In an uncharacteristic fashion, a Japanese nurse has admitted she helped bury evidence of the war-crimes perpetrated by Japan’s germ and biological warfare research — Unit 731.

The heroic Japanese nurse, Toyo Ishii, broke a 60 year silence. She admits to helping bury bones to an unknown number of bodies — evidence found in 1989 suggests anywhere from 50 to over 100 — who were drilled into, injected with diseases and cut open while still alive. Japan buried these victims — mostly American POWs — in a mass grave shortly before Americans arrived following Japan’s surrender.

Japan will not apologize and has expressed no interest in reconciliation. It will neither investigate the issue further — Japan released a study in 2001 saying it did nothing wrong — nor allow the victims a proper burial:

Health Ministry official Jiro Yashiki rules out a speedy exhumation. “People still live there and we can’t visit each family to remind them of the bones … just imagine how they feel about it”.

The saddest part of this tragedy: the atrocities Americans endured in World War II is an order of magnitude better than what China endured.

This entry was posted on 2006-9-17 at 20:04 and is filed under Life in Japan, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.