You
And here we meet again beneath the mighty Muadah Banyan tree beside the sea the great panorama of Waikiki Beach before us
Old diamond head at one end surfboards and out rigger canoes catching waves out there
Many colors along the shore a bright and beautiful picture
This is Wembley Edwards speaking for all the Islanders for these many mainlanders from so many places
Whose voices now rise with us in that traditional shout that begins our songs from the islands our aloha as
Hawaii call
Just another beautiful day in paradise a typical Saturday in Honolulu Hawaii
Children played in the water shoppers were out and businesses were open
Tourists danced the hula while sailors and servicemen enjoyed the sights
If you are an American on December 6th 1941 you are unconcerned with the news of war
That was in Europe or somewhere far away in Asia
As the sun set on that perfect day no one knew that the world was about to change forever
It began just northwest of the Hawaiian Islands when Japanese naval aircraft carriers launched nearly 400 planes
In two ways to attack the island of Oahu
Dive bombers zero attack fighter planes and torpedo bombers rain destruction upon America's Pacific fleet anchored in Pearl Harbor
Service men and sailors awoke to the chaotic sounds of explosions sirens gunfire and screams from the injured
Yesterday December 7th 1941 a date which will live in
In inform a United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan
With confidence in our armed forces with the unbounding determination of our people
We will gain the inevitable triumph so help us God
Although many in America had previously called for isolationism that rhetoric called for isolationism
That rhetoric was swept away with the debris in the outgoing tidal waters of Pearl Harbor
This was not the first time the Empire of Japan had committed unprovoked invasions into peaceful and neutral countries
A decade before the Imperial Japanese Army invaded Manchuria now China following the Mukden incident in 1931
Japan established the puppet government of Montuco and even placed Puyi the last emperor of China as its head of state
Once Japan tasted conquest without opposition it continued its march into Harbin, Shanghai, even Mongolia culminating with the rape of Nanjing in 1937
The Japanese went on a wild bloodlust committing looting, destruction, mass rape and mass murder of an estimated 300,000 innocent Chinese civilians
For a decade before the Pearl Harbor attack China stood alone in Asia against Japanese aggression outgunned and overwhelmed waiting for help
Now that the sleeping giant America was awake it was only a matter of time, place and manner for the Japanese to experience the effects of justice
From the San Francisco newsroom we take you now to Batavia
I am at 5.36 Sunday evening. Today's most important piece of news in the Netherlands East Indies is the appointment of General Wayville
The Americans had started to build up the Philippines as part of a defense against Japanese aggression
They moved in troops, they mobilized the Philippine Army, they brought in bombers from the United States
The main plan for the United States was to actually base bombers in the Philippines that could bomb Japan as a deterrent
Shortly after the assault on Pearl Harbor the Japanese unleashed another surprise air and land attack on US bases in the Philippine Islands
General Douglas MacArthur was forced to retreat to Australia leaving the beleaguered American forces and its allies to fight an insurmountable battle
When the Japanese took over Baton and Corregidor these men, these Americans held out on Corregidor for six months almost
Heavy fighting going on. We've only got about one hour, twenty minutes before
We may have to give up by noon. We don't know yet. They are throwing men and shells at us and we may not be able to stand it
They were eventually captured by the Japanese
They were overwhelmed by Japanese forces. General Jonathan Wainwright, commander of the Allied forces, chose to surrender in the face of certain defeat
We started out on the same road, again running into Japanese troops
Once again, day two was just like day one, constantly being beaten every time we ran across the Japanese
Then I think it was around the middle of the second day that people began to collapse. We hadn't had water in a day and a half and in the tropics it's almost beyond what you can take
Once anybody collapsed, the Japanese immediately killed them. It looked like the Japanese were really trying to kill us all
They were taken to Kabana Tawan, which is on baton actually. They were there for quite a while and then the Japanese wanted able-bodied men who had engineering skills
to work at their factory, their precision dive factory in Mukden, Manchuria. So it was mostly Americans that they chose to go there
They're called hell ships because the conditions aboard them were just absolutely appalling, unbelievable
Each prisoner was fed about one teacup of cooked rice twice daily and given a canteen full of dirty water once a day. Sanitary facilities consisted of four five gallon buckets which were grossly inadequate
Scores of men were afflicted with dysentery and other sickness. The heat was stifling, the stench unbearable. Hundreds went out of their minds
There was room to lie down for only a few. Most of the prisoners stood or squatted on the floor hour after hour for 14 days. Avery E. Wilbur aboard the Arasan Maroon
Sometimes they were called dog kennels, wooden platforms about three and a half feet high so you could barely sit up in them and stuff the men in those to the side and then the others spilled over into the middle of the cargo hold
Some people slept on the beer, metal floors, other people slept on the wooden racks. Many men perished aboard those ships from the terrible conditions. They ended up getting dysentery
But what took an even bigger toll was that the American submarines, American aircraft also began to attack them so later in the war many of the hell ships were sunk
So these prisoners were packed aboard to be transported to Japan region and there were no markings and then they were sorted on the ships
And the Americans wanted to sink anything they could but there was more time and so many hell ships went down
Avery E. Wilbur aboard the Arasan Maroon
Arasan Maroon was probably the largest single maritime disaster for the United States. There were almost 1,800 prisoners of war aboard the ship and there were eight men survived
The Japanese crew was rescued by the supporting destroyers but the Americans who tried to ask them to be rescued were beaten away with poles and left in the water
The POW's brutal journey took nearly 2,000 miles until they finally reached Mukden Camp. Only to discover there were no prepared facilities awaiting them
The first year they had old Chinese army barracks which were half buried underground
and half above ground. It was freezing cold. They lost quite a few people to frostbite
The malnutrition was tremendous. They were three quarters dead by the time they got there. The conditions there were so harsh that it didn't take much for them to go the rest of the way and die because they were so malnourished
and it was so cold
That first winter the POW's were expected to walk the five miles daily to the Mitsubishi Tool Factory where they would produce machine tools for Japanese munition workers
War-related labor by prisoners was strictly forbidden by the Geneva Convention which Japan had been a co-signer in 1929
Colonel Genji Matsuda in command of the camp began issuing many rules and regulations to his guests of the Emperor
However, the prisoners only became more intolerant of their daily beatings and began a systematic sabotage of the machine tools and parts they produced at the Mitsubishi Factory
They've always been the lowest people in the world. If you're a prisoner of war, you're the scum of the earth, the people you're with
The prisoners of war is not a good business to begin because the odds of survival are pretty slim
We got the muck then unloaded from the train and the ground was frozen and it was raining and everything was covered with ice, there was a half inch of ice on the streets and we lined up and we stood there two hours waiting for a Japanese commander to come out and make a speech
He delivered it, you know, but it stands out in that rain for two hours. He was there, he just wanted to cool off, I guess
What was provided to them by Japanese army was no way enough to meet the normal physical needs of a person. As former POW soldiers described, hunger and coldness is the most unbearable torture for them
Despite all these poor conditions, they had to work a long distance every day in cold weather
They left POW camp in the morning before sunrise and go back after sunset
The cells were built from 4x4 wood, you know, a box, that high, you couldn't stand up, it was too small to lay down
You had to go from one corner to the other like this and the Japanese guard, the patrol would let you lay down, he'd take you to his bay and wake you up, you know, and get you out of there, you can only sleep for times a day
Really because the Germans observed the Geneva Convention right to the letter and they had a different concept about prisoners of war, they also knew we were capturing many of their troops and wanted us to treat their people humanely
So they made sure that they observed all the Geneva Conventions and made sure they had supplies for the prisoners, whereas the Japanese were, for one thing, most of all, their attitude toward prisoners was quite different
and their resentment of white colonials was so great, our prisoners did not know that and the Japanese also were very overwhelmed by the numbers of allied prisoners who came into their hands
and they would have had difficulty feeding them all as it was, but by withholding red cross parcels, withholding medicine and giving them very, very little food, they increased the death rate tremendously
Many POWs died before after they arrived at POW camps, the bodies of the dead were piled up in a wooden shield at the camp, during the first winter they spent there between 1942 and 1943
The blankets used to ramp over bodies were also taken by fellow POWs to keep themselves warm because they had to
One of the most cruel was Adisei who had grown up on the west coast and gone back to Japan and he somehow wound up at Mukden and was extremely brutal to the Americans especially
He took it out on the Americans especially
There was a Japanese project team leader, he was nasty, they came in the factory on parade under the supervision of Japanese guards
After they came into the shop, there was a watch tower and the guards watched them there, there was a guy called Lao Gao older than me
When the POWs escaped, it was Lao Gao who gave them the map, at first when it wasn't so strict, two POWs were working with him together, when they were recaptured, we were asked to stand in lines and the POWs had to point out to the Japanese who gave them the map
No less than 3 days later, some information came out saying that the person who gave the map was called Gao
Lao Gao was arrested immediately and sentenced to 10 years in prison
The blood brother groups, 10 men, if one man escaped or like it, they would kill 10 men and it happened
Many of the men had enough of depression, starvation and torture so their only alternative was to escape
On June 21, 1943, three men quietly slipped out of the camp under a bright moon
Within days they were recaptured and returned, witnesses said the men had been viciously beaten with no medical treatment given
They were tried in a mock court and executed just for doing a soldier's sworn duty to escape and harass the enemy
And they made all the other prisoners watch because they wanted to make a big example of these three who dared to try to escape
News of their deaths were not given by Colonel Matsuda, the Camp Commandant, until November to the Swiss International Red Cross Representative
The Swiss didn't notify the American legation in Geneva until January 1944 and the American Navy only informed the POWs loved ones back in America on July 28, 1944, nearly a year to the day of their deaths
This troubling pattern of secrecy, neglect and mistreatment to the American POWs would dog them for the rest of their lives
During one period of time, it was said one American died every day from hunger, there was not enough to eat
In winter, they had to work outside, some froze to death, POWs died and were taken out and buried during the night
They can't just make people disappear, so they kept a list and buried them in the cemetery near Hu Jia, Yuan Ji, now Area 724
What happened to her?
Typhoid fever and pneumonia, very, very, we got very, very, I swell up so bad that my lower body was just, you know, it would push your finger in
way down and it would stay there, hurt real bad, I spent three weeks there, non-treatment, just stay there and wait
because a lot of guys in there had typhoid fever, diphtheria and they were dying in there, you know, just lots of them
In spring 1943, this group of Unit 731 was ordered to move into the camp
That Unit 731 was biological and chemical warfare research, it did not function as medical care unit
Many of the POWs were in poor health during that time, if they wanted to cure their disease and help with their health
It was absolutely unnecessary to ask a working group from Unit 731 to come to the camp
It must be for other purposes for them to go there
There had been whispers about a mysterious secret camp heavily guarded by the Kuang Tong Army near Harbin, the Manchurian capital
Intelligence showed that the camp was known as the Epidemic Prevention and Water Purification Department
But in fact, it developed biological and chemical weapons along with conducting the most heinous experimentations upon humans of cruelty and perversion ever known
All of these horrendous abominations were overseen, meticulously recorded and ordered by the Japanese general, Shiro Ashii
Ashii was born in 1892 into a wealthy family from a village just two hours drive from Tokyo, his family land holdings afforded them respect and the patina of aristocracy
As a student at Kyoto Imperial University, he pursued studies in their prestigious medical department known for bacteriology
Ashii also exuded personality problems, aggressive social climber, perceived entitlement and disrespect to all others around him
After graduation, he enlisted into the army, was commissioned a lieutenant, transferred to 1st Army Hospital in Tokyo, then returned to his alma mater where he met and married the university president's daughter
Ashii was on the fast track to a military and medical career of greatness, but instead he chose a fate toward war crimes against humanity, ultimately exposing him as a dangerous psychopath
About 300 miles northeast of Mukden is a small village named Ping Fong, where Japanese built the notorious Unit 731
Its doctors had been conducting research on medical trains that had secretly terrorized dozens of innocent villages along its tracks
What exactly were doctors and researchers doing at Unit 731 and why?
Among the multitudes of diseases and medical studies at Unit 731 were four areas of so-called scientific work being conducted by General Ashii's team
Cholera, perhaps the ancient yet persistent scourge, could be used as a weapon and certainly vaccines needed to be developed for their invading armies, so General Ashii ordered Cholera to be injected into prisoners and dogs, then released into the Chinese village of Qinan
We were told that we were going out on a Cholera campaign and were all given inaugurations against Cholera 10 days before starting out
Number of people coming down with the disease kept increasing. Cholera produced a face like a skeleton, vomiting and diarrhea. One after the other, people died.
Captain Kojomo Takeo, Imperial Japanese Army, Spring 1943
Epidemic hemorrhagic fever is a pathogen that causes swelling, bleeding, muscle pain, vomiting, diarrhea, fever and death. When the Imperial Army invaded Manchuria, they found outbreaks of the virus were reoccurring, so it was decided to develop it as a potential weapon
Jerk Shitter, Imperial Japanese Army, Spring 40th, 1943
Scourgero Le Fit, Imperial Japanese Army, Spring 40th, 1943
An army general named Kitano published articles in the Asahi newspaper and the Japan Journal
of Pathology, describing the deadly effects on test monkeys.
The shocking reality is that the test monkeys were actually humans, the entire medical
community of Japan, and now the general public knew about these experiments.
But under the facade of science, respected doctors and researchers in Japan chose to
disregard their responsibility and collective culpability.
Plague, also known as the Black Death, was a favorite developed by General Asahi's biological
warfare researchers, who raised swarms of rats infected by fleas carrying the disease.
Which ceramic bombs containing infected fleas would deliver this weapon of mass death.
Test showed detonations killed most of the fleas, so another method was devised to deliver
the deadly pathogen.
In October 1940, a plague attack was first conducted on the people near the city of Ningbo.
In Chianguefa, a 14-year-old resident at the time recalls,
General Asahi and colleagues were so delighted with the results, they redoubled their efforts
into developing a mixture of plague-infected eggs and wheat flour.
The liquid pathogen was pumped into oil drums, strapped under an airplane, set to take off
from the airfield right inside the Unit 731 complex.
When the Japanese invaded Manchuria, an elite group of military police was created, called
the Kampaitai.
In reality, they were little more than uniform thugs, kidnapping innocent people to be used
as human test subjects at Unit 731.
General Asahi recruited Dr. Hisato Yoshimura, a physiologist from Kyoto Imperial University,
to create cold weather experiments dealing with the effects of frostbite.
After the war, Dr. Yoshimura became an eminent authority on polar human biology and president
of the Kyoto Perfectural University of Medicine.
In 1981, reporters from the Mainichi newspaper asked him about his activities while at Unit
731.
Human experimentation, maybe my subordinates did that, but I never did.
But you people are thinking wrong.
Even if that did happen, it was war.
The orders came from the country.
No responsibility lies with the country.
The individual is not responsible.
Other secret research was conducted at the nearby proving ground called ANDA that studied
the reactions of how explosions would destroy limbs and internal organs.
Back at the complex, vivisections on live humans without the use of anesthesia was another
procedure approved by General Asahi.
First an appendectomy, then an amputation of an arm, and finally a tracheotomy.
Doctors even experimented on a three-day-old baby measuring its temperature with a needle
stuck inside the infant's middle finger.
Since the subject had succumbed to witnessing their own dissection, the doctors quickly
disposed of them.
The soulless staffed referred to the helpless and dying as marata, meaning logs in Japanese.
Human beings, tortured in the name of science, then stacked like cords of wood, ready for
cremation to erase any evidence of their existence.
In one of the focal points of the soulless section, like the marata,aufci strongly
responded by six prefectural
There was a lot of air coming out of the pipe.
It seemed to have been replaced with a metal gas.
So I made a mistake.
I was proud of it.
I think it would be nice to try it because it's an interesting stage.
And they wanted to know how the Americans reacted to their injections and their toxins, to their biological warfare.
The trials are members of Unit 731 as well as testimonies given by POWs, including testimony by Zhou Zhenglan, a group leader of Unit 731, who worked at the POW camp.
Zhou Zhenglan had completed a research on American soldiers' blood features and their tolerance of infectious diseases.
In conclusion, we could say there was a close relation between Unit 731 and Mokdan, a light POW camp.
During February, April and June of 1943, medical teams from Unit 731 came to Mokdan POW camp.
They administered toxins by inhalation, ingestion, and injection to the POWs to determine the level of reaction needed for effective infection.
POW Staff Sergeant Art Campbell recalled that he and about eight other American prisoners were called out into groups and then taken into an empty barrack where they had blood drawn, saliva, and urine samples taken.
In midwinter, a group of men in white came. I thought they must be Japanese doctors. First, they gave us all tests and shots. The next day, they brought a basket full of oranges.
We all lacked in vitamins and suffered from scabies, inflammation on our mouth corners, and stomatitis. A half of orange, each with vitamin, will solve the problems.
We happily ate those oranges. Those fucking oranges had got germs on them. Staff Sergeant Art Campbell, Mokdan POW camp, 1943.
Over 300 Americans immediately became ill with dysentery after receiving the tests.
Thank you for watching.
Thank you for watching.
The prisoners were so thrilled to be free that they really didn't want to think about retaliation right then. They were just so happy to be free.
The liberation of the camp was a process. After Japan surrendered on August 15, 1945, an American rescue team first arrived at an American-aligned POW camp.
We went to the Camp Aitai headquarters and the colonel in charge of the Camp Aitai said, Tokyo has told me that I am to surrender to you, so I would like to commit harakiri.
Would you like to watch me? He said, no, we want you to stay here and help us so that we can help the prisoners to make sure that nothing happened.
They said he would be here in a few minutes and they sent for him. A few minutes later, in the door of the office, comes a General Parker, an American General.
And he looked at Colonel Matsuda and bowed to him and we said, no more bowing. They have surrendered to us. We are going to send all of you home.
The battleship Missouri, 53,000-ton flagship of Admiral Halsey's Third Fleet, becomes the scene of an unforgettable ceremony, marking the complete and formal surrender of Japan.
Which was the brutal, costly Eastern half of the most horrible worldwide war in human history is now within minutes of ending for good. General MacArthur speaks.
We are gathered here, representatives of the major warring powers, to conclude a solemn agreement whereby peace may be restored, be now restored to the world and that God will preserve it always.
These proceedings are closed.
It was characterized, the entire Japanese war crimes trials was characterized by an American journalist as the dog that did not bark.
General Douglas MacArthur, the supreme commander of all Pacific forces, fulfilled his vow to return, conquering the Japanese military and rescuing all Allied prisoners of war.
He allowed the Japanese military to remain armed, maintaining civil control and to prevent chaos after their empire had been defeated. MacArthur believed there was military and scientific value from the medical data, compiled by Unit 731 Japanese doctors and researchers.
The Cold War with the Soviet Union was just beginning with the West.
General Ashiyi ordered all traces of their crimes destroyed, but the Soviet Army and Allies were quickly advancing onto Unit 731.
So by securing the documents and many of the Japanese doctors, he justified the decision as a matter of national security.
On 6 May 1947, MacArthur wrote to Washington that, quote, additional data, possibly some statements from Ashiyi, probably can be obtained by informing Japanese involved that the information will be retained in intelligence channels and will not be employed as war crimes evidence, end quote.
Many of the Japanese doctors and researchers who conducted the human experiments were spirited away to American universities, research laboratories, and to Fort Dietrich, the United States Army Medical Command in Maryland.
From 1943 to 1969, Fort Dietrich was the center of the United States biological weapons program. The Army's chemical warfare service was given responsibility and oversight for the effort that one officer described as, quote,
cloaked in the deepest wartime secrecy matched only by the Manhattan Project for developing the atomic bomb.
General Shiro Ashiyi, director of Unit 731, was arrested by U.S. occupation authorities and thoroughly interrogated by the Soviet authorities. Ashiyi and his team managed to negotiate and receive immunity in 1946 from war crimes prosecution in exchange for their full disclosure of germ warfare.
Although the Soviet authorities wished the prosecutions to take place, the United States objected after receiving reports from investigating U.S. microbiologists.
Dr. Edward Hill, chief of Fort Dietrich, whose report stated that the information was absolutely invaluable. It could have never been obtained in the United States because of the scruples attached to experiments on humans, and the information was obtained fairly cheaply.
Ashiyi kept a diary, but it did not reference any of his wartime activity. He died in Japan of throat cancer at age 67.
Somebody said to me, only when you tell all these experiences with the POWs at the camp, aren't you afraid that the Japanese will retaliate against you?
I said this is all historical facts. The Japanese have to admit what they did. I think the Japanese government should give compensation to Chinese considering how many people they killed in China. I said what they did and I am not afraid. I hate the Japanese, so did my father.
I want to kill you.
China celebrates significant historical dates by remembering its past and honoring those who sacrificed so much for future generations.
There is a Chinese saying, everyone will make mistakes. When we do, we must realize our mistakes and correct them only this way. One can move on from a new starting point and improve ourselves.
The treaty did place responsibility on the Japanese, but the treaty was worded in such a way that they would not have retaliation. That was one of the most infuriating things to the Americans who had survived Japanese captivity.
As for the American POWs from Mukden, insult was added to injury. They were ordered to sign a document swearing them to secrecy of their captivity.
So completely betrayed by their government, many who sustained physical injuries and mental duress felt they could not even speak to VA doctors for the fear of prosecution.
For 60 years, letters from survivors pleading for compensation and medical attention have been consistently dismissed by the then President, the Congress, and bureaucrats from the Department of Defense.
There has been a generational form letter response sent back to the veterans, stating that the War Claims Commission of 1951 settled all claims in compensation against Japan.
Indeed, all known POWs were compensated $1.38 per day for missed meals while being held prisoner during the war.
Many quietly suffered the rest of their lives without complaint, only to die unrecognized by the America they had defended.
It took two atomic bombs to bring Japan to her knees, but now Pearl Harbor was avenged and the news triggered the greatest celebration the nation has ever known.
For 24 hours the celebration went on, and not for a minute did it lag.
The victory had come. All glory waved over our happy lives.
