A 94-year-old former member of the notorious Japanese Unit 731 Youth Corps, Hideo Shimizu, has returned to China to offer a heartfelt apology for atrocities committed during World War II. His gesture has been welcomed by the Chinese government, which hopes this act will prompt Japan to reflect on its wartime history.
“We appreciate the courage of Mr. Hideo Shimizu to expose and face the historical truth,” said Lin Jian, spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, during a regular press briefing on Tuesday. “We hope the Japanese government will reflect on history and take responsibility.”
Shimizu arrived in Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, on Monday evening. Revisiting the site of Unit 731’s operations, he recounted harrowing memories of dissected human organs preserved in formalin-filled bottles in the specimen room. After spending over four months in Harbin during the war, he was tasked with collecting the bones of prisoners who had been used as experimental subjects.
He retraced the unit’s war crimes, including the cultivation of pathogens, human dissections, and human experimentation. Shimizu fled China with retreating Japanese forces on August 14, 1945, just before the end of the war.
Unit 731 was a covert biological and chemical warfare research and development unit of the Imperial Japanese Army that conducted lethal human experimentation during the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II. The unit was responsible for some of the most notorious war crimes carried out by Japanese personnel.
Shimizu’s return and admission are seen as a significant step toward acknowledging historical truths. His actions have sparked discussions about the importance of confronting past atrocities to foster better relations between nations.
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China asks Japan to reflect on WWII history as ex-soldier speaks up
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