Cruelty of War; Japanese field medic admits to torturing victims
Akira Makino, an 84-year-old former high-ranking Japanese military medic has revealed publicly that he vivisected the bodies of living people during the war. Makino has announced that he “cut up living bodies towards the end of World War II” as part of human experiments and is now coming clean to set the record straight.
Stationed on the island of Mindanao, Philippines during World War II, Makino now resides comfortably in Hirakata, Osaka Prefecture and is willing to speak about his past experiences because he says when he dies he wants the truth to be known about his life.
Makino belonged to the No. 33 guard unit of the Japanese navy. From August 1944, he treated injured Japanese soldiers on an airbase on the west side of Mindanao. The medical team was led by a military doctor in his 30’s whose name Makino has never publicly stated.
According to Makino, the vivisections began in December 1944 on residents of the island who were suspected of being spies for the U.S. Military. Their operations were performed at a hospital on the base with two people operating under the instructions of the military doctor. The victims were put under anesthesia, and then had limbs cut off, and abdominal operations at a rate of once every three days. This continued up until February of 1945, Makino says just before the U.S. Military landed.
It is a well-documented fact that Unit 731, a clandestine medical unit of the former Imperial Army, performed vivisections on Chinese in Manchuria. But Makino’s testimony is the first time any reports of medical torture and vivisections outside of China have been mentioned to the public.
“I was unable to resist orders, and I did something cruel”, Makino says. “As the number of people with wartime experience decreases, I have a responsibility to speak the truth about the war”.
EDIT: After discussion in the thread, the image associated with this story was removed due to questions about historical inaccuracy. Thank you to the folks, particularly Fluffy and Aki who looked into this.
That photo is actually one of photos of an autopsy of a Japanese woman who was killed by Chinese during 済南事件. The photos were originally printed in the Japanese magazine in 1928. It has nothing to do with Unite 731. If you’re going to debate history and use photos as evidence, you need to verify when, where, and who took the pictures. Without it, it becomes tertiary source with no credibility.
October 25th, 2006 at 12:14 amThe photo was picked up here, Fluffy. Take it up with them.
October 25th, 2006 at 12:19 amIf you can read Japanese, please read the following pages.
About the photo.
http://www2u.biglobe.ne.jp/~sus/horrible.htm
http://photo.jijisama.org/731.html
Sainan Incident (済南事件) and other incidents.
http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~KU3N-KYM/doyoyon/doyoyo11.html
Since Iris Chang used that photograph in her book saying “Vivisection being performed on a Chinese victim by a Japanese biological warfare doctor”, it is often used as a photograph of Unit 731. But that is not true. While Unit 731 was founded in 1940’s, the photograph had been published in a Japanese book, 山東省動乱記念写真帖, in 1928. The corpse in the photo is a Japanese woman killed by Chinese soldiers. The doctor in the photo is a coroner. Chinese officers also attended the medical examination. To use a wrong photograph in this topic would be insult to true victims of atrocities by Imperial Japanese Army and to the victims of the Sainan Incident.
October 25th, 2006 at 12:51 amJP,
Do that site state who took that picture? and when and where? When the photo is used as a evidence, these things are essential. You don’t seem to realise you are helping to spread anti-Japan propaganda. Not only is it sickening that this photo represents an actual incident, but also sickening that misguided and uninformed propagandists attach fabricated meanings to it and use it to further their own political agendas.
October 25th, 2006 at 1:23 amFluffy, this isn’t anti-Japanese at all. Nor is it in the least propoganda. And this story isn’t propogating anything except of an important peice of news thats worth writing.
How can it be anti-Japanese? Its about a Japanese man admiting guilt about things done long ago by Japanese people including himself… I didn’t blame him nor do I now. Those were the times and I think it takes a great ammount of courage to speak up.
October 25th, 2006 at 6:21 amIf the photo is mislabled, then I appologies. To the best of my knowledge it is accurate. Does anyone have any background on this??
Alex, Fluffy is not questioning the story. He’s questioning the picture that accompanies it. If the picture is mislabeled, then it is propoganda. If the picture is propoganda, then it weakens the veracity of the story.
It’s bad enough what the Japanese did, but certain people feel the need to make it appear even worse for their own reasons, and thus the glut of unreliable pictures on the net and in certain books.
Look at the fake pictures coming out of the Middle East. They know that a photo makes a bigger impression than words.
October 25th, 2006 at 8:32 amVery good point Ghoti.
As I said to the best of my knowledge it is an accurate picture. If its found out not to be, then I’ll remove it.
Does anyone have background info on this that would be helpfull ??
October 25th, 2006 at 8:54 amalexpappas,
What makes you believe it is accurate?? If you want to use photos as historical evidence, you need verifiable time, place, and origin. As aki said, the photo was published in a Japanese book 山東省動乱記念写真帖 in 1928 when unit 731 didn’t even exist.
October 25th, 2006 at 11:28 amI took a peek at the site but couldn’t find additional info on the image. But just for argument sakes, I’ll take the image out..
October 25th, 2006 at 11:42 am[...] Alexpappas in Japundit blogs about the confession of a 84 years old former Japanese military medic’s confession of human torturing during the WWII. [...]
October 25th, 2006 at 1:31 pmRelax, Fluffy.
October 28th, 2006 at 1:11 pm