was a Japanese physician during the first half of the 20th century, a

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 a ...

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 ...

, and a war criminal.

Biography

Satō was a native of the city of

Toyohashi is a city in Aichi Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 377,453 in 160,516 households and a population density of 1,400 persons per km2. The total area of the city was . By area, Toyohashi was Aichi Prefecture's second-la ...

Aichi Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshū. Aichi Prefecture has a population of 7,552,873 () and a geographic area of with a population density of . Aichi Prefecture borders Mie Prefecture to the west, Gifu Prefectur ...

. From January 1941 he was a department head within the

Epidemic Prevention and Water Purification Department The Epidemic Prevention and Water Purification Department was a department of the Imperial Japanese Army from 1936 to the dissolution of the Army in 1945. While its public mission was to prevent the spread of disease and monitor water supply, sever ...

under the

Japanese Central China Area Army Field armies of Japan, C Military units and formations established in 1937 Military units and formations disestablished in 1938 Nanjing Massacre perpetrators ...

. While the public mission of this department was to prevent the spread of disease and monitor water supply, it was also assigned the mission of manufacturing and testing

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 ...

. In August, he was promoted to colonel and from November 1941 commanded

Unit 8604 Unit 8604 (), also known as Detachment 8604, Detachment Nami or Detachment Nami 8604, was the Epidemic Prevention and Water Purification Department unit of the Japanese Southern China Area Army. It secretly researched biological warfare and other ...

of the

Japanese Southern China Area Army The was a field army of the Imperial Japanese Army during Second Sino-Japanese War. History The Japanese South China Area Army was formed on February 9, 1940 under the control of the China Expeditionary Army. It was transferred to direct contro ...

, a biological warfare unit that operated in southern China. From March 1944, he was reassigned as Chief of Medical Service of the IJA 5th Army based in

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 ...

. He was promoted to

in June 1945, Captured by the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, after ...

during the

Soviet invasion of Manchuria The Soviet invasion of Manchuria, formally known as the Manchurian strategic offensive operation (russian: Манчжурская стратегическая наступательная операция, Manchzhurskaya Strategicheskaya Nastu ...

, he was accused of war crimes and sentenced to 20 years' incarceration in the

Khabarovsk War Crime Trials The Khabarovsk war crimes trials were the Soviet hearings of twelve Japanese Kwantung Army officers and medical staff charged with the manufacture and use of biological weapons, and human experimentation, during World War II. The war crimes tri ...

. However, in 1956, with the restoration of diplomatic relations between Japan and the Soviet Union, he was repatriated to Japan. He died in 1977.

References

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External links

* * {{Use mdy dates, date=September 2020 1896 births 1977 deaths Japanese generals Military personnel from Aichi Prefecture Imperial Japanese Army personnel of World War II Japanese military doctors Japanese biological weapons program World War II prisoners of war held by the Soviet Union Japanese people imprisoned abroad Siberian internees Members of the Kwantung Army Japanese people convicted of war crimes