbatim (horse), an American racehorse
* ''Verbatim'' (magazine), edited by Erin McKean
* Verbatim theatre
Documentary th ...
.
Published by state-run
Foreign Languages Publishing House, the Soviet publication has long been out of print. But in November 2015,
Google Books
Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google Inc. that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical ...
determined it was now in the
public domain
The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly waived, or may be inapplicable. Because those rights have expired, ...
and published a
facsimile of it online, also offering it for sale as an
ebook.
[''Materials on the Trial of Former Servicemen of the Japanese Army Charged with Manufacturing and Employing Bacteriological Weapons'', Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1950]
/ref>
Trial controversies
Speaking to the overall judicial integrity of the proceedings, bioethics
Bioethics is both a field of study and professional practice, interested in ethical issues related to health (primarily focused on the human, but also increasingly includes animal ethics), including those emerging from advances in biology, m ...
expert Jing-Bao Nie said the following:
Despite its strong ideological tone and many obvious shortcomings such as the lack of international participation, the trial established beyond reasonable doubt that the Japanese army had prepared and deployed bacteriological weapons and that Japanese researchers had conducted cruel experiments on living human beings. However, the trial, together with the evidence presented to the court and its major findings—which have proved remarkably accurate—was dismissed as communist propaganda
Communist propaganda is the artistic and social promotion of the ideology of communism, communist worldview, communist society, and interests of the communist movement. While it tends to carry a negative connotation in the Western world, the t ...
and totally ignored in the West
West is a cardinal direction or compass point.
West or The West may also refer to:
Geography and locations
Global context
* The Western world
* Western culture and Western civilization in general
* The Western Bloc, countries allied with NATO ...
until the 1980s.
Historian Sheldon Harris described the trial in his history of Unit 731:
Evidence introduced during the hearings was based on eighteen volumes of interrogations and documentary material gathered in investigations over the previous four years. Some of the volumes included more than four hundred pages of depositions.... Unlike the Moscow Show Trials
The Moscow trials were a series of show trials held by the Soviet Union between 1936 and 1938 at the instigation of Joseph Stalin. They were nominally directed against "Trotskyists" and members of "Right Opposition" of the Communist Party of t ...
of the 1930s, the Japanese confessions made in the Khabarovsk trial were based on fact and not the fantasy of their handlers.
Yet the very wealth of trial documentation that tended to confirm that the Khabarovsk proceedings were no mere show trial also led Harris to question the relatively light punishment meted out there. All of defendants (aside from one who died in prison and another who committed suicide) had been freed by 1956, a mere seven years after the trial took place. Chief trial translator Georgy Permyakov alleged that Soviet leader Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secretar ...
may have initially feared that Japan would execute
Execute, in capital punishment, is to put someone to death.
Execute may also refer to:
* Execution (computing), the running of a computer program
* ''Execute'' (album), a 2001 Garage hip-hop album by Oxide & Neutrino
* USS ''Execute'' (AM-232), a ...
Soviet prisoners of war if the Khabarovsk defendants were hanged
Hanging is the suspension of a person by a noose or ligature around the neck.Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed. Hanging as method of execution is unknown, as method of suicide from 1325. The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' states that hanging i ...
. But Harris also claimed that "the Soviets made a deal with the Japanese similar to the one completed by the Americans: Information n exchangefor... extremely light sentences”:The Soviets and their successors never released the interrogation reports of the Japanese, some 18 volumes. This leads me to believe that the Japanese did arrange a deal, did yield some information, and the Soviets settled for the best goodies they could get.
Harris also noted other controversies unleashed by the trial, which linked Emperor Hirohito
Emperor , commonly known in English-speaking countries by his personal name , was the 124th emperor of Japan, ruling from 25 December 1926 until his death in 1989. Hirohito and his wife, Empress Kōjun, had two sons and five daughters; he was ...
to the Japanese biological warfare program, as well as allegations that Japanese biological warfare experiments had also been conducted on Allied prisoners of war.
One of the experts called upon by Soviet prosecutors during the trial, N. N. Zhukov-Verezhnikov, later served on the panel of scientists, led by Joseph Needham, investigating Chinese
Chinese can refer to:
* Something related to China
* Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity
**''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation
** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...
and North Korean allegations of US biological warfare in the Korean War.[G. Cameron Hurst III, "Biological Weapons: The United States and the Korean War," in "Dark Medicine: Rationalizing Unethical Medical Research" (eds. William R. LaFleur, Susumu Shimazono), Indiana University Press, 2008, pp. 105–120]
Accused and their sentences
*25 years imprisonment:
**General
A general officer is an officer of high rank in the armies, and in some nations' air forces, space forces, and marines or naval infantry.
In some usages the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colonel."general, adj. and n.". OED ...
Otozō Yamada
was a career officer, war criminal and general in the Imperial Japanese Army, serving from the Russo-Japanese War to the end of World War II.
Biography Early career
Yamada was born in Nagano Prefecture as the third son of Ichikawa Katashi, an a ...
(born 1881), former Commander-in-Chief of the Kwantung Army (released from prison in 1956)
**Lieutenant General
Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a three-star military rank (NATO code OF-8) used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second-in-command on the ...
Kajitsuka Ryuji (born 1888), former Chief of Medical Administration (released from prison in 1956)
**Lieutenant General Takahashi Takaatsu
is the third most common Japanese surname. Less common variants include , , , , , , , and . Notable people with the surname include:
* Aaron Takahashi, American actor
* , Japanese singer and actress
* , Japanese kickboxer
* , Japanese classica ...
(born 1888), former Chief of Veterinary
Veterinary medicine is the branch of medicine that deals with the prevention, management, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, disorder, and injury in animals. Along with this, it deals with animal rearing, husbandry, breeding, research on nutri ...
Service (died in prison in 1951)
**Major General
Major general (abbreviated MG, maj. gen. and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. The disappearance of the "sergeant" in the title explains the apparent confusion of ...
Kawashima Kiyoshi (born 1893), former Chief of Unit 731
, short for Manshu Detachment 731 and also known as the Kamo Detachment and Ishii Unit, was a covert Biological warfare, biological and chemical warfare research and development unit of the Imperial Japanese Army that engaged in unethical h ...
(released from prison in 1956)
*20 years imprisonment:
**Major General Sato Shunji (born 1896), former Chief of Medical Service, 5th Army (released from prison in 1956)
** Lieutenant Colonel Nishi Toshihide (born 1904), former chief of a division of Unit 731 (released from prison in 1956)
*18 years imprisonment:
** Major Karasawa Tomio (born 1911), former chief of a section of Unit 731 (killed himself in prison in 1956)
*15 years imprisonment:
** Senior Sergeant Mitomo Kazuo (born 1924), former member of Unit 100
was an Imperial Japanese Army facility called the Kwantung Army Warhorse Disease Prevention Shop that focused on the development of biological weapons during World War II. It was operated by the Kempeitai, the Japanese military police. Its hea ...
(released from prison in 1956)
*12 years imprisonment:
**Major Onoue Masao (born 1910), former chief of a branch of Unit 731 (released from prison in 1956)
*10 years imprisonment:
**Lieutenant
A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations.
The meaning of lieutenant differs in different militaries (see comparative military ranks), but it is often ...
Hirazakura Zensaku (born 1916), former researcher of Unit 100 (released from prison in 1956)
*3 years imprisonment:
** Kurushima Yuji (born 1923), former lab orderly
In healthcare, an orderly (also known as a ward assistant, nurse assistant or healthcare assistant) is a hospital attendant whose job consists of assisting medical and nursing staff with various nursing and medical interventions. The highest ro ...
of Branch 162 of Unit 731 (released in 1952)
*2 years imprisonment:
**Corporal
Corporal is a military rank in use in some form by many militaries and by some police forces or other uniformed organizations. The word is derived from the medieval Italian phrase ("head of a body"). The rank is usually the lowest ranking non- ...
Kikuchi Norimitsu Kikuchi, often written 菊池 or 菊地, may refer to:
Places
* Kikuchi, Kumamoto
* Kikuchi River, Kumamoto
* Kikuchi District, Kumamoto
People
* Kikuchi (surname)
* Kikuchi clan
* Yoshihiko Kikuchi
* Yusei Kikuchi
Other
* Kikuchi disease
Ki ...
(born 1922), former medical orderly of Branch 643 of Unit 731 (released in 1951)
See also
* Japanese war crimes
* International Military Tribunal for the Far East
*Military history of the Soviet Union
The military history of the Soviet Union began in the days following the 1917 October Revolution that brought the Bolsheviks to power. In 1918 the new government formed the Red Army, which then defeated its various internal enemies in the Russian ...
Notes
References
*Boris G. Yudin
Research on humans at the Khabarovsk War Crimes Trial
in: ''Japan's Wartime Medical Atrocities: Comparative Inquiries in Science, History, and Ethics (Asia's Transformations)'', Jing Bao Nie, Nanyan Guo, Mark Selden, Arthur Kleinman (Editors); Routledge, 2010,
Materials on the Trial of Former Servicemen of the Japanese Army Charged with Manufacturing and Employing Bacteriological Weapons, Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1950
535 pp. (No ISBN number)
{{International Criminal Law
Biological warfare
Military history of the Soviet Union
War crimes trials in the Soviet Union
Japan–Soviet Union relations
1949 in the Soviet Union
World War II war crimes trials
Trials in Russia
Japanese biological weapons program
Khabarovsk