Khabarovsk Trial

a trial of Japanese army personnel charged with making (since 1931) and using bacteriological weapons, held in Khabarovsk from Dec. 25 to Dec. 30. 1949, in open sessions of a military tribunal of the Primor’e Military District.

On trial were the former commander in chief of the Japanese Kwangtung army, General Yamado Otozoo; the former head of the ministry of health, Lieutenant General Kajitsuka Ryuji; the former chief of the veterinary service of the Kwangtung army, Lieutenant General Takahashi Takaatsu; the former section and division heads of bacteriological unit No. 731, Major General Kawashima Kioshi and Lieutenant Colonel Karasawa Tomio; the former heads of branches No. 643 and No. 673 of unit No. 731, Major Onoue Masao and Major Nishi Toshihide; the former chief of the health service of the Fifth Army, Major General Sato Shunji; former researchers of bacteriology branches No. 643 and No. 162 of unit No. 731 Kikuchi Norimitsu and Kurushima Yuji; and former researchers of bacteriology unit No. 100 Mitomo Kazuo and Hirazakura Zensaku.

The court established that the Japanese militarists, in their plans for aggressive war against the USSR and other countries, made provisions for the use of bacteriological weapons for the mass extermination of troops and the civilian population of these countries by spreading epidemics of plague, cholera, anthrax, and other diseases. Special groups were created to produce bacteriological weapons, and special military units were trained to infect with bacteria the population, cattle, crops, water supplies, and wells in countries subjected to Japanese aggression. The tribunal established that bacteriological weapons had been used more than once in the war against China and in diversionary sorties against the USSR. The court found all the accused guilty as charged and sentenced them to imprisonment for various lengths of time.