CRI听力:Archives Detail Japan's Wartime Human Experimentation

A museum in Heilongjiang has put out a series of archives recording bacteriological experimentation on humans during Japan's occupation of northeast China.

The archives are being described as the most authoritative evidence of the Japanese military's germ warfare Unit, known as 731.

Jin Chengmin is the head of the Museum of Unit 731's Atrocities.

"We know Unit 731 used humans to conduct their experiments. We also know where the victims were from. But the archives declassified by the United States explain in detail what types of experiments were conducted, how many people were involved, and the process of the experiments. It is a complete record of Unit 731's human experimentation. After being sent to Unit 731, the victims were called 'muruts', which means log in Japanese. They became the material for human experimentation. So far we can confirm that the number of 'muruts' was up to 1,467 people."

Before Japan's defeat at the end of the war, Unit 731 is said to have destroyed most of the documents connected to its experiments.

However, a number of Japanese officials who worked in the Unit later provided US investigators information about their research to avoid war crimes prosecution.

The United States declassified the information several years ago.

The documents shows the Japanese army launched over 160 biological attacks on Chinese cities, causing over 20-thousand deaths.