__NOTOC__ was a medical doctor, microbiologist and a lieutenant general in the

Imperial Japanese Army The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emperor o ...

. He was the second commander of

Unit 731 , short for Manshu Detachment 731 and also known as the Kamo Detachment and Ishii Unit, was a covert biological and chemical warfare research and development unit of the Imperial Japanese Army that engaged in lethal human experimentatio ...

, a covert

biological Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary in ...

and

chemical warfare Chemical warfare (CW) involves using the toxic properties of chemical substances as weapons. This type of warfare is distinct from nuclear warfare, biological warfare and radiological warfare, which together make up CBRN, the military acronym ...

research and development unit responsible for some of the most notorious war crimes carried out by Japanese personnel.

Biography

Masaji Kitano was born on 14 July 1894 in

Hyōgo Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Hyōgo Prefecture has a population of 5,469,762 () and has a geographic area of . Hyōgo Prefecture borders Kyoto Prefecture to the east, Osaka Prefecture to the southeast, an ...

, Japan. He graduated in medicine from the School of Medicine,

Tokyo Imperial University , abbreviated as or UTokyo, is a public research university located in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Established in 1877, the university was the first Imperial University and is currently a Top Type university of the Top Global University Project by ...

on 26 November 1920 and the following year was commissioned as a lieutenant as an army surgeon. In 1923 at Tokyo Imperial University's graduate school, he commenced studies in

infectious diseases An infection is the invasion of tissues by pathogens, their multiplication, and the reaction of host tissues to the infectious agent and the toxins they produce. An infectious disease, also known as a transmissible disease or communicable dise ...

intestinal perforation Gastrointestinal perforation, also known as ruptured bowel, is a hole in the wall of part of the gastrointestinal tract. The gastrointestinal tract includes the esophagus, stomach, small intestine, and large intestine. Symptoms include severe ab ...

and

shigella ''Shigella'' is a genus of bacteria that is Gram-negative, facultative anaerobic, non-spore-forming, nonmotile, rod-shaped, and genetically closely related to ''E. coli''. The genus is named after Kiyoshi Shiga, who first discovered it in 1897. ...

, and became first class army surgeon seven months later. He received his doctoral degree in 1925 with a dissertation titled "Experimental research on seronegative intestine perforation and parathyroid fever", four years before being promoted to third-class army surgeon. In 1932, he worked in the First Army Hospital and taught at the Medical Department of the Ministry of War of Japan. The following year he visited the United States and Europe for research, and in August 1935 held the position of chief second-class army surgeon (Nitō guni sei). In 1936, he was dispatched to

Manchukuo Manchukuo, officially the State of Manchuria prior to 1934 and the Empire of (Great) Manchuria after 1934, was a puppet state of the Empire of Japan in Northeast China, Manchuria from 1932 until 1945. It was founded as a republic in 1932 afte ...

and became a professor at the Manchu School of Medicine, teaching microbiology. In 1942, he was appointed the second commander of

. His predecessor was

Shirō Ishii Surgeon General was a Japanese microbiologist and army medical officer who served as the director of Unit 731, a biological warfare unit of the Imperial Japanese Army. Ishii led the development and application of biological weapons at Unit 73 ...

. In April 1945, he was promoted to lieutenant surgeon general and appointed commander of the 13th Army Medical Corps. After the Japanese surrender in August 1945, he was detained in a POW camp in Shanghai. Like all involved with Unit 731 or Japanese

biological warfare Biological warfare, also known as germ warfare, is the use of biological toxins or infectious agents such as bacteria, viruses, insects, and fungi with the intent to kill, harm or incapacitate humans, animals or plants as an act of war. Bio ...

, he was repatriated to Japan in January 1946. Kitano was one of the founders of the Japanese pharmaceutical company and first commercial blood bank Green Cross, which was renamed Welfide in 1998 and which became part of

Mitsubishi Pharma Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corporation is a Japanese pharmaceuticals company from Osaka, a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings Corporation. was formed in 2001 from the merger of Mitsubishi-Tokyo Pharmaceuticals and Welfide Corporation. On ...

in 2001. In 1959, he became head of the plant in Tokyo and the chief director of that company. He was the chief funeral commissioner of Shiro Ishii. Kitano died in Tokyo in 1986.

Biography

References

Further reading