105th Congress - House Concurrent Resolution 126 [Japanese War Crimes] HCON 126 IH
IN THE
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Mr. LIPINSKI (for himself, Mr. STUMP, Mrs. MORELLA, Ms.
LOFGREN, Mr. SKEEN, Mr. WATTS of Oklahoma, Mr. CAMPBELL, Mrs. MALONEY of
New York, Mr. UNDERWOOD, Mr. TOWNS, Mr. ROHRABACHER, Mr. GREEN, Mr. HILL,
Mr. ETHERIDGE, Mr. ACKERMAN, and Mr. YATES) submitted the following
concurrent resolution; which was referred to the Committee on
International Relations CONCURRENT
RESOLUTION Whereas during World War II the Government of Japan
deliberately ignored and flagrantly violated the Geneva and Hague
Conventions and committed atrocious crimes against humanity; Whereas 33,587 members of the United States Armed Forces
and 13,966 United States civilians were captured by the Japanese military
in the Pacific Theater during World War II, confined in brutal prison
camps, and subjected to severe shortages of food, medicine, and other
basic necessities; Whereas many of the United States military and civilian
prisoners of the Japanese military during World War II were subjected to
forced labor, starved and beaten to death, or summarily executed by
beheading, firing squads, or immolation; Whereas almost all of the United States military and
civilian prisoners who were rescued from the Japanese military at the end
of World War II were afflicted with diseases caused by malnutrition and
deprivation and have suffered from life-long illnesses, psychological and
emotional trauma, and financial hardships as a result of their experience
during the war; Whereas, of the United States prisoners held by the German
military during World War II, 1.1 percent of the military prisoners and
3.5 percent of the civilian prisoners died during their imprisonment, but
of the United States prisoners held by the Japanese military, 37.3 percent
of the military prisoners and 11 percent of the civilian prisoners died
during their imprisonment; Whereas on December 8, 1941, the Japanese military bombed
and invaded the island of Guam and occupied the island until the
liberation of Guam by the United States Armed Forces on July 21, 1944; Whereas the people of Guam were subjected to death,
beheadings, rape and other violent acts, forced labor and marches, and
imprisonment by the Japanese military during the occupation of Guam during
World War II; Whereas at the Japanese biochemical warfare detachment in
Mukden, Manchuria, commanded by Dr. Shiro Ishii, experiments were
conducted on living prisoners of war that included infecting prisoners
with deadly toxins, including plague, anthrax, typhoid, and cholera; Whereas at least 260 of the 1,500 United States prisoners
believed to have been held at Mukden died during the first winter of their
imprisonment and many of the 300 living survivors of Mukden claim to
suffer from physical ailments resulting from their subjection to chemical
and biological experiments; Whereas the Japanese military invaded Nanjing, China, from
December, 1937, until February, 1938, during the period known as the `Rape
of Nanjing', and brutally and systematically slaughtered more than 300,000
Chinese men, women, and children and raped more than 20,000 women; Whereas the Japanese military enslaved millions of Koreans
during World War II and forced hundreds of thousands of women into sexual
slavery for Japanese troops; Whereas international jurists in Geneva, Switzerland ruled
in 1993 that women who were forced to be sexual slaves of the Japanese
military during World War II (known by the Japanese military as comfort
women) deserve at least $40,000 each as compensation for their `extreme
pain and suffering'; Whereas the Government of Germany has formally apologized
to the victims of the Holocaust and gone to great lengths to provide
financial compensation to the victims and to provide for their needs and
recovery; and Whereas by contrast the Government of Japan has refused to
fully acknowledge the crimes it committed during World War II and to
provide reparations to its victims: Now, therefore, be it Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), That it is the sense of Congress that the Government of Japan should-- (1) formally issue a clear and unambiguous apology for the
atrocious war crimes committed by the Japanese military during World War
II; and (2) immediately pay reparations to the victims of those crimes, including United States military and civilian prisoners of war, people of Guam who were subjected to violence and imprisonment, survivors of the `Rape of Nanjing' from December, 1937, until February, 1938, and the women who were forced into sexual slavery and known by the Japanese military as "comfort women".
UKUOKA, Japan "I could never again wear a white smock," says Dr. Toshio Tono, dressed in a white running jacket at his hospital and recalling events of 50 years ago. "It's because the prisoners thought that we were doctors, since they could see the white smocks, that they didn't struggle. They never dreamed they would be dissected." The prisoners were eight American airmen, knocked out of the sky over southern Japan during the waning months of World War U, and then torn apart organ by organ while they were still alive. What occurred here 50 years ago this month, at the anatomy department of Kyushu University, has been largely forgotten in Japan and is virtually unknown in the United States. American prisoners of war were subjected to horrific medical experiments. All of the prisoners died. Most of the physicians and assistants then did their best to hide the evidence of what they had done. Fukuoka is midway between Hiroshima and Nagasaki, cities that are planning elaborate ceremonies to mark the devastation caused by the United States dropping the first atomic bombs. But neither Fukuoka nor the university plans to mark its own moment of infamy. The gruesome experiments performed at the university were variations on research programs Japan conducted in territories it occupied during the war. In the most notorious of these efforts, the Japanese Imperial Army's Unit 731 killed thousands of Chinese and Russians held prisoner in Japanese-occupied Manchuria, in experiments to develop chemical and biological weapons. Ken Yuasa, now a frail, 70-year-old physician in Tokyo, belonged to a military company stationed just south of Unit 731's base at Harbin, Manchuria. He recalls joining other doctors to watch as a prisoner was shot in the stomach, to give Japanese surgeons practice at extracting bullets. While the victim was still alive, the doctors also practiced amputations. "It wasn't just my experience," Yuasa says. "It was done everywhere." Kyushu University stands out as the only site where Americans were incontrovertibly used in dissections and the only known site where experiments were done in Japan. On May 5, 1945, an American B-29 bomber was flying with a dozen other aircraft after bombing Tachiaral Air Base in southwestern Japan and beginning the return flight to the island fortress of Guam. Kinzou Kasuya, a 19-year-old Japanese pilot flying one of the Japanese fighters in pursuit of the Americans, rammed his aircraft into the fuselage of the B-29, destroying both planes. No one knows for certain how many Americans were in the B-29; its crew had been hastily assembled on Guam. But villagers in Japan who witnessed the collision in the air saw about a dozen parachutes blossom. One of the Americans died when the cords of his, parachute were severed by another Japanese plane. A second was alive when he reached the ground. He shot all but his last bullet at the villagers coming toward him, then used the last on himself. Two others were quickly stabbed or shot to death. At least nine were taken into custody. B-29 crews were despised for the grim results of their raids. So some of the captives were beaten. The local authorities assumed that the most knowledgeable was the Captain, Marvin Watkins. He was sent to Tokyo for interrogation, where was tortured but nonetheless survived the war. Every available account asserts that a military physician and a colonel in a local regiment were the two key figures in what happened next. What happened cannot be easily explained. Perhaps caring for the Americans was an impossible burden, especially because some were injured. Perhaps food was scarce. Whatever the reason, the colonel and doctor decided to make the prisoners available for medical experiments, and Kyushu University became a willing participant. Teddy Ponczka was the first to be handed over to the doctors and their assistants. He had already been stabbed, in either his right shoulder or his chest. According to Tono, the American assumed he was about to be treated for the wound when he was taken to an operating room. But the incision went far deeper. A doctor wanted to test surgery's effects on the respiratory system, so one lung was removed. The wound was stitched closed. How Teddy Ponczka died is in dispute. According to U.S. military records, he was anesthetized during the operation, and then the gas mask was removed from his face. A surgeon, Taro Torisu, reopened the incision and reached into Ponczka's chest. In the bland words of the military report, Torisu "stopped the heart action. " Tono remembers events differently. The first experiment was followed by a second, he says. Ponczka was given intravenous injections of sea water, to determine if sea water could be used as a substitute for sterile saline solution, used to increase blood volume in the wounded or those in shock. Tono held the bottle of sea water. He says Ponczka bled to death. Then it was the turn of the others. The Japanese wanted to learn whether a patient could survive the partial loss of his liver. They wanted to learn if epilepsy could be controlled by removing part of the brain. According to U.S. military records, physicians also operated on -the prisoners' stomachs and necks. All the Americans died. "There was no debate among the doctors about whether to do the operations - that is what made it so strange," Tono says. Word of the experiments eventually leaked out. Thirty people were brought to trial by an Allied war crimes tribunal in Yokohama, Japan, on March 11, 1948. Charges included vivisection, wrongful removal of body parts and cannibalism - based on reports that the experimenters had eaten the livers of the Americans. Of the 30 defendants, 23 were found guilty of various charges. (For lack of proof, the charges of cannibalism had been dismissed.) Five of the guilty were sentenced to death, four to life imprisonment. The other 14 were sentenced to shorter terms. But the attitude of the American occupation forces began to change largely because of the start of the Korean War in June 1950. The United States had less interest in punishing Japan, an enemy turned ally. In September 1950, U.S. Gen. Douglas MacArthur, as supreme commander for Allied Forces, reduced most of the sentences. By 1958, all those convicted were free. None of the death sentences was carried out.
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