was a Japanese physician during the first half of the 20th century, a
major general in the
Imperial Japanese Army, and a war criminal.
Biography
Satō was a native of the city of
Toyohashi in
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 under the
Japanese Central China Area Army. 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. 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, 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
major general in June 1945,
Captured by the
Red Army during the
Soviet invasion of Manchuria, he was accused of
war crimes and sentenced to 20 years' incarceration in the
Khabarovsk War Crime Trials. 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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{{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