Yoshio Shinozuka

Yoshio Shinozuka (1923 - ) is a former Imperial Army soldier who served with a top secret Japanese biological warfare group called Unit 731 in World War II.

He was involved in conducting experiments and vivisections on Chinese captives near the northern Chinese city of Harbin.

In 1997, Shinozuka gave testimony on the activities of Unit 731 on behalf of 180 Chinese who are suing the Japanese government for compensation and an apology for deaths of family members they say were killed in experiments at the world's first biological warfare laboratory. "I was a member of Unit 731 and I have done what no human being should ever do," said Yoshio Shinozuka.

In 1998, he wanted to give a speech on a peace conference in the USA and Canada. However, the government administrations denied his entry into their countries because he had been a war criminal. This happened in spite of the fact that immediately after World War II ended, the USA had guaranteed the heads of the Unit 731 immunity from prosecution in exchange of providing results of their experiments.

External links

• Japan germ program in dock, BBC News
• Ex-Japanese Soldier Deemed War Criminal - Excerpt from the Houston Chronicle