Former member of the Japanese Unit 731 returns to Harbin to testify against the crimes of Unit 731

Hidemasa Shimizu, a former member of Unit 731, returns to Harbin to testify against the crimes of Unit 731.

On the evening of August 12, 2024, Hidemasa Shimizu, a former member of the "Junior Corps" of the Japanese Invading Army's Unit 731, arrived in Harbin, Heilongjiang Province by flight. Next, he will go to the former site of the Japanese Invading Army's Unit 731 to confess and apologize. Hidemasa Shimizu is 94 years old this year. In March 1945, at the age of 14, he was enlisted as a junior soldier and was sent to the headquarters of the Japanese Invading Army's Unit 731 in Harbin. During this period, he witnessed all kinds of extremely cruel and outrageous atrocities of the Japanese Unit 731.

In 2016, Shimizu disclosed his identity as a member of the "Junior Corps" of Unit 731 and has since been committed to exposing the crimes of Unit 731 and telling the historical truth to the public. In his memoirs, he recorded the atrocities of the Japanese Unit 731 burning alive people captured by the Japanese army for experiments before fleeing China and attempting to destroy the corpses and hide the evidence. He wrote, "On the 12th, I entered the special prison to pick up the unburned human bones" "On the 13th, we loaded all kinds of luggage onto the trucks and waited for the departure order". He said that when evacuating from China, his superiors ordered all of them to destroy the evidence related to Unit 731, but still some sporadic materials were brought back to Japan, confirming the fact that he served in Unit 731. He also kept physical evidence such as a group photo of himself in the "Junior Corps" of Unit 731, the "Reserve List of Unit 731", and old banknotes printed with "Manchuria Central Bank", confirming this nightmarish historical truth.

On the morning of August 13, Hidemasa Shimizu and his group came to the Exhibition Hall of the Criminal Evidence of the Japanese Invading Army's Unit 731 in Pingfang District, Harbin City to testify and apologize. Hidemasa Shimizu went to the former site of the guard post, the former site of the bacteria laboratory, the site of the special prison and other places to testify and went to the "Monument of Apology and Peace without War" to confess and apologize. It is learned that the "Monument of Apology and Peace without War" is located in the second protected area of the "Unit 731" site group and was jointly established by Japanese folk friendly people in 2011 with black background and white characters. The inscription on the monument reads: "The Japanese Invading Army's Unit 731 committed unprecedented national-level crimes in world history in China". Standing in front of the monument, Hidemasa Shimizu put his hands together and bowed deeply.