David Peace - Occupied City

The article claimed that experiments at Canton had backfired & that plague had broken out in the city. It further stated that Ishii, despite having had a mock funeral staged, was alive & well & living in Japan. Well, as you can imagine, all hell broke loose & before I knew it I was back in the General’s office (though no one suspects it was me who so well & truly let the cat out of the bag)!

Anyway, Willoughby (who I do not trust) told me that Masaji Kitano, the commander of Unit 7 31 from 1942 to 1944, was already on a plane from China & I was to question him upon his arrival in Tokyo. But they saved the best for last — Ishii had also miraculously turned up in Chiba Prefecture & I was to interview him too .

So I am finally to meet the devil & talk with him .

Wish me luck & pray that I’ll be back home with you all very soon now. I cannot tell you how much I miss you all & am looking forward to seeing you, so kiss the children from me .

All my love, Murray .

*

Stamped TOP SECRET

APO 500-Advanced Echelon

February 25, 1946

To:

Colonel Harlan Worthley, Office of the Chief Chemical Warfare Service, Special Project Division, Gravelly Point, Washington, D.C.

Dear Colonel Worthley,

I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your timely and continued support of my request to remain in charge of the Jap BW investigation. I am only too aware that not every one (particularly in G-2) felt I, or anyone from Camp Detrick, should even remain involved.

As you are no doubt aware, the International Prosecution Section for the Tokyo War Crimes Trial is now here in Tokyo and in full swing. I have a meeting scheduled (for March 8) with Lt. Col. Thomas H. Morrow of the IPS, whose brief is to prepare the prosecution’s case in relation to Japanese military aggression and war crimes in China. From my initial conversations with Lt. Col. Morrow it is clear that he wishes to bring BW matters before the Tokyo trial.

As you are also aware, I have just completed a series of interrogations with Lt. Gen. Ishii and Lt. Gen. Kitano and much of what was said will be of interest and relevance to Lt. Col. Morrow. However, before sharing any of our information with the IPS, I feel it is only proper to fully brief yourself and the Chemical Warfare Section. To that end, I will be sending — through proper channels — the stenographic transcripts of my interrogations with Lt. Gen. Ishii and Lt. Gen. Kitano. However, I feel it is my duty to bring some matters raised by the interrogations to your immediate attention.

The interrogations were conducted over the best part of the last seven weeks, commencing January 18, after Ishii was finally located (thanks to my ‘informant’) and brought to Tokyo from his home village in Chiba (where he had been residing all along). During this period, we have also interviewed a further twenty-five intimates of Ishii about him and his work.

I would like to note for the record, however, that it was a great pity that Ishii was not arrested and interned in Sugamo, instead of being merely asked to reside in his Tokyo house while charges against him were being investigated. I do strongly feel that had Ishii been interned in Sugamo with the rest of them, then we would have been able to gain more substantial (and damning) testimony from him. I am aware that Ishii’s health is not good (he has chronic chole-cystitis and dysentery), but I feel that should have in no way dictated the location of the interviews (his Tokyo home).

I would also like to note for the record that it was a further source of regret that all interview sessions were conducted in the presence of Ishii’s daughter (Harumi). At the request of Lt. Col. D. S. Tait of Technical Intelligence and Lt. E. M. Ellis of the War Department Intelligence Section (who were also both present throughout each interview), and with the approval of GHQ (but against my own wishes), Ishii’s daughter also recorded each interview and then typed out the transcriptions which she then delivered on a daily basis to the GHQ building at the Ichigaya garrison in Tokyo (where the War Crimes Trials are to take place). Lt. Ellis also acted as interpreter and it was my personal impression that the answers to many of my questions had already been ‘rehearsed’ (and the same, in fact, can be said of all the Japs I have interviewed).

It is my opinion that Ishii therefore had ample opportunity to consult his former associates — several of whom we know to be present in Tokyo and the vicinity — since the interrogations were intermittent and much of his information was presented to me by charts and written in answer to our questionnaires.

Furthermore, many of the ‘interrogations’ were conducted in a far too casual and relaxed environment for my liking (particularly given the severity of the crimes I believe Ishii and Kitano to be guilty of). We were, for example, frequently served meals and invited to attend dinner parties in the company of geisha and hostesses etc. I, of course, refused such offers of hospitality as being inappropriate (but I know others did accept).

I would ask you to bear in mind that the transcripts (to follow) have been reported in the first and third person for purposes of simplification and so I would emphasize that, while the context has been accurately recorded, they are not a verbatim literal record as the interpreter (Lt. Ellis) acted as a channel in the interviews.

The particular points I would like to bring to your attention are as follows:

From the outset, I found Ishii’s answers to be guarded, concise and often evasive. Furthermore, I believe that Ishii’s repeated claim that all BW records were destroyed to be a pretense, not least because the technical information we did obtain from him (in response to our questionnaires) indicates an amazing familiarity with technical data. Such familiarity naturally leads one to question his contention that all records pertaining to BW research and development were destroyed. As stated above, it is my belief that, in all probability, much of the information Ishii did present was compiled with reference to documentation and with the assistance of his former associates at Pingfan and, no doubt, following much discussion as to what — and what not — to share with us.

Ishii also continues to maintain that no official directive existed for the prosecution of an offensive BW program and that it was conducted purely as a phase of military preventive medicine. He seeks to portray his BW research as being a local, small-scale, almost renegade operation, confined exclusively to Pingfan, and tested on only small animals (‘monkeys, rats, squirrels, and other small animals’). He denies any field tests whatsoever were ever conducted, and categorically denies that any experiments were conducted using human ‘guinea pigs’ (‘no humans at all were used in the tests’).

Ishii maintains that such allegations and rumors (of human experimentation) have been falsely and maliciously spread about himself and his unit (‘A lot of men in my unit, and others who know nothing about it, have been spreading rumors to the effect that some secret work has been carried on in BW … I want you to have a clear understanding that this is false’) and he claims to be the victim of an orchestrated campaign of blackmail and extortion by disaffected and destitute former subordinates. Tait and Ellis seem to believe him and claim to have seen the proof (in letters and telegrams), though they have yet to share this evidence with me (despite my repeated requests).

Ishii continually stated that all work done in BW was purely defensive and in anticipation of a Soviet BW attack. He claims to know that the Soviets have ‘tularemia, typhus fever, cholera, anthrax, and plague bacteria’ and that the Soviets had ‘completed their BW preparations’ and that such knowledge ‘frightened’ him.