日学者发现731战犯免责新证

http://www.bbc.co.uk/zhongwen/simp/china/2010/02/100206_731doc.shtml
日本一名教授发现的文件证实，二战后美军以提供人体试验等数据为条件，免除了对731部队战犯的追究。

共同社报道，早稻田大学教授山本武利在国立国会图书馆发现了日期为1946年2月15日的文件。

文件由美国陆军第二参谋部发送给联合国军总司令部，上下方均盖有“机密”章，右上方有要求销毁的手写文字。

文件指示“检察以下人物的信件”，列出了731部队负责人石井四郎和“九·一八事变”时担任关东军参谋的石原莞尔等12人的姓名和住址等。

此外，还列出了9个曾在731部队研究设施中“具有医学背景”者的姓名，但地址不详。

山本认为，“检查信件可能是免除追究731部队所必须的工作，用以确认部队有关人员是否在计划报复美方等”。

收买情报

日本媒体在2005年曾经报道，日本一名学者在美国国家档案馆发现的绝密文件显示，二战结束两年后，驻日美军曾支付现金给前731部队成员，作为他们提供情报的报酬。

新华社当时指出，该文件的披露，是首次证实了美国二战后为了获得731部队的数据，积极提供资金收买。

日本“731细菌战部队真相究明会”今年1月要求日本防卫省公开731部队的相关资料。

“究明会”的代表、庆应大学名誉教授松村高夫表示：“为究明真相、与亚洲人民达成真正的和解，有必要公开资料。”

另一方面，《哈尔滨日报》报道，该市社科院等机构将在今年北京召开的“两会”上，建议加快推进哈尔滨市“731遗址”申报世界文化遗产的工作。


U.S. forces ordered all mail items sent to ex-Unit 731 members to be censored

U.S. forces instructed the General Headquarters of the Allied Forces to censor mail items sent to 21 people linked to Japan's notorious Unit 731 that conducted research on germ warfare during World War II, it has emerged.

Taketoshi Yamamoto, professor of media history at Waseda University, has found a relevant document from among U.S. official documents preserved at the National Diet Library.

"The censorship occurred before the Tokyo Tribunal of War Criminals. It may have been necessary for granting Unit 731 members immunity from prosecution," said Yamamoto.

After Japan's defeat in the war, U.S. forces granted Unit 731 members immunity from prosecution as war criminals in return for providing data on the unit's human testing and other experiments. However, it had not been known that U.S. forces were monitoring the moves of former Unit 731 members and others linked to the unit by censoring mail items sent to them.

The document, dated Feb. 15, 1946, was sent from the U.S. Army to the Civil Censorship Department (CCD) of the Allied Forces' General Headquarters. It was treated as a secret document.

It instructed the CCD to censor mail items sent to 12 people including Shiro Ishii, head of Unit 731; Ryoichi Naito, an aide to Ishii and the founder of pharmaceutical firm Green Cross; and Kanji Ishihara, former lieutenant general with the defunct Imperial Japanese Army who played a key role in the Manchurian Incident.

The document states that the CCD should closely examine any reference to Ishii and germ warfare and meetings between those involved.

The document also lists nine other people with a medical background, who had allegedly worked at the unit's research facility. U.S. forces required the CCD to pay close attention to their moves.

The lists of 21 people include figures that have not been known as those linked to Unit 731.

U.S. forces began to question those linked to the unit in September 1945, shortly after they occupied Japan. They attempted to draw detailed information on the unit's activities by hinting at granting them immunity from prosecution as war criminals.

In 1947, U.S. forces decided not to prosecute members of Unit 731 in return for providing data on their experiments.