By using this site, you agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Accept

News Junction

Notification Show More
Font ResizerAa
  • Home
  • World News
    World NewsShow More
    UK signs deal to hand over control of Chagos islands | Politics News
    UK signs deal to hand over control of Chagos islands | Politics News
    May 22, 2025
    The Challenges – and Opportunites – of a ‘Golden Dome’ Defense System
    The Challenges – and Opportunites – of a ‘Golden Dome’ Defense System
    May 22, 2025
    Israeli strikes kill 51 in Gaza as aid groups collect limited supplies | Gaza News
    Israeli strikes kill 51 in Gaza as aid groups collect limited supplies | Gaza News
    May 22, 2025
    North Korea reports ‘serious incident’ during naval destroyer launch — RT World News
    North Korea reports ‘serious incident’ during naval destroyer launch — RT World News
    May 22, 2025
    Asia-Pacific stock markets live updates: New Zealand budget 2025
    Asia-Pacific stock markets live updates: New Zealand budget 2025
    May 22, 2025
  • Business
    BusinessShow More
    Ukraine blows up bridges to consolidate its positions in Russia
    Ukraine blows up bridges to consolidate its positions in Russia
    August 18, 2024
    Commentary: AI phones from Google and Apple will erode trust in everything
    Commentary: AI phones from Google and Apple will erode trust in everything
    August 18, 2024
    The most famous Indian Dishes – Insights Success
    The most famous Indian Dishes – Insights Success
    August 18, 2024
    Life on the road as a female long rides cyclist
    Life on the road as a female long rides cyclist
    August 18, 2024
    UK inflation rises to 2.2%
    UK inflation rises to 2.2%
    August 18, 2024
  • Cryptocurrency
    CryptocurrencyShow More
    Semiconductor exemptions don’t matter when it comes to tariffs
    Semiconductor exemptions don’t matter when it comes to tariffs
    May 22, 2025
    UK court partially dismisses Bitcoin SV investor’s lawsuit against Binance
    UK court partially dismisses Bitcoin SV investor’s lawsuit against Binance
    May 22, 2025
    Why has Cookie DAO token price been rising?
    Why has Cookie DAO token price been rising?
    May 22, 2025
    Bitcoin price surpasses $111K for first time; institutional demand strong
    May 22, 2025
    Altcoin ETFs Won’t Create ‘Material Demand from Institutional Investors’ – Analyst
    Altcoin ETFs Won’t Create ‘Material Demand from Institutional Investors’ – Analyst
    May 22, 2025
  • Technology
    TechnologyShow More
    How to Improve Your Spotify Recommendations
    How to Improve Your Spotify Recommendations
    August 18, 2024
    X says it’s closing operations in Brazil
    X says it’s closing operations in Brazil
    August 18, 2024
    Supermoon set to rise: Top tips for amateur photographers | Science & Tech News
    Supermoon set to rise: Top tips for amateur photographers | Science & Tech News
    August 18, 2024
    Scientists Want to See Videos of Your Cat for a New Study
    Scientists Want to See Videos of Your Cat for a New Study
    August 18, 2024
    OpenAI’s new voice mode let me talk with my phone, not to it
    OpenAI’s new voice mode let me talk with my phone, not to it
    August 18, 2024
  • Entertainment
  • Sports News
  • People
  • Trend
Reading: A mysterious pile of bones could hide evidence of Japanese war crimes, activists say
Share
Font ResizerAa

News Junction

  • World News
  • Business
  • Technology
  • Cryptocurrency
  • Trend
  • Entertainment
Search
  • Recent Headlines in Entertainment, World News, and Cryptocurrency – NewsJunction
  • World News
  • Business
  • Cryptocurrency
  • Technology
  • Entertainment
  • Sports News
  • People
  • Trend
Have an existing account? Sign In
Follow US
News Junction > Blog > World News > A mysterious pile of bones could hide evidence of Japanese war crimes, activists say
A mysterious pile of bones could hide evidence of Japanese war crimes, activists say
World News

A mysterious pile of bones could hide evidence of Japanese war crimes, activists say

Published July 26, 2024
Share
7 Min Read
SHARE

TOKYO (AP) — Depending on who you ask, the bones that have been sitting in a Tokyo repository for decades could be either leftovers from early 20th century anatomy classes, or the unburied and unidentified victims of one of the country’s most notorious war crimes.

A group of activists, historians and other experts who want the government to investigate links to wartime human germ warfare experiments met over the weekend to mark the 35th anniversary of their discovery and renew a call for an independent panel to examine the evidence.

Japan’s government has long avoided discussing wartime atrocities, including the sexual abuse of Asian women known as “comfort women” and Korean forced laborers at Japanese mines and factories, often on grounds of lack of documentary proof. Japan has apologized for its aggression in Asia, since the 2010s its been repeatedly criticized in South Korea and China for backpedalling.

Around a dozen skulls, many with cuts, and parts of other skeletons were unearthed on July 22, 1989, during construction of a Health Ministry research institute at the site of the wartime Army Medical School. The school’s close ties to a germ and biological warfare unit led many to suspect that they could be the remains of a dark history that the Japanese government has never officially acknowledged.

Headquartered in then-Japanese-controlled northeast China, Unit 731 and several related units injected prisoners of war with typhus, cholera and other diseases, according to historians and former unit members. They also say the unit performed unnecessary amputations and organ removals on living people to practice surgery and froze prisoners to death in endurance tests. Japan’s government has acknowledged only that Unit 731 existed.

Top Unit 731 officials were not tried in postwar tribunals as the U.S. sought to get ahold of chemical warfare data, historians say, although lower-ranked officials were tried by Soviet tribunals. Some of the unit’s leaders became medical professors and pharmaceutical executives after the war.

A previous Health Ministry investigation said the bones couldn’t be linked to the unit, and concluded that the remains were most likely from bodies used in medical education or brought back from war zones for analysis, in a 2001 report based on questioning 290 people associated with the school.

It acknowledged that some interviewees drew connections to Unit 731. One said he saw a head in a barrel shipped from Manchuria, northern China, where the unit was based. Two others noted hearing about specimens from the unit being stored in a school building, but had not actually seen them. Others denied the link, saying the specimens could include those from the prewar era.

A 1992 anthropological analysis found that the bones came from at least 62 and possibly more than 100 different bodies, mostly adults from parts of Asia outside Japan. The holes and cuts found on some skulls were made after death, it said, but did not find evidence linking the bones to Unit 731.

But activists say that the government could do more to uncover the truth, including publishing full accounts of its interviews and conducting DNA testing.

Kazuyuki Kawamura, a former Shinjuku district assembly member who has devoted most of his career to resolving the bone mystery, recently obtained 400 pages of research materials from the 2001 report using freedom of information requests, and says it shows that the government “tactfully excluded” key information from witness accounts.

The newly published material doesn’t contain a smoking gun, but it includes vivid descriptions — the man who described seeing a head in a barrel also described helping to handle it and then running off to vomit — and comments from several witnesses who suggested that more forensic investigation might show a link to Unit 731.

“Our goal is to identify the bones and send them back to their families,” said Kawamura. The bones are virtually the only proof of what happened, he says. “We just want to find the truth.”

Health Ministry official Atsushi Akiyama said that witness accounts had already been analyzed and factored into the 2001 report, and the government’s position remains unchanged. A key missing link is a documentary evidence, such as a label on a specimen container or official records, he said.

Documents, especially those involving Japan’s wartime atrocities, were carefully destroyed in the war’s closing days and finding new evidence for a proof would be difficult.

Akiyama added that a lack of information about the bones would make DNA analysis difficult.

Hideo Shimizu, who was sent to Unit 731 in April 1945 at age 14 as lab technician and joined the meeting online from his home in Nagano, said he remembers seeing heads and body parts in formalin jars stored in a specimen room in the unit’s main building. One that struck him most was a dissected belly with a fetus inside. He was told they were “maruta” — logs — a term used for prisoners chosen for experiments.

Days before Japan’s Aug. 15, 1945 surrender, Shimizu was ordered to collect bones of prisoners’ bodies burned in a pit. He was then given a pistol and a packet of cyanide to kill himself if he was caught on his journey back to Japan.

He was ordered never to tell anyone about his Unit 731 experience, never contact his colleagues, and never seek a government or medical job.

Shimizu said he cannot tell if any specimen he saw at the 731 could be among the Shinjuku bones by looking at their photos, but that what he saw in Harbin should never be repeated. When he sees his great-grandchildren, he said, they remind him of that fetus he saw and the lives lost.

“I want younger people to understand the tragedy of war,” he said.

#mysterious #pile #bones #hide #evidence #Japanese #war #crimes #activists

TAGGED:ActivistsBonescrimesevidencegerm warfare experimentsHealth MinistryhideJapanJapanesemysteriouspileprisoners of warUnit 731warwartime atrocities
Share This Article
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Whatsapp Whatsapp LinkedIn Email Copy Link Print
Share
What do you think?
Love0
Sad0
Happy0
Sleepy0
Angry0
Dead0
Wink0
Previous Article WhatsApp and Signal messages at risk of surveillance following EncroChat ruling, court hears WhatsApp and Signal messages at risk of surveillance following EncroChat ruling, court hears
Next Article 3 reasons why it’s not worth waiting to deal with debt 3 reasons why it’s not worth waiting to deal with debt
- Advertisement -

Latest Post

UK signs deal to hand over control of Chagos islands | Politics News
UK signs deal to hand over control of Chagos islands | Politics News
World News
Semiconductor exemptions don’t matter when it comes to tariffs
Semiconductor exemptions don’t matter when it comes to tariffs
Cryptocurrency
The Challenges – and Opportunites – of a ‘Golden Dome’ Defense System
The Challenges – and Opportunites – of a ‘Golden Dome’ Defense System
World News
UK court partially dismisses Bitcoin SV investor’s lawsuit against Binance
UK court partially dismisses Bitcoin SV investor’s lawsuit against Binance
Cryptocurrency
Israeli strikes kill 51 in Gaza as aid groups collect limited supplies | Gaza News
Israeli strikes kill 51 in Gaza as aid groups collect limited supplies | Gaza News
World News
Why has Cookie DAO token price been rising?
Why has Cookie DAO token price been rising?
Cryptocurrency
- Advertisement -

You Might Also Like

‘I have to go to my family’: Nicole Kidman unable to receive Venice best actress award after mother dies | Ents & Arts News
World News

‘I have to go to my family’: Nicole Kidman unable to receive Venice best actress award after mother dies | Ents & Arts News

September 8, 2024
US Senator urges NATO pilots to fight for Ukraine — RT World News
World News

US Senator urges NATO pilots to fight for Ukraine — RT World News

August 13, 2024
China warns of ‘resolute measures’ after Taiwan VP’s visit to US — RT World News
World News

China warns of ‘resolute measures’ after Taiwan VP’s visit to US — RT World News

August 13, 2023
Gaza hospital attack: Analysis contradicts Israel’s evidence justifying airstrike | World News
World News

Gaza hospital attack: Analysis contradicts Israel’s evidence justifying airstrike | World News

May 15, 2025

About Us

NEWS JUNCTION (NewsJunction.xyz) Your trusted destination for global news. Stay informed with our timely and accurate reporting on diverse topics, including politics, technology, science, entertainment, sports, and more. Count on us for unbiased and reliable updates at your fingertips.

Quick Link

  • About
  • Disclaimer
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use
  • Contact

Top Categories

  • World News
  • Business
  • Technology
  • Entertainment
  • Cryptocurrency
  • Sports News
  • Trend
  • People

Subscribe

Subscribe to our newsletter to get our newest articles instantly!

    © 2023 News Junction.
    • Blog
    • Advertise
    • Contact
    Welcome Back!

    Sign in to your account

    Username or Email Address
    Password

    Lost your password?