New book details Unit 731's biological warfare experiments

Zhonghua Book Company recently published the book Unit 731: The Fall of Medicine at an event in Harbin, Heilongjiang province, marking the 94th anniversary of the Sept 18 Incident.

The book is an account of the unit responsible for Japan's planning, organization, and implementation of human experiments and biological warfare during World War II.

During the war, Unit 731 established a top-secret biological and chemical warfare research base in Harbin's Pingfang district and tested bacteria on humans, conducted cruel experiments, and let victims die in extreme agony.

The book details Unit 731's secret construction, expansion, and destruction, as well as the biological warfare it perpetrated in the provinces of Hunan, Zhejiang, and Jiangxi.

It also covers the traumatic memories passed on to the victims' families, their lawsuits against Japan, the unit's post-war trajectory, and issues of site preservation, peace education, historical recognition, and contemporary reflection.

"I spent 20 years investigating and five years writing the book," said the author Yang Yanjun, a professor at the School of Humanities, Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Yang is also an appointed researcher at the Exhibition Hall of Evidences of Crime Committed by Unit 731 of the Japanese Imperial Army in Harbin. "After communicating with the families of human experiment victims, I deeply felt that the pain of war has not ended in their hearts."

"The research on Unit 731 is not just a historical record; it can also influence the present and the fate of individuals and families," he said. "It drives my determination to continue the research as a mission."

The book's value lies in the use of a large number of newly discovered archival materials, especially the latest historical materials declassified by the United States, Japan, and Russia.